December 20

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 64:1-6 The Election of an Abbess
Mass: Is 7:10-14; Resp Ps 24; Lk 1:26-38

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Our God keeps on surprising and delighting us in the course of human history. Today the angel Gabriel pays a visit to Mary and greets her, 'Hail, full of grace!' We might take the words of Gabriel into our own hearts, 'Do not be afraid … nothing will be impossible for God.' Nothing.

God enters history and does so in his original style: surprise. The God of surprises always surprises us.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, December 20, 2018)

O God, eternal majesty, whose ineffable Word 

the immaculate Virgin received through 

the message of an Angel 

and so became the dwelling-place of divinity, 

filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, 

grant, we pray, that by her example 

we may in humility hold fast to your will.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity 

of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

(Collect, Mass)

We continue with the 'O' Antiphons on this fifth day before Christmas and praise O Key of David.

O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel; who open and none can shut; who shut and none can open: come and lead to freedom the prisoner who sits in darkness and the shadow of death.

Marana tha! Come, Lord, Jesus!

NB. Today's photo is of an icon painted through the hand of Sr Suzanne.