My dear brothers and sisters,
I think of you all each morning at the Altar and each evening as we
pray the Angelus before the statute of Our Lady in the Cathedral. I
think of your families and your work; of the loneliness of old age and
the generous hopes of youth; of those seeking their vocation, especially
the men discerning their vocation at the Cathedral and our seminarians
preparing for the priesthood and the young couples preparing for
marriage; I think of all our priests and deacons and consecrated women
and men, and of the whole mission of our Diocese. We know that in the
offering of every Mass our lives, our prayer, our work and our
sufferings are “united with those of Christ and his total offering, and
so acquire a new value”i. In the simple prayer of the Angelus we also
seek to unite ourselves to the “yes” Mary gave to God’s word and thereby
to Christ Himself. In the Angelus we say with Our Lady, “Let it be to
me according to your word”.ii This is a perfect prayer to accompany the
Year of the Word.
At the beginning of Lent, the Book of Genesis tells how human history
began with our first parents saying “no” to God and his loving purpose.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that: “Man,
tempted by the devil let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and,
abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command”iii. This is original sin
and “all subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of
trust in his goodness”.iv Yet amid the disaster of this primeval fall,
we hear the first announcement of the Gospel telling of the Saviour to
come and of a New Eve, the Mother of Christ, who would truly be the
Mother of all who live. Together with Our Lady we now repeat her fiat,
her “yes” to all God asks of us and to the grace God wishes to pour into
our hearts.
In a time of amnesia – forgetfulness – of the Christian past, we
recall how England began with this desire to say “yes” to God’s grace,
in order that a once pagan people might share Christ’s victory in the
wilderness by learning to live “by every word which comes from the mouth
of God” and worshipping and serving the Lord God alone.v Our national
identity would be forged by the Christian faith we now share. England’s
Monarchs would entrust this land to the Mother of God so that, like
Mary, we might respond to God’s word in faith. They recognised England’s
high destiny to be a place where the joy of the Annunciation will never
fade. vi
This year, the Bishops invite us to renew that solemn act of
entrustment to the Blessed Virgin Mary amidst the de-Christianisation of
our society, re-echoing the call with which Lent begins, “Come back to
me with all your heart”.vii On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, we will make
this act of entrustment together at the end of Mass. In Shrewsbury
Diocese, I want us to also make this entrustment throughout Lent using
the simple and profound words of the Angelus. Where Monarchs once acted
on behalf of their people, today may this same act of dedication be
renewed in the hearts of each one of us. Let us entrust ourselves, our
families, our diocese and our whole nation to the Mother of God that we
may say with her, a decisive “yes” to God’s grace and God’s plan for our
lives.
The Angelus seems especially appropriate for this purpose, for it is
the prayer of the Angel’s announcement to Our Lady. Following the Second
Vatican Council, Saint Paul VI commended the Angelus prayer especially
for our times as it vividly recalls with the words of Scripture the
Incarnation of the Son of God and leads us to pray that we may be led
“by his Passion and Cross to the glory of his Resurrection”. viii Pope
Paul asked us to use this prayer “whenever and wherever possible” amidst
our working day, however busy we might be.
This Sunday, prayer cards will be distributed across the Shrewsbury
Diocese so we can have the words of this beautiful prayer to hand. I
wish to invite you to pray the Angelus with me each day and especially
around midday on Wednesday 25th March, when we celebrate the great feast
of the Annunciation. The two or three minutes we give to this prayer
will be like a ‘breath of fresh air’ in the middle of the day, allowing
us to raise our minds and hearts to God and to re-direct all to His
glory.
United with you in this prayer and entrusting us all to the most pure heart of Mary,
+ Mark
Bishop of Shrewsbury
