Ezekiel 9:2-7, Psalm 113:1-8, Luke 1:26-38

QUEENSHIP OF MARY

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Ezekiel 9:2-7, Psalm 113:1-8, Luke 1:26-38

Ezekiel 9:2-7

My Beloved, there is always a faithful remnant, they can be found everywhere they are leaven in the world.  They may be found in monasteries, convents, offices, factories, in homes, schools and hospitals.  They may be found among the powerful or the poor.  They are everywhere and they sigh, weep, mourn, pray and lift up their hands to You pleading for Your mercy on a world and people who have become blind and deaf to evil.

They live under the Sign of Victory, the Cross and because of them the hand of destruction and annihilation will be stayed.

Psalm 113:1-8

Everywhere my Beloved, from all parts of the world, is offered a holy and perfect sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving, adoration and worship. We recall Your work of salvation and we exalt Your Name for Your reign is over all the earth.  From Your throne in heaven You stoop low over the world that You have redeemed and sanctified with Your Blood.  While many still do not know You and many refuse to allow You to have authority and dominion over their lives, the poor and humble of heart know that without You life is meaningless.  These You lift up and exalt as You did Mary Your mother and ours.  You have seated her at Your right hand and have granted her a share in Your glory, crowning her Queen of heaven and earth. 

Mary, Mother of God and our Mother and Queen pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Luke 1:26-38

These verses reveal how God, in the fullness of time sent the Angel Gabriel to the little town of Nazareth in Galilee as His Messenger to a young virgin who was betrothed to Joseph of the house of David.

St. Luke paints such a vivid picture of the Annunciation that one can almost see the Angel looking with awe at this young girl on the threshold of womanhood, the most beautiful flower in Israel. Humble and wholly in love with God, she was quite unaware that she was endowed by God with the fullness of every grace and virtue.  Born without original sin, she walked in quiet beauty, innocence and purity.  

The Angel, fully aware of God's plan greets her, "Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Exult, the Lord who is with you has singled you out from all women in all times and in all ages for a singular privilege.

What is Mary's response?  Trembling with emotion, unable to grasp fully what the Angel meant by this extravagant and extra ordinary greeting she was troubled and anxious. Quickly the Angel reassures her, "Don't be afraid." One can almost her the loving and gentle voice of the Angel calming her nerves.  He goes on with the awesome revelation of God's plan of salvation and the major role she was to play in it. 

The Angel tells her that God has looked kindly on her and has chosen her to conceive and bear His Son and she was to call Him Jesus, the Name above all names.  Mary, who was young in years not in wisdom and common sense asks the logical question.  "How can this be if I am a virgin?"  In the next verses we see clearly something hidden in the old revealing itself with clarity in the new, "And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the holy child to be born shall be called Son of God."  We  see the true Arc of the Covenant.

The Angel also reveals that her cousin Elizabeth, long barren and long past the child bearing age had not only conceived but was now in her sixth month for with God nothing is impossible.

And Mary says with her lips said what her heart and her life have always said to God any other response would have been foreign to the Rose of Sharon, the bright Morning Star, “I am the hand­maid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said.” And the angel left her.