Hello Everybody!

This week, the Church calendar will invite us to celebrate one more Solemnity during this time of Lent: The Solemnity of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Solemnity invites us to celebrate the announcement by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus. The narrative of the Annunciation is presented to us in the Gospel of Luke (Lk. 1:26-38).

This feast is one of the principal feasts in Christianity, and it is celebrated nine months before Christmas. Throughout the years, it has been known by different names: The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Annunciation of Our Lady, Feast of the Incarnation, Annunciation of the Lord, and in Greek, it is known as Ο Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου (Evangelismos tis Theotokou), a title that implies the word Gospel and could roughly be translated to “the Good News to the Mother of God.”

The feast probably originated shortly before or after the Council of Ephesus (c. 431), based on the fact that at the time of the Synod of Laodicea (372), the feast was not yet known. However, St. Proclus, Bishop of Constantinople (d. 446), seems to mention it in one of his homilies. He states that the feast of the coming of Our Lord and Savior, when He vested Himself with the nature of man (quo hominum genus indutus), was celebrated during the entire fifth century. This homily, however, may not be genuine, or the words may be understood as referring to the feast of Christmas.

When the calendar system of Anno Domini was first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525, he assigned the beginning of the new year to March 25, since, according to Christian theology, the era of grace began with the Incarnation of Christ. The first certain mentions of the feast are in a canon of the 656 Council of Toledo, where it is described as being celebrated throughout the Church. The 692 Council of Constantinople “in Trullo” forbade the observance of any festivals during Lent, except for Sundays and the Annunciation. An earlier origin had been claimed for the feast based on manuscripts of the sermons of Athanasius and Gregory Thaumaturgus, but these were subsequently discovered to be apocryphal.

The Annunciation has been one of the most frequently depicted subjects in Christian art. Representations of the Annunciation date back to early Christianity, with the Priscilla Catacomb containing the oldest known fresco of the Annunciation, dating to the 4th century. It has been a favorite artistic subject in both the Christian East and Roman Catholic Marian art, particularly during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and it appears in the repertoire of almost all the great masters. The figures of the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel, being emblematic of purity and grace, were favorite subjects of Roman Catholic Marian art, where the scene is also used to represent the perpetual virginity of Mary through the angel Gabriel’s announcement that Mary would conceive a child to be born the Son of God.

The symbols present in paintings of the Annunciation are worth studying and reflecting upon. Most of these paintings feature common symbols that help us meditate on the mystery of the Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of Mary.

Devotionally, the recitation of the Angelus is also a beautiful reminder of the mystery of the Incarnation. As you know, it is a prayer that I enjoy reciting at the end of my daily Mass. Hopefully, on the day when we celebrate the mystery of the Annunciation of Mary, you can include this short devotion in your prayers.