Day: March 25, 2009

Sermons

Sermon for the Annunciation

The Rev’d David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, preached this sermon for the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Be it unto me according to thy word”

The Annunciation is a feast of great joy that falls this year in the mid-point of our Lenten journey of penitence and sorrow. It complements Sunday’s theme of rejoicing and refreshment, the theme of Mothering Sunday or Laetare Sunday as it is sometimes called. Laetare means to rejoice. In a way, here is all our joy, all our sorrows notwithstanding. As Mark Frank puts it:

A feast it is to-day, – a great one, Christ’s Incarnation, – a day of joy, if ever any; and Lent a time of sorrow and repentance, – a great one, the greatest fast of any. How shall we reconcile them? Why thus: The news of joy never comes so seasonable as in the midst of sorrow; news of one coming to save us from our sins, can never come more welcome to us, than even when we are sighing and groaning under them”.

“Until they are good Marians, they shall never be good Christians” avowed Anthony Stafford in 1637, words which apply to every age of Christianity. (more…)

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Prayers and liturgy

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Annunciation, by Sir Edward Burne-JonesThe collect for today, The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canada, 1962):

We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For The Epistle: Isaiah 7:10-15
The Gospel: St Luke 1:26-38

Artwork: Edward Burne-Jones, The Annunciation, 1879. Oil on canvas, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral, England.

c/p: Nova Scotia Scott

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