25 Mar – Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
The annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Gabriel the archangel that she was to be the Mother of God (Luke 1), the Word being made flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The feast probably originated about the time of the Council of Ephesus (c. 431), and is first mentioned in the Sacramentary of Pope Gelasius (d. 496).
The Annunciation has been a key topic in Christian art in general, as well as in Roman Catholic Marian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It is represented in art by many masters, among them Fra Angelico, Hubert Van Eyck, Ghirlandajo, Holbein the Elder, Lippi, Pinturicchio, and Del Sarto.
This feast is celebrated on Mar 25, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) on Dec 25.
The Annunciation is also mentioned twice in the Quran, the holy book for the Muslims.
- Patron Saint Index, Wikipedia
Isa 7:10-14;8:10
Heb 10:4-10
Lk 1:26-38
“I will not put the Lord to the test.”
This Chinese New Year, my family decided we should sell our family home. It is momentous; I have always known this day would come, but now that we sit on the precipice of it, my heart breaks for the memories that were made, and the lives that were lived in that house.
Letting go of something as significant as the family home is about letting go of the past. Our family home is the tangible thing that still binds me to what few roots I have left at home. My parents always said, “This is the family home, no matter where you are, or what is going on in your lives, you can always come back here”. This is our father’s house, the house he bought with his meagre savings, where he and my mother nurtured and raised us. Ours was not an idyllic childhood; but what childhood is idyllic, when finances are tight and ambitions are big? This house has been witness to all of our struggles, all the events that have made us who we are. Letting go of this house, of our past… it is like burying a part of yourself.
And so we come to Ahaz. One of Judah’s worst kings and remembered only for his faithlessness. One wonders, what if the one thing King Ahaz could not do, was to contemplate a life where he didn’t engineer all the solutions for himself? Where he didn’t have all the answers from the outset? Where he had to forego worldly wisdom and trust, really trust, in God’s deliverance? We know him as a pagan worshipping politico, but would we have chosen so differently ourselves? Are we not also products of our nurture, our context and our past? Me not wanting to let go of the family home, and searching for ways to keep it in our lives, instead of giving it up to God and letting Him steer the next chapter for our family… how am I so different from Ahaz? I don’t think we are different at all.
I am always amazed by the simplicity of the text in Scripture. When Mary says, ”Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”, the brevity of it obscures the mental and emotional anguish she must have experienced. How does one let go of one’s past, one’s familiarity with things, to venture into a future fraught with uncertainty and unknowns? But that is why she is our Mother Mary. She just knew. Maybe with enough prayer, and by God’s grace, I too, might be able to let the past stay in the past, and forge ahead with faith in His deliverance. One of the hardest things, is letting go.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
Prayer: We pray for all who are on the precipice of big life decisions. May the Holy Spirit help them to discern the path forward.
Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the people that God puts in our lives to illuminate our way.
OXYGEN 
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