The Great Week

Palm Sunday, outside the Basilica of the Blessed Sacrament, Sacramento, California
(C) 2013 On Being Roman Catholic in America

For Catholics, the focus of the entire year is found in Holy Week, or what is sometimes referred to as "the Great Week"--as we re-live the Passion of Our Lord, Jesus Christ and ponder the power of unconditional love and utter freedom found in obedience to the will of the Father.

Pater, si non potest hic calix transire, nisi ibam illum: fiat voluntas tua. (Luke 22:42)

Mary, Full of Grace - Patroness of the United States

Immaculate Conception - Side Altar, Basilica in Denver, Colorado (C) 2012 On Being Roman Catholic in America

 



On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we celebrate Mary, full of grace.  We celebrate Mary's participation in salvation history by her faithful "yes"--her acceptance, fiat, of God's will.  On this day, of all days, we are reminded that our relationship with God, the Creator, begins at the moment of our conception.  We ask Mary, Patroness of the United States, to pray with us for an end to the evil that promotes a cultural of death, and especially to safeguard and protect the child in the womb.

No Masters, No Gods

No Masters, No Gods. This pithless expression of humanistic philosophy fit nicely across the bumper sticker; its comprehensive message presumably serving as the Summa on the topic of God and man. Yet on that same topic, we find in Mary’s fiat (from Latin “let it be done”) true freedom: In being open to, accepting of, and trusting in God’s plan, Mary freely conformed her will to God’s will. With her “yes,” Mary achieved the triumph of human free will over the tyranny of the self and to that world to which the self clings with grasping fingers.

On the significance of Mary’s fiat, read, Bl. John Paul the Great.

Ave Maria

The feast of the Annunciation normally falls on March 25 (informing us that Christ's birth is just 9 months away!)  Because today is Sunday, the feast day will be observed tomorrow.  The mysteries of the Annunciation are many and wondrous, among them:  God's intervention in human history; Mary's fiat; the beautiful Magnificat; the fulfillment of ancient prophecies; the affirmation of the sanctity of life in the womb, and more.  Ave Maria, indeed.