Day: April 9, 2013

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of the Annunciation

“Be it unto me according to thy word”

Ad Jesum per Mariam – through Mary to Jesus.  Mary does not want us to come to her, the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther observes, but through her to Jesus. It is, ironically, it might seem, one of the great mottoes of the Jesuit order founded several decades after Luther’s outstanding commentary on the Magnificat and after the cataclysmic shift in religious sensibilities that changed the map of Europe to this day and which is part and parcel of the emergence of early modernity.

There is something quite marvelous about The Feast of the Annunciation. Perhaps one of the most common and familiar scenes depicted in Art and Sculpture, in Stained Glass and Tapestry, the Feast of the Annunciation always coincides with the seasons of Lent and Easter, sometimes even falling on Good Friday or Easter itself. By virtue of the coincidence of the 25th of March with the weeks before and after the Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox which marks Easter, her feast day is sometimes transferred to the first Tuesday after The Octave of Easter; in short, after Holy Week and Easter Week. What does this mean and what is its significance doctrinally and devotionally? Simply this, Mary points us to Jesus and to our life in Christ even as her Annunciation marks the beginning in time of God’s being with us in the intimacy of his humanity which he derives from her. It signals the humility of our true humanity in the one who points us to Jesus even as it is through her that Jesus is with us.

Christ is, as Irenaeus put it is “that pure one opening that pure womb which regenerates men unto God and which he himself made pure.” That pure womb is Mary; her purity is about her pure openness to God.

Mary’s word to us in the season of the Resurrection is her word to us at all seasons. “Be it unto me according to thy word.” We attend to this text in the tones of resurrection joy. His word living in us even as it lived for us through her. Our yes to his Resurrection through her yes to the Annunciation.

“Be it unto me according to thy word”

Fr. David Curry
Eve of The Feast of the Annunciation (transf.)

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Prayers and liturgy

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The 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.

The Lesson: Isaiah 7:10-15
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:26-38

Eglise Ste-Anne, AnnunciationArtwork: The Annunciation, mid-18th century (?), Eglise Sainte-Anne, Ste-Anne-du Ruisseau, Nova Scotia. Photograph taken by admin, 26 August 2009.

Text posted at Eglise Sainte-Anne:

This painting was found in 1999 in a building adjacent to Ste-Anne church in Ste-Anne-du-Ruisseau. This work of art has not been attributed nor its period of execution determined but some evidence suggests that the painting is at least 250 years old. The painting’s origin and provenance are unknown but it may have entered the collection of the church through its founder Father Jean-Mandé Sigogne (1763-1844) who established the parish in 1799. The community was settled by Acadians returning from exile in 1767 and the painting may provide one of the only direct heritage links to the first church established by the founder of the parish. This heritage piece of art is very significant for this Acadian community in Nova Scotia. The restoration was completed in June 2004 by Michelle Gallinger, art conservator and restorer.

(This commemoration has been transferred from 25 March.)

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