Why don't we have a grander celebration for the feast of the Annunciation?

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Theo2

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Jesus came to earth at the Annunciation. It would support our belief in life begins at conception if we would celebrate it!
 
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Hey, Theo! That’s a good question that I’ve also been asking myself.
 
We do celebrate it. It ranks as a Solemnity, the highest class of feast. In the early Church it was actually more important than Christmas.

Whether your parish pulls out all the stops on the feast day is a different matter, but we do celebrate it.

-Fr ACEGC
 
The difficulty is that it comes in Lent, or is overshadowed by Easter.
 
I would also add that Christmas DOES celebrate the conception of the Lord in that the liturgical texts often refer generally to His incarnation and not only the specific moment of His birth… there is definitely overlap between the themes of the Annunciation and Christmas.

On the other hand, the feast of Our Lady’s conception overshadows the feast of her birth…in the Latin Church anyway (in the Eastern Churches it’s the other way around).
 
Some places might not celebrate it with a lot of music and other trimmings, especially if it falls on a weekday and the personnel aren’t available. But the texts of the Mass are still the fullest set appointed for a celebration, with the Gloria, two readings before the Gospel, and the Creed. Plus, there’s a rubric that occurs only here and at Christmas in the Ordinary Form that everyone is to genuflect at the words “et homo factus est” in the Creed.
 
edward_george1 said:
But the texts of the Mass are still the fullest set appointed for a celebration, with the Gloria, two readings before the Gospel, and the Creed. Plus, there’s a rubric that occurs only here and at Christmas in the Ordinary Form that everyone is to genuflect at the words “et homo factus est” in the Creed.
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Thanks father. Good to know. I probable knew that but forgot. What I would like to see is the parish invited to make a special effort to come to mass that day.
 
When it came around a year or two ago , it fell on a Monday, the day when most if not all the priests in the diocese take a day off. So, one could not find a church where to celebrate, even if we wanted to.

I am of the opinion that we are overloaded with feasts and months of Mary.

My mother was distant from me, and I don’t have this overwhelming, romantic, sentimentalized devotion to Mary.

If Mary or Mother Angelica did what God intended for them to do, then they were just following orders. I had my own challenges in life (I’m 69) and I did the best I could do, often at the cost of a lot of sacrifice and self-mortification. I had to give up a lot of things. It can hardly be said that the Church in the US does not spend enough time on devotion to Mary.

And, there are the redundancies. Mary is Mary, but that’s not enough for some. They need the feast of the immaculate conception, the feast of our lady of Guadalupe, the Annunciation, the Motherhood of Mary, Mary of the Lake, Mary of this and Mary of that. My point is, not that those are wrong, but I personally am not at that level of spirituality to feel deprived of additional titles and feasts of Mary.
 
We do, though. It is a first class solemn Mass. few have this status throughout the year
 
This is my question as well. Liturgically, the Annunciation is already a Solemnity (1st class in the EF). I don’t know what else could be done to make it grander except perhaps declare it a Holy Day of Obligation. Maybe that kind of thing is what the OP is driving at…?
 
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In the Mozarabic rite this feast has been moved to December 18 so that its conflict with Lent is removed.
 
I know that in the Latin Church it is often overlooked b/c it falls during Lent. This was especially seen the past few years when it fell on Good Friday and this past year when it was on Palm Sunday. In the East the feast is ALWAYS celebrated and never transferred. Now for most of the Eastern Churches who use the Revised Julian Calendar this really doesn’t pose a problem b/c the Feast is a fixed feast and they use the Julain Paschalian which means Pascha and Holy Week are later. But even if they use the Gregorian Paschalian, the Annunciation is combined with whatever day we’re observing (Holy Friday a few years ago and Palm Sunday this year)…the readings for the Annunciation can be used and the blue vestments can also be used. The past few years it was kinda cool so see all that in action. 🙂
 
Annunciation used to be the start of the European financial year, so it used to be a much bigger deal, Lent or no Lent. Also, having a “day off” from Lent was pretty big.
 
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Well, you have plenty of time to organize something at your parish!

Monday, March 25.

Organize a fun event like Trivia Night and Spaghetti Dinner as fund raiser for a local pregnancy home or shelter for women and children. Come up with something creative, put together a team and make it happen!!
 
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