Goodness
No person could embody goodness better than Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Known in the Catholic tradition as the sinless one.
Her goodness didn’t stop her from telling the 12 year old Jesus off when he stayed behind in the Temple in Jerusalem, or wanting him to come home for a good meal when he was overworking.
Her goodness centred on her willingness to trust God and say ‘yes’ to the will of God, however strange God’s requests might have seemed to her. Our Scripture reading today is the Annunciation.
Gabriel, the messenger of God, comes to Mary to tell of God’s will to have her bear his son.
Today’s Prayer
Preparation: Begin by stilling; then dedicating the time of prayer to God and asking God that all you think, feel and imagine are for the glory of God.
Gift: Ask for what you desire. Suggestion: To know Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.
Setting: Imagine you are watching, or being told about, or are Mary in this scene. Be aware of how she might have felt. How would you have felt? Imaginative Contemplation
Scripture
Luke 1:26-38 NIVUK
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end.’
‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’
‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.
Conversation: Talk to Jesus or Mary in your own words as a friend
Final Prayer: End with a formal prayer such as the Lord’s Prayer/Our Father.
Today’s Music
The Angel Gabriel Basque melody words by Sabine Baring-Gould