Henry Ossawa Tanner, "Mary"

MEDITATING 

ON THE ANNUNCIATION

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Meditating on The Annunciation.”

When you pray the rosary, what do you see, what do you think about,  when you pray the first Joyful Mystery: the Annunciation?

IF INTERESTED, HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS

First read the text - the gospel we heard this morning from Luke 1: 26-38.

Read it a few times. Use the old mediation method: Lectio, Meditation, Oratio, Contemplatio.  [a] Read. [b] Then think about what you are reading, [c] Next pray about it. [d] Lastly,  be quiet, be contemplative, let the seeds of thought sink in - becoming pregnant with new life.

Second.  Borrow your kids’ or grandkids’ crayons. “Unless you be like children, you won’t get into the kingdom of God” [Mark 10: 15]. Draw the picture. Picture your imaginations on the annunciation.

Then if you have a computer type into google, “Annunciation Paintings”.  There are well over 100 plus paintings of the Annunciation  - by all kinds of artists. 

Whenever you go into a church - especially a church named after Mary - look for the annunciation window. These windows here are from a Mary Church - 61^st Street New York City. 

Study the angels. Compare how others did angels compared to how you pictured angels. Do you have the angels close, above, distant, up in the air, off to the side? Where?

Study Mary’s hands. Looking at all the paintings of Mary, see palms up, palms down, hands crossed, a tight nervous hand, a drawn back hand, a hand over the heart. A hand to the neck. How did you do Mary’s hands in your drawing? 

Henry Ossawa Tanner 

The Annunciation [1898]

I like Henry Ossawa  Tanner’s The Annunciation. 1898.  He was from Pittsburgh. His mother was a runaway slave. She traveled the underground railroad from the south to the north. His dad was a Methodist Bishop. Henry did  some neat religions paintings. I like his Annunciation the best. I also like the blue of The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Waters.

Third: Think about annunciation moments in your life. Discovering when you became pregnant. Or a daughter. or a sister. or a friend announced a pregnancy.

Think about joyful announcements in your life.  Someone asked you to marry them. Then there are  engagements, getting the job.  

CONCLUSION

I have on my blog some reflections on the 20 mysteries of the rosary. Check out my Annunciation reflections.

But more importantly, since we’re looking at meditating in this homily, let me announce a good annunciation moment for me.

I’ve mentioned this at times to various folks - and some people disagreed with me. No problem. It’s not my problem.

Here it is. I once heard a priest on an audio tape talk say, who came up with the idea that distractions in prayer are a sin? He then added something like this: “To be a human being is to have distractions.”

I would add that they are not sins - but in general,  they are distractions. It’s the same as having a conversation with someone. They mention basketball and we think of the game tonight.  They  mention they are painting their cellar and we start thinking of cellars or a room we want to paint. If we catch ourselves - we come back to this other person - and we try to listen to them better. It can be rude or not nice to look at our watch when they are telling their story - or to yawn - or to cut them off and start telling them about a movie we saw on TV last night.

Picking up a rosary to say one is announcing to oneself, “I am about to pray.”  It’s the same as a Muslim picking up his or her prayer rug - for one of their daily 5 periods of prayer.

The beads can be worry beads. The beads can help us rethink and return to the different mysteries of life - some of which are joyful - some of which are sorrowful - hopefully some are glorious and all are Light Bearing.

And talking about how are mind jumps all over the place. Think of God being able to be in on the minds of over 7 billion people at once. How’s that for a hundred, million, billion, trillion distractions. Wow.