2017 Busy Catholic’s
Online Lenten Retreat
Living Lent With Love
Day Six
Saturday,
March 25
Today’s Scripture
Luke
1:26-38
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the
virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you….
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be
great and will be called Son of the Most High…. But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said
to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the Son of God; for nothing will be impossible for God.” …Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be
done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Pope Francis’s
Reflection
Whenever
we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of
love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues
of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly in order to feel
important themselves. Contemplating Mary, we realize that she who praised God
for “bringing down the mighty from their thrones” and “sending the rich away
empty” is also the one who brings a homely warmth to our pursuit of justice.
(Apostolic
Exhortation/The Joy of the Gospel #288)
Let us pray.
Loving
God, like Mary, I know you are present with me and that I’m greatly blessed.
Like Mary, I’m sometimes also deeply troubled by the way you announce your
plans for me and then turn my ordered world upside down. Whatever my life holds
of joy or loss, I pray that I may enter each moment and meet every person with
a heart of compassion and welcome so startling, bold and countercultural that
no one will miss its source: you. May the revolution that is the good news of
your love take hold in me. Amen.
Material in this
year’s online retreat is excerpted with permission from Living Lent with Love.
This material is
copyrighted and all rights are reserved.
Published by special
arrangement with Creative Communications for the Parish
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