March
25, 2026
Solemnity of the Annunciation of
the Lord
Lectionary:
545
Reading
1
Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
The
LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us!”
Responsorial
Psalm
Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11
R.
(8a and 9a) Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;
your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;
I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth
in the vast assembly.
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Reading
2
Hebrews 10:4-10
Brothers
and sisters:
It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats
take away sins.
For this reason, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice
and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”
First
he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated
through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Verse
Before the Gospel
John 1:14ab
The
Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us;
and we saw his glory.
Gospel
Luke 1:26-38
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, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“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,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
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.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032526.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
7:10-14,8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38
In the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass, we say:
Behold! I have come to do your will, O God!
In a way, today’s feast should be on a par with Christmas.
From one point of view, it is a greater occasion than Christmas. The Child
would not have been born if he had not first been conceived. However, even
today, when an actual moment of conception is not known with accuracy, it is
the visible experience of the birth—the coming into the outside world—which
makes much greater impact. We all celebrate our birth-day but not our
conception-day, even though the latter is the moment when we came into being.
Together with the Trinity, an acceptance of the Incarnation
is one of the pedestals which defines our Christian faith. It was at the
Annunciation that the Incarnation began to become a reality. It was at this
moment that:
…the Word became flesh and lived among us… (John
1:14)
Today should be a special day of praise and thanksgiving for
all of us.
This event, in many ways—even for those who do not believe
in the Christian message—is one of the major turning points, if not the major
turning point, in the history of our planet. It was not only Christians who
celebrated our entry into the Third Millennium, even though non-believers
either denied, or ignored, or were ignorant of the conception and birth of
Jesus which established the occasion.
The Gospel account of this momentous event, in one sense,
owes a great deal to the imagery and prophecies of the Hebrew Testament, as
well as having a charming simplicity which belies the awesomeness of the
occasion. It takes place in the home of a young girl, in an obscure town looked
down on by many. As Nathanael asked:
Can anything good come from Nazareth? (John
1:46)
This is surely one of the most ironic questions ever asked!
It is seen as the fulfilment of a prophecy which is found in
Isaiah, and which forms the First Reading for today. King Ahaz is offered a
sign by God, which he refuses. God gives him one anyway. This sign will be the
birth of a child whose name will be Immanuel, which means ‘God is
with us’. Even though Isaiah primarily seems to be speaking of a son for King
Ahaz, the solemn name given to the child seems to indicate something more
significant, a decisive intervention by God and the sending of a Messiah. So
the text has been traditionally taken in the Church as a prophecy for the birth
of Christ.
The particular words of the prophecy are clearly linked with
the Annunciation event:
…the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young
woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.
The Greek translation of the Hebrew Testament, known as the
Septuagint, reads ‘virgin’, whereas in the Hebrew original, almah can
mean a young girl or a recently married woman. The Gospel has adopted the
Septuagint meaning and sees in this text a prophecy of the virginal conception
of Jesus, which is affirmed in today’s Gospel reading. The Gospel scene is also
reminiscent of the announcement by God’s angel of the birth of Samson (see
Judges chap 13).
Mary, we are told, is already betrothed to a man called
Joseph. This means that she is committed to be his wife, but they have not come
together or had intimate relations. She is still, as the Gospel states, a
virgin.
God’s emissary, the angel Gabriel, enters the house and
greets her in words that alarm the young girl:
Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.
The traditional greeting is “Hail, full of grace!”, but the
Greek chaire implies joy, the joy that the coming of the
Messiah brings. And ‘grace’ (charis) is the gratuitous love of God
extended to, and experienced by, the receiver. Mary was:
…much perplexed by [the angel’s] words
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
But the angel goes on to reassure Mary, although in language
that must have mystified her even more. Basically, she is being told that she
is going to be the mother of a son, whom she is to call Jesus, which means
‘Yahweh saves’. But this is no ordinary son. The angel describes him in
extraordinary language which, in fact, recalls many passages from the Hebrew
Testament referring to the Messiah:
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most
High…
This is a title which can mean the ‘divine Son of God’, or
the Messiah. That her Son is to be the Messiah is indicated by the angel’s saying
that:
…the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor
David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there
will be no end.
Mary is even more puzzled and disturbed. How can she
conceive a son when she is a virgin and has not yet had intimate relations with
her husband-to-be? She clearly understands that the conception is to take place
very soon.
The angel replies by explaining that:
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 holy; he
will be called Son of God.
The shadow or cloud is the creative and protective presence
of the Lord. The conceiving of this child is clearly to be the direct work of
the Holy Spirit. The Father is God himself and the child is the divine Son of
God, who, while remaining God, will “be made flesh”. From the moment of
conception the child is fully God and fully a human person. And the child is
called “holy” because, though like us in all things, there was no taint of sin
in him (how could or why would God sin against himself!).
It is doubtful if, even after these explanations, Mary
really understood the implications of what she had been told. But she
recognised the messenger as coming from God and, in deep faith and trust,
accepted what she was being asked to do and be:
Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me
according to your word.
This is Mary’s fiat (‘let it be’, from the
Latin version of her words) by which she said an unconditional ‘Yes’ to what
God had asked of her.
Later on, when Mary is praised by a woman in a crowd for
having produced such a wonderful son as Jesus, Jesus replied:
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and
obey it! (Luke 11:28)
And here is Mary’s true greatness, not so much that she was
chosen to be the Mother of God, but that she responded with such generosity.
And, right up to the very end, she stood by her Son.
In that she resembles Jesus himself, whose relationship to
his Father is described in the Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.
The passage speaks of the ineffectiveness of offerings of animals for bringing
reconciliation with God. It is the offering by Jesus of his own self totally to
his Father which alone is effective. Jesus says:
See, I have come to do your will, O God.
This was the essence of Jesus’ life. There was a struggle at
the end as the horrors of the Passion drew near. But, after prayer made in
blood and sweat, he surrendered totally:
…not my will but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)
And his last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” He
had emptied himself totally and given all to the Father. In this is our
salvation.
Mary, too, said that ‘Yes’ in the little house in Nazareth.
It was, as was said above, a pivotal moment in the world’s history. Things
would never be the same again. Let us thank Mary today for her unconditional
‘Yes’ and let us ask her to help us to say our ‘Yes’ to God, today and for the rest
of our lives.
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The Annunciation of the Lord -- Solemnity
Opening Prayer
Merciful Father, in this holy time of prayer and of listening
to your Word, send also to me your holy angel that I may receive the
proclamation of salvation and that, after opening my heart, I may offer my yes
to Love. Let, I beg you, the Holy Spirit overshadow me as an overwhelming
power. As from now, Father, I do not wish to express anything other than my
“Yes!” and to say to you: “Behold, I am here for you. Do unto me whatever
pleases you.” Amen.
Gospel Reading – Luke 1: 26-38
The Context of the Passage:
The story of the annunciation takes us from the temple, a holy
place par excellence, to the house, to the intimacy of a personal meeting of
God with his creature; it leads us into ourselves, into the deepest part of our
being and our story, where God alone can reach and touch us. The announcement
of the birth of John the Baptist had opened the sterile womb of Elisabeth, thus
overcoming the absolute powerlessness of humankind and transforming it into the
ability to collaborate with God. On the other hand, the announcement of the
birth of Jesus, knocks on the door of a fertile womb of the one who is “full of
grace” and awaits a reply: it is God who waits for our yes so as to work
everything in us. An Aid to the Reading
of this Passage:
•
vv. 26-27: The first two verses place us at the
time and sacred space of the event on which we are meditating and which we
relive: we are in the sixth month from the conception of John the Baptist and
in Nazareth, a city in Galilee, the land of the marginalized and unclean. Here
God has come down to speak with a virgin, to speak to our hearts.
The persons involved in this unsettling event are presented
to us: Gabriel, the messenger of God, a young woman called Mary and her spouse
Joseph of the royal house of David. We too are made welcome into this company
and are called to enter into the mystery.
•
vv. 28-29: These are the very first words of the
dialogue between God and his creature. Just a few words, a mere breath, but
all-powerful words that disturb the heart, that question deeply the meaning of
human life, plans and expectations. The angel announces joy, grace and the
presence of God; Mary is disturbed and asks herself how any of this can be
happening to her. Where can such a joy come from? How can such a great grace,
that can change her very being, be hers?
•
vv. 30-33: These are the central verses of the
excerpt: it is the explosion of the announcement, the manifestation of the gift
of God, of his omnipotence in the life of human beings. Gabriel, the strong,
speaks of Jesus: the eternal king, the Saviour, the God made child, the humble
all- powerful. He speaks
of Mary, of her womb, of her life that she
was chosen to be the gateway to welcoming God in this world and into the lives
of all people. Even at this stage of the events, God begins to draw near, to
knock. He stands, attentive, by the door of the heart of Mary; and even now by
our house, our hearts…
•
v. 34: Mary, faced by God’s proposal, allows
herself to stand naked, she allows herself to be read to her very depths. She
speaks of herself, her heart, her wishes. She knows that for God the impossible
is possible, she does not doubt or harden her heart and mind, she does not
count the cost; she only wants to be fully available, open, and allows herself
to be reached by that humanly impossible touch, but one already written,
already realized in God. In a gesture of utter poverty, she places before God
her virginity, her not knowing man. This is a complete and absolute surrender
of self, full of faith and trust. It is her preliminary yes.
•
vv. 35-37: God, most humble, gives an answer;
the all-powerful bends over the fragility of this woman, who represents each
one of us. The dialogue continues, the covenant grows and is strengthened. God
reveals the how, he speaks of the Holy Spirit, of the fruitful overshadowing,
which does no violence, does not break, but preserves intact. He speaks of the
human experience of Elisabeth, he reveals another impossible thing made
possible; almost like a guarantee or security. And then comes the last word
when one must make a choice: to say yes or no, believe or doubt, dissolve or
harden oneself, to open the door or close it. “Nothing is impossible for God.”
•
v. 38: The last verse seems to contain an
infinity. Mary says her “Here I am”, she opens herself wide to God and then the
meeting, the union takes place forever. God enters into the human and the human
becomes the place of God: these are the most sublime Nuptials possible on
earth. And yet, the Gospel ends on a sad and hard note: Mary stays alone, the
angel leaves. What remains, however, is the yes pronounced to God and God’s
presence; what remains is real Life. The
Text:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man
named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in
and said to her, 'Rejoice, you who enjoy God's favour! The Lord is with you.'
She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting
could mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won
God's favor. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you
must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over
the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.' Mary said to the
angel, 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?' The
angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be
called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her
old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her
sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.' Mary said, 'You see before you
the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.' And the angel left
her.
A Moment of Prayerful Silence
I have read and listened to the words of the Gospel. Now I
stand in silence … God is present, at the door, and asks for shelter, yes, even
from me and from my poor life …
A Few Questions
•
God’s announcement, his angel, enters my life,
stands before me and speaks to me. Am I prepared to welcome him, to give him
space, to listen to him attentively?
•
Suddenly I receive an upsetting announcement;
God speaks to me of joy, grace and presence. All the things that I have been
seeking for so long, always. Who can make me really happy? Am I willing to
trust in his happiness and his presence?
•
Not much is needed, just a movement of the
heart, of my being; He is already aware of this. He is already overwhelming me
with light and love. He says to me: “You have found favour in my sight.” So, I
please God? He finds me pleasant, loveable? Yes, that is how it really is. Why
is it that I would not believe it before? Why have I not listened to him?
•
The Lord Jesus wants to come into this world
also through me; he wants to reach my brothers and sisters through the paths of
my life, of my being. Would I lead him astray? Would I refuse him, keep him at
a distance? Would I wipe him out of my story, my life?
A Key to the Reading
Some important and strong words
that resonate in this passage of the Gospel.
•
Rejoice!
This is a really strange greeting from God to his creature;
it seems hard to explain and perhaps even senseless. And yet, for centuries it
resonated in the pages of Sacred Scripture and thus also on the lips of the
Hebrew people. Rejoice, be glad, exult! Many times the prophets had repeated
this gentle breath of God and had shouted the silent beat of his heart for his
people, his remnant. I read this in Joel: “Land, do not be afraid; be glad,
rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things… (2: 21-23); in Zephaniah: “Shout for
joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart,
daughter of Jerusalem! Yahweh has repealed your sentence” (3: 14); in
Zechariah: “Sing, rejoice, daughter of Zion, for now I am coming to live among
you – Yahweh declares!” (2, 14). I read and listen to it, today, I say it also
in my heart, in my life; a joy is announced to me, a new happiness, never
before experienced. I rediscover the great things that the Lord has done for
me; I experience the freedom that comes from his pardon: I am no longer
sentenced but graced forever; I live the experience of the presence of the Lord
next to me, in me. Yes, He has come to dwell in our midst; He is once more
setting up his tent in the land of my heart, of my existence. Lord, as the
Psalm says, you rejoice in your creatures (Ps 104: 31); and I too rejoice in
you, thanks to you, my joy is in you (Ps 104: 34).
•
The Lord
is with You
These simple and enlightened words pronounced by the angel
to Mary, liberate an all-powerful force; I realize that these words alone would
suffice to save my life, to lift me up again from whatever fall or humiliation,
to bring me back when I go astray. The fact that He, my Lord, is with me, keeps
me alive, gives me courage and trust to go on being. If I am, it is because He
is with me. Who knows but that the experience of Isaac told in Scripture might
not be valid for me, the most beautiful thing imaginable that could happen to a
person who believes in and loves God, when one day Abimelech came to Isaac with
his men to tell him: “It became clear to us that Yahweh was with you” (Gen 26:
28) and then asked to become friends and form an alliance. Would that the same
thing might be said of me; would that I could show that the Lord is truly with
me, in my life, in my desires, in my affections, in my choices and actions;
would that others might meet Him through me. Perhaps for this, it is necessary
for me to absorb more the presence of God, for me to eat and drink of Him.
Let me go to the school of Scripture, to
read and re-read some passages where the voice of the Lord tells me again and
again of this truth and, while He speaks, to be transformed, ever more
in-dwelt. “Remain for the present in that country; I shall be with you and
bless you” (Gen 26: 3). “To Joshua son of Nun, Yahweh gave this order: Be
strong and stand firm, for you are to be the one to bring the Israelites into
the country which I have promised them on oath, and I myself shall be with you”
(Dt 31: 23). “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, because I
am with you to save you and rescue you” (Jer 15: 20). “The angel of Yahweh
appeared to him and said: Yahweh is with you, valiant warrior!” (Judges 6: 12).
“Yahweh appeared to him the same night and said: I am the God of your father
Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I shall bless you and multiply
your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen 26: 24). “Be sure, I am with
you; I shall keep you safe wherever you go, and bring you back to this country,
for I shall never desert you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen
28: 15). “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your
God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my
saving right hand” (Is 41: 10)
•
Do Not Be
Afraid
The Bible is packed with this
pronouncement full of kindness; like a river of mercy, these words are found
throughout the sacred books, from Genesis to the Apocalypse. It is the Father
who repeats to his children not to be afraid, because He is with them, he will
not abandon them, he will not forget them, He will not leave them in the hands
of their enemies. It is like a declaration of love from God to humanity, to
each one of us; it is a pledge of fidelity that is relayed from hand to hand,
from heart to heart, and finally comes down to us. Abraham heard these words
and after him his son Isaac, then the patriarchs,
Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon and, with
them, Jeremiah and all the prophets. No one is excluded from this embrace of
salvation that the Father offers his children, even those furthest from him,
most rebellious against him. Mary knows how to listen to these words and knows
how to believe full of faith, in an attitude of absolute surrender; She listens
and believes, welcomes and lives for us too. She is the strong and courageous
woman who opens herself to the coming of God, letting go of all fears,
incredulity, and a closed spirit. She repeats these same words of God in our
lives and invites us to believe like her.
• You
Enjoy God’s Favor
“Lord, if I enjoy favor in your sight…” This is the prayer
that time and time again comes out of the lips and hearts of those who seek
refuge in the Lord; the Scriptures tell us about such people, we come across
them in our crossroads when we know not where to go, when we feel hounded by
solitude or by temptation, when we experience abandonment, betrayals, heavy
defeats of our own existence. When we no longer have anyone and we fail to find
even ourselves, then we too, like them, find ourselves praying by repeating
these same words: “Lord, if I enjoy favor in your sight…” Who knows how often
we have repeated these words, even alone and in silence. But today, here, in
this simple passage of the Gospel, we are forestalled, we are welcomed in
anticipation; we need no longer plead, because we have already found everything
that we always sought and much more. We have received freely, we are
overwhelmed and now we can overflow.
•
Nothing
is Impossible to God
I have nearly come to the end of this strong journey of
grace and liberation; I now come across a word that shakes me in my depths. My
faith is being sifted; the Lord is testing me, scrutinising me, testing my
heart. What the angel says here in front of Mary, had already been proclaimed
many times in the Old Testament; now the time has come for the fulfilment, now
all the impossible things come to pass. God becomes man; the Lord becomes
friend, brother; the distant is very close. And I, even I, small and poor as I
am, am given to share in the immensity of this gift, this grace; I am told that
in my life too the impossible becomes possible. I only have to believe, to give
my consent. But this means that I have to allow myself to be shattered by the
power of God; to surrender to Him, who will transform me, free me and renew me.
Not even this is impossible. Yes, I can be reborn today, here and now, by the
grace of the voice that has spoken to me, that has reached me even to the very
depths of my heart. I seek and transcribe the passages of Scripture that repeat
this truth. And as I write them, as I re-read them and say them slowly,
devouring every word, and what they say takes place in me… Genesis 18: 14; Job
42: 2; Jeremiah 32: 17; Jeremiah 32: 27; Zechariah 8: 6; Matthew 19: 26; Luke 18:
27.
•
Here I Am
Now I cannot escape, nor can I avoid the conclusion. I knew
from the beginning that here, in this word, so small and yet so full, so final,
that God was waiting for me. The appointment of love, of the covenant between
Him and me had been fixed precisely on this word, just a gentle voice, just a
kiss. I am unsettled by the richness of the presence I feel in this “Here I
am!”; I need not make much effort to recall the number of times that God first
pronounced and repeated these words to me. He is the ‘Here I am’ made man,
absolutely faithful, unforgettable. I only need to tune into him, only find his
footprints in the sand of my poverty, of my desert; I only need to welcome his
infinite love that never ceases to seek me, to stay close to me, to walk with
me wherever I go. The ‘Here I am’ has already been pronounced and realised, it
is already real. How many before me and how many today have experienced this! I
am not alone. I still remain silent, listening before I reply…
“Here I am!” (Is 65: 1) God repeats; Mary
replies, “Here I am, I am the servant of the Lord”; and Christ says, “I come to
do your will” (Ps 39: 8)…
A Time of Prayer: Psalm 138
Father, into your hands I commend
my life. Yahweh, you examine me and know me,
you know when I sit, when I rise,
you understand my thoughts from afar. You watch when I walk or lie down, you
know every detail of my conduct.
A word is not yet on my tongue
before you, Yahweh, know all about it.
You fence me in, behind and in
front, you have laid your hand upon me.
Such amazing
knowledge is beyond me, a height to which I cannot attain. Where shall I go to
escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? If I scale the
heavens, you are there, if I lie flat in Sheol, there you are. You created my
inmost self,
knit me together in my mother's
womb. For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are
wonders. You knew me through and through.
How hard for me to grasp your
thoughts, how many, God, there are!
If I count them, they are more
than the grains of sand; if I come to an end, I am still with you.
God, examine me and know my heart,
test me and know my concerns. Make sure that I am not on my way to ruin, and
guide me on the road of eternity.
Closing Prayer
Father, you came down to me, you have come to
me, you have touched my heart, you have spoken to me and promised joy, presence
and salvation. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, who overshadows me, I, together
with Mary, have been able to say to you yes, the ‘Here I am’ of my life for
you. Now there remains only the force of your promise, of your truth: “You are
to conceive and bear Jesus.” Lord, here is the womb of my life, of my being, of
all that I am and have, open before you. I place all things in you, in your
heart. Enter, come, come down again, I beg you, and make me fruitful, make me
one who gives birth to Christ in this world. May the overflowing love I receive
from you find its fullness and truth in touching the brothers and sisters that
you place beside me. May our meeting, Father, be open, a gift to all. May Jesus
be the Savior. Amen.
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