Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation!
What a beautiful day we get to celebrate in our Church today! Nine months before Christmas, we recollect and ponder the mystery of the Incarnation...God truly becoming flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Mary, the new Eve, giving her yes and reversing Eve's no. I once heard that either in days past or in maybe within the Eastern Churches that this day was once considered a greater celebration than Christmas itself. And I can see the reasoning behind that. As a people who believe that the moment of conception itself is when life is created, how could we not celebrate this moment when the Son of God takes on flesh in order to redeem His beloved creation? What joy, what hope, what promise the Annunciation stirs within us! I made 'egg in the hole' for breakfast for the boys. Why, you may ask? Well, just like the egg sits hidden inside the bread, so did Mary hide that new life within her womb. My boys also got a kick out of the fact that the egg yolk looks like the sun...ahem, like the Son...get it? :)
For a snack we will have popcorn. Last year our homeschool group happened to have our gym day on this Feast. For snack I thought up bagging up snack-size portions of white popcorn and included in each bag was a little tag that read:
"Just as the pure white popcorn hides the tiny seed from which it came,so our most pure Mary hid the tiny Baby Jesus within her womb. How much our God must love us to become as little as that tiny seed so that He could save us! Happy Annunciation!"
So we will be enjoying some "Annunciation Popcorn" today as a special treat!
For dinner, we will feast on something "hidden". Last year, we had stromboli and homemade chicken wings. Our stromboli represented Mary hiding a surprise inside and the chicken wings represented the wings of the angel Gabriel. How our Lady must love being compared to a stromboli! Oh, and just so you know, canon 1251 declares that when a solemnity falls on a Friday (even during Lent!) that it is not a day of penance and therefore, abstinence is not obligatory. In my mind that means to be in keeping with the mind and liturgical life of the Church that we should definitely be observing this as a true FEAST day! I thought about making some cookies with a treat hidden inside for dessert. We'll have to see what I have in the cupboards.
Mary, please pray for us this day!
May we all give our unguarded fiat to the Lord's call upon our lives as you did on that day that changed the world. And may we never forget the humility and unbounded love of our Lord who was willing to become one of us in every way but sin.
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