Opinion
According to Luke’s Gospel, it is immediately after her conversation with the Angel Gabriel that Mary sets off ‘with haste’ to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth in the hill country of Judaea. The beautiful image chosen for this year’s Marian Procession features the encounter between the two women – the older woman heavily pregnant and the younger still in the earliest stages of pregnancy.
Opinion
The season of Lent extends from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening, when the Easter Triduum begins. During this period neither the Gloria nor the Alleluia are sung, and a different Collect (Opening Prayer) is provided for every day, to emphasise the importance of these weeks.
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Christians have always gathered together to give praise to God on Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection. In this they carry out Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.” We know that Christ is always present when the faithful come together, and whenever we gather for Eucharist it is the whole Body of Christ that gathers, with Christ as head and us as his members.
The experience of sickness and suffering can make us feel anxious and alone. We need someone to be with us, to comfort us, to listen to us, to encourage us. This doesn’t apply only to the person enduring the pain or illness, but to those who love them and care for them who wonder, ‘What can I do? What should I do? Who can I turn to?’
Easter is almost upon us. On April 14 we begin the Easter Triduum (pronounced trid-you-oom), the most important three days in the Church’s year, when we celebrate the mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.
The words ‘through Christ our Lord, Amen’ are familiar to us as the conclusion to many of the Church’s formal prayers.
‘A pregnant woman is not the usual image that comes to mind when one thinks of a prophet,’ writes the American theologian Elizabeth Johnson in her book Truly our Sister, yet in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel we come face to face with two Spirit-filled pregnant prophets doing exactly what prophets do: speaking aloud God’s truth.
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