Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
December 8, 2023
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120823.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Gospel offers us the luminous account of Gabriel’s Annunciation to young Mary. In my prayer, I think I would just like to sit beside Mary and wait for the graces God wishes to give me – to wait confidently as she did, and to do so with her guidance.
Annunciation – Edward Burns-Jones
I will use the powerful poem by Scott Cairns to focus my heart. You may want to use it as well.
Deep within the clay, and O my people
very deep within the wholly earthen
compound of our kind arrives of one clear,
star-illumined evening a spark igniting
once again the tinder of our lately
banked noetic fire. She burns but she
is not consumed. The dew lights gently,
suffusing the pure fleece. The wall comes down.
And—do you feel the pulse?—we all become
the kindled kindred of a King whose birth
thereafter bears to all a bright nativity.
Music: Monteverdi – Vespro della Beata Vergine led by John Eliot Gardiner
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.
The Vespro della Beata Vergine consists of 14 components: an introductory versicle and response, five psalms interspersed with five “sacred concertos”, a hymn, and two Magnificat settings. Collectively these pieces fulfil the requirements for a Vespers service on any feast day of the Virgin.
In March 1964, as a student at King’s College, Cambridge, John Eliot Gardiner led a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers that not only launched his conducting career, but also his world-renowned Monteverdi Choir.
Lavish Mercy 