Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
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. LK 1:26-38
In Scott Hahn’s book “Joy to the World”, he writes about angels being very present as God brings His Son into the world. The angels appear to Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, and many other Old Testament figures. They are God’s messengers, pure Spirits, highly intelligent, and God loves us so much He gave each one of us our own angel to protect us. When is the last time you talked to your guardian angel? When is the last time you asked God for a miracle? They happen every day and God is present everywhere all of the time. We are reminded of this during Christmas. Emmanuel means “God is with us”.
Jesus says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” MT 28:20
“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” MT 18:20 He is truly present when we pray together! We can also make spiritual communions and send our Spirit to Him to visit Him in front of the tabernacle or monstrance any time throughout our day/night. Most importantly, Jesus gives us Himself in the Eucharist. When we go to Mass and adoration, Emmanuel “God with us”, is in the consecrated host! Take time to slow down, take a deep breath, and recognize God is with us ALL OF THE TIME as we prepare for the greatest act God has ever done for His people. He comes down as one of us and eventually is going to show us that our lives are meant to be given away!
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” JN 6:35-40
Jesus makes it very clear that He is present with us and He has the power to save us and lift us up on the last day. The key: holiness. What is holiness according to St. Louis de Montfort, deny yourself. Bishop Barron quotes, “I’m most myself not when I resist God, not when I try to become God, but when I surrender to God.” The key: do the Will of God. How do you know if you are doing God’s Will? Bishop Barron says when we see the fruits of the Spirit in our life: joy, love, peace, modesty, chastity, self-control, kindness, goodness, patience, generosity, gentleness, and faithfulness.
Daily Examen: Did you pray today? Are you in the state of grace? Are you doing your daily tasks? Yes, then you are doing the will of the Father–Fr. Mike Schmitz
God gave us His Son to reconcile us with Him after the Fall of Adam and Eve. The statement I begin with every blog is, “Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.” Why? The center of the message of Christ coming into the world, during His life, and when He dies is to do the Will of the Father. In the Gospel today, Mary says,”Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her.” LK 1:38 Mary’s fiat and our fiat is how we respond to the Father who is trying to act upon us and whether we allow Him to each day with each decision.
God chose Mary to be the instrument to bring His only Son into the world. On the cross, Jesus asks us to bring Mary into our homes (lives) speaking to John. It is only right for us to ask Mary to intercede for us and bring our souls closer to her Son, so we too may enter into God’s glory. In St. Louis de Montfort’s, “Total Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary”, he claims this consecration is the quickest way to holiness. Therefore, as we begin to humble ourselves before God, submit our will to Him like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we will begin to become holy.
The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods” (CCC 460).
“For the Son of God became man so that we might become God,” is a quote from St. Athanasius in his work On the Incarnation.
Allow God into your heart today and bring a little bit of the Christmas spirit into your heart. Fall to your knees and worship Him with all of the angels. Miracles will abound!
Today’s challenge: Give your heart to God by doing His Will. It requires sacrifice and patience, but sacrifice brings joy and peace. He has given us His all, it is only fitting we give our all to Him!
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
mary made the ultimate decision, obey God even though hard times will come or ignore him. she chose to obey God, what would have happened if she didn’t? when God calls us, do we obey him? will we listen to him no matter the cost? God calls us to him. will you listen?
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
This stuck out to me because Mary woke up to this and it was a lot for her but she believed and trusted the Lord. She was confused and scared but she believed. When we are scared, we need to go to the Lord with our problems and ask for help.
Some thing that stuck out to me was in the Athanasius It said “God became man so we can become God.” Jesus came to be like us so we could be like him.
“I’m most myself not when I resist God, not when I try to become God, but when I surrender to God.” I like that quote because its saying that we can’t try to be God or ressist him thats not who we are. But surrenduring to God, letting him take control of you’re life. Letting him be like a father and doing his will, That is who we are, children of God. Mary said “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.” she is telling God that she will do his will and asking him to take over.
When I read this passage I can only think of how brave Mary is. She knew that it was dangerous to say yes and she still did! Mary is our Mother, when she had Jesus she wasn’t that much older than I am. That blows my mind that someone can trust someone else that much. We need to try and be more like Mary.
True, unless it is God we are trusting! The Father kept his promise of a covenant with his people and redeemed us through His only Son! Oh, how much he loves us! Our worth, our value, is beyond measure, since this is what Our Father did for us!
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” This phrase stuck out to me because we shouldn’t be afraid of God. He loves us so much and we should love Him back. Mary “found favor with God” so we need to find our “favor with God.” It doesn’t have to be as big as what Mary did but we need to find favor with Him in something small that we can do.
The scripture today made me feel like Mary was truly and utterly surprised when Gabriel first came to her.
However the more Gabriel talked I felt like she was starting to understand the fact that this was truly an Angel and He had come to give Mary the Son of God Himself. Jesus. My personal favorite part of the scripture is when, well I just type it.
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.”
This made me feel like God can and will do anything to save humanity.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” This part stuck out to me because Mary is this woman she is a woman of many, but why did God choose her? She is pure in spirit and had no sin. She was confused on how she would conceive the child, but God is all powerful and can do anything. (He created the world!) He gave Mary a child and told her to name Jesus and she listened. Now she our Mother in Heaven because she followed God’s will for her.
i like this because god is telling us the he is our one and only lord and we should listen to him and that we should always follow him and pray everyday.
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
She didn’t know what was going to happen to her but she did as the angel told her anyway. We should be more like Mary and trust God.
Jesus will never give us anything that we can’t handle. Yes, some of the things we may need to ask help for. But they are still things we can do. Trust in him.
Mary says yes to God, we should too.
It is saying that God can do anything, you just have to trust in Him.
A phrase that stood out to me was “for nothing will be impossible for God”. This shows that God can do anything even if it doesn’t seem possible. Also, we need to trust God even if we don’t think that what he is doing is right, He always has a plan and knows whats best for us.
The scripture is talking about the annunciation and how Mary agreed to be the mother of God. Even though she could have been stoned she still agreed to be his mother. It is like the when the Christians were prosecuted.
By ourselves, we can’t do anything. With God, anything is possible, and that’s just what was said to Mary. The angel says, “for with God, nothing is impossible.” beacuse even Mary’s cousin, in her old age, was able to conceive a child, which shows the power of God.
God chose Mary as the mother of God because she is perfect. She was born without sin. Without her we wouldn’t have Jesus. She said yes to God which shows her holiness and obedience.
The annunciation is when Mary finds out she is pregnant with Jesus. She accepted it and later gave birth. We need to accept God’s word like Mary did. We need to listen to God and do what He says for our life to be the fullest it can be. Jesus is our light and we need to prepare for him.
The scripture is trying to tell us a what all happened at the annunciation he told her that she was going to bear a son and rule the house of Jacob forever he became the savior of the world.
The lord gives Mary a choice. He doesn’t do anything with us unless we choose Him to. Mary chose the path to heaven when she agreed to give birth to Jesus. We should listen to what God wants us to do and obey Him so we can only get closer to Him.
Awesome, spot on!
If you think about this scripture lightly, you may just laugh. An angel comes down, asks Mary if she wants to bear a child at like maybe 14 while she’s a virgin, and then her cousin that is said to be too old to have children, is, well, pregnant. All of these very important things are being revealed to Mary very quickly, and it seems so unreal. However, it is real, and this is the event that created Jesus, the savior of the world.
This is one of the most important parts of history in my opinion. When Mary conceived Jesus in her womb, the whole world was going to be saved. “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.” Jesus is the Son of God, the Most High. I feel like we take advantage of today. Yeah Mary conceived Jesus whatever. No we need to celebrate.
A phrase that stuck out to me is, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.May it be done to me according to your word. I like this phrase because it is when Jesus is in the womb of Mary. I also like this phrase because it means that Jesus in the world and we are saved.
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” it is crazy to think that God is whit us everywhere and he knows your strudels and knows how to help all you need to do is ask how to solve them.
This shows how much trust and love Mary has in God. She could have easily been freaked out and said no. And maybe even turn away from the Church but instead she said yes and rejoiced. She was not afraid and knew God had good plans for her and her baby.
What reached out to me was when the angel Gabriel said, “The Lord is with you.” What this means to me is that God is always with us. In our darkest moments and in the brightest moments of our lives he is always there. If we’re ever in doubt we can turn to God and be saved.
Today’s scripture shows how Mary had full trust in the Lord and that she believed that God would be with her even if she didn’t know what was going to happen. God hopes that one day we will have that much trust in him.
I feel like today’s scripture is saying that we need to put our trust in God. “for nothing will be impossible for God.” I feel like this is really showing that when we put trust in God we will be truly happy and satisfied.
Today’s scripture reading is so important. It has a very powerful meaning behind just the words. The main message I got from this scripture today is that Jesus has a plan for us and we certainly cannot be scared. He knows from day one who the family is who we will be friends with, who we will date and marry. Maybe even go into religious life. All those things are good but we cannot be scared. We have to open our ears to listen to God ´ s will. He has a destiny for us. So before Christmas lets all try to practice opening up to God and listening.
At first Mary was in disbelief. She did not think that she would be having a child especially since she has had no relations with a man. At first when the angel Gabriel came to her she was shocked and she did not know what was happening until he explained it. She then accepted her gift from God and became the mother of our savior Jesus Christ. I just think that it was amazing how Mary accepted what she was being given instead of turning it away. I am also grateful because if she had not accepted Jesus becoming her son we would not be here today.
I Think today the gospel is trying to tell us not to be afraid of Jesus. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and asks her to be the mother of Jesus. She was scared, confused and didn’t know how to answer. But she trusted in God and listened for what he had to say. In return Mary is now the mother of king of heaven.
I think this Gospel is telling us to trust God. I think if an angel came to me asking me to bear the child of God I would be freaked out. Mary kept her composer and trusted God. I think that is what God is telling us today is that we need to trust him.
In this Gospel, it tells us about the annunciation. God tells us that he has a will and plan for everyone. Everyone has an important role to play. We just need to say our own fiat to God. Jesus wants to hear us say yes to be his disciple. We need to be able to hear God’s call to be a holy person and to do his will. He will always be willing to accept us.
He sent Him to be with us through our suffering and pain. He is our savior and we need to value that. We aren’t doing enough because we are detracted with what is going around us. We need to find a place and time where we can close what is going around us and focus on the Lord.
This scripture is talking about when the angel Gabriel went into the town of Nazareth to find Mary and tell that she was going to have a baby and that she must name it Jesus. Mary was surprised because she had no realship with a man and the Angel Gabriel tell her the holy spirt will come over her and that he cousian is also expecting a child and this scripture is kinda talking about how anyhting is possible like elizabeth mary cousian she is very old but she is still going to give birth to a child like that is very powerful you could say.
This scripture is about when Gabriel the angel came down and asked Mary to be the mother of our savior lord Jesus who will be the savior to the world so this is a big deal.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Mary’s yes is gigantic because of what was to come through the yes to God. Because of her yes Jesus was born and he is fully human and divine and our savior. To think of what would happen if she said no is hard because she would’ve said yes no matter the pain and suffering she would have to endure. She is the greatest of all women to because of that pain and suffering which she could have escaped by saying no.
The road to eternal life is long. And it’s not an easy one to walk on either, we walk barefoot. Us being barefoot is the same as us being tempted by the devil. Just like on a road there are sharp jagged surfaces, and splinters. Similar to this, in the world, there is sin all around us. We can’t escape. All we can do is block it out, which is not easy either. That’s what God is there for. God is the voice that guides us to heaven. He knows we are going to sin and He forgives us. He loves us so so much and wants to be with us forever. That’s why he wants to show us the way to heaven.
Mary had a lot of trust in God and always believed in him. We as humans need to learn how to trusts God.
Mary said Yes to God. We should say yes to God this Christmas. Christmas is not just about the presents it’s about family, friends and most importantly Jesus birth. Remember that Christ is the center of Christmas, not presents or candy.