No, I don't have a big announcement. But today, March 25th, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation - the big announcement that the Angel Gabriel had for Mary that God had chosen her to be the mother of Jesus.
I wish I had woken up today aware that we celebrate the Annunciation, but I am humbled that I had to be reminded of this by my 10 year old son. We have been attending morning weekday Mass for Lent this year, so I was at Mass this morning with Zack and Michael. I was a little groggy and had not had my morning coffee yet, so my mind was not very clear. I thought it was a little unusual that the Gospel reading from Luke was about Gabriel and Mary and that the homily was about Mary's immediate acceptance God's will, since we are in the middle of Lent, but didn't think much of it. When we got in the car Zack asked if this was a special day since the priest was wearing white since he normally wears purple during Lent (something else I hadn't paid any attention to). Before I could answer he said "Oh yeah, I remember a long time ago Deacon Dennis said that March 25th is 9 months before December 25th when Jesus was born." Then the light bulb finally went off in my head and I realized that it was the Annunciation.
Our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is something that our Protestant brothers and sisters just don't get and often misunderstand. Catholics do not worship Mary, we honor and revere her as the mother of our Savior, the vessel through which God chose to send His Son to earth. She is the perfect example of what it means to do whatever God asks and to be a follower of Christ.
One of the songs on a CD about the Bread of Life that we listen to has a line in that says "Salvation began when Mary said yes". Happy Feast of the Annunciation!
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