In the middle of this season of preparation and penance of Lent, it is cool to remember the bigger picture and story of Christ's life. I love the that Church organizes a year that allows us to recapitulate the story of Jesus, fully God and fully Man. Today we remember the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Mother, changing her plans completely.
Some of her story sounds very familiar...
Young woman.
Unwed.
Had her own dreams and plans.
Unexpected pregnancy.
Faced opposition and persecution.
Chose life.
How different the world would be if each woman looked at each pregnancy with the value that Mary saw in Christ. Until then, we can continue to pray for a renewal for respect of life.
On that note, our parish pro-life coordinator is organizing a cool project for our CCD kids.
They are each spiritually adopting an unborn baby for the next nine months. They all got a magnet with Fulton Sheen's Spiritual Adoption Prayer on it and we talked about the connection between the Annunciation and being pro-life. The kids will be doing activities, learning how the babies develop, etc. It should be a very cool lesson. Here are a few of the resources that we have/will be using if you wanted to do your own Spiritual Adoption:
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| Creating a Culture of Life Youth Group Discussion Points |
JJ Heller, What Love Really Means:
A great idea -- since the usual feast date for the Annunciation (Mar.25) is nine months before Christmas, it reminds us we are celebrating Christ's conception/Incarnation (old feast names were Conceptio Christi, Festum Incarnationis) and this day was once celebrated as a springtime New Year's Day until the Gregorian calendar. It is also helpful to close the gestational period of Annunciation-to-Christmas Spiritual Adoption with a "HolyDay Season" "baby shower" item drive for the needy and pro-life pregnancy centers. See more on this at www.DayOfTheUnbornChild.com
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you and may God bless you!