Today we commemorate the announcement to Mary that she is to be the Mother of God. The feast actually recalls two aspects of the same salvific mystery: the incarnation of the divine Word and the motherhood of Mary. With time, the incarnation of the Son of God was stressed on the feast of the Birth of Our Lord and today’s feast became a Marian feast.
Holy One, through you, sinners are sanctified and the penitent seek you who desire our salvation and well being.
Do not look on the weakness of our humanity and the insignificance of our deeds. but treat us according to your mercy, for we take refuge in you.
orgive our offenses, for who besides you can pardon?
Full of joy, we shall give you glory, now and for ever.
O Sister Rafka, you walked with Jesus and carried daily your cross with courage. After a life lived in pain and torment, you were rewarded with heaven’s glory.
Lord, guard and sustain your Church. Raise up saints and holy ones within her ranks, and bless all her monks and nuns. Sanctify them as the live and work for you. Alleluia! We praise you, Lord.
Make us worthy, O Lord, to stand before You with pure hearts and to believe in Your birth from a virgin as Joseph, Your chosen one, believed after You revealed Your mystery to him. As You appointed the angel in the garden of Eden to guard the tree of life, so have You chosen Joseph and appointed him guardian of Your virgin mother in whom You dwelt. Grant us, O Lord, to taste the cherished fruit of Your tree, so that we may glorify You, Your Holy Father and Your blessed Spirit, now and forever.
Jesus Christ, O Physician, Lover of all people, we thank you for your compassion, for you have bandaged the wounds of our suffering humanity. Heal the sick and console the sorrowful. Accept our prayers as you accepted the plea of the hemorrhaging woman. Bless our comminity that prays to you. We believe that you are our Savior and Redeemer, and we await the day of your glorious resurrection..
O Our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess and adore You because You are our God, our Savior and our Supreme Judge. We bow in front of Your Divine Majesty offering You our thanks for all the Graces You granted and will grant us.
We beseech You, through your love for Your Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and for Saint Joseph, Your chosen Just One, and through the wound of Your RIGHT FOOT. Grant us to live and die in your grace.
Amen.
The governor of Sebaste in Armenia wished to force forty soldiers to renouce Christ. First he imprisoned them and then he threw them into a frozen pond. They prayed with one heart.
"We forty have entered the arena, O Lord, grant that we may be able to receive the crown,”
One of them escaped and renounced Christ, but their guard, a pagan, took his place. In the morning the guards broke their legs and burned their bodies. They received the crown of martyrdom around the year 322. May their prayers be with us. Amen.
O Our Lord, Jesus Christ, we firmly believe in all that our Mother the Holy Church believes in and teaches us to believe in because You are the One who revealed it to her, O You, who are the Truth which neither deceives nor is deceived.
We beseech You, through your love for Your Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and for Saint Joseph, Your chosen Just One, and through the wound of Your LEFT FOOT, to grant us Your Grace so we may live and die with it.
Amen.
O Christ, the only-begotten Son, on this day you chose to sit among the invited guests, enriching them with the abundance of your divine gifts. As your disciples believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, we also believe in you. In place of the old Law, you have given us your new Gospel, and instead of the fruit of the vine, you have quenched our thirst with the chalice of your redeeming blood.
During these forty days of Lent, may we meditate on the benefits of fasting and prayer. Through fasting and prayer souls are made pure, bodies are made chaste, spirits are uplifted, passions are restrained, mercy abounds, and the Holy Spirit dwells in the soul that was created to be the temple of God.
Jesus Christ our Lord, true High Priest, you called our father, Saint John Maron to the order of holy priesthood, ordained him a bishop, and then chose him as the first Patriarch of Antioch for our Maronite Church. Now make us worthy to remember him and to celebrate his glorious feast with prayers and hymns. With him we raise glory and thanks to you, to your Father, and to your Holy Spirit, now and for ever.
Lord, you appointed Saint Maron as father and shepherd of a portion of your people. You supported him with your strength and righteousness, gave him victory over your enemies and guided him in your truth. Grant us who celebrate his memory today a constant faith, and we will glorify and praise you, now and for ever.
Amen.
Simeon, the faithful one, held the Son of God, made man, whom his parents brought this day to the temple of the Lord. He took him into his arms and spoke good news, giving thanks to God.
“I have seen, with my own eyes, the Redeemer of the world. Dismiss me in peace, for the nations have been saved.”
This has been fulfilled by Christ, the Lord of all, who was born from Mary’s womb.
O John the Baptist, you told the people to bear fruit of repentance worthy of their Lord and God. We ask you to intercede for his Church that has been washed in the waters of baptism, that he may accept the fragrance of incense and our prayers. May the sweet fragrance of Christ remain in the world, calling all people to believe in him, his Father, and his Holy Spirit. Amen.
