Holy Family Filipino community on Feast of the Annunciation

March 25, 2017 was a red-letter day for us, especially in Nazareth! It is where the Annunciation took place with the eventual Incarnation of the Son of God in Mary of Nazareth. Ordinarily the HFFCN makes a “pilgrimage” to this shrine around this time. Though this year, the solemnity fell on a Saturday, still the community members, or most of them, could not make it to join the festive mass in the morning of the 25th, celebrated by the Apostolic Administrator, Msgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM. Thus, we made the decision to conduct our Lenten recollection and “tribute” to Mary in the course of a reflective evening.

At around 16:00, some thirty members came to Mensa Christi to spend the Laetare Sunday celebration reflectively. The Liturgy of the Word for the day, 4th Sunday of Lent, served as our penitential service, prolonged in prayer and reflection. At the end of the Gospel reflection, we exposed the Blessed Sacrament while individual confessions took place. Once these were done, the congregation united itself with Mary in her Magnificat, thanking the Lord for the gift of pardon and reconciliation. The Blessed Sacrament was then reposed and the rest of the mass continued as usual. At the end we shared with one another a fraternal agape, prepared principally by a birthday celebrant of the day. Altogether there were around thirty persons who participated in these acts.

By 20:00, we had cleaned up the place and moved down to the Basilica Plaza for the rosary- procession on Saturday evenings. As part of the celebration of the day, Msgr. Pierbattista presided at the rites, attended by many of the local faithful, including us, and pilgrims from different countries. The HFFCN participated very actively in the rites. Two couple members served as candle bearers while one did the reading of introductory commentaries in English. The fourth mystery was assigned to the group. Our coordinator, Ms Edith Marasigan, led the praying of the decade in Pilipino/Tagalog, our official Philippine language, while the rest of the HFFCN, who were left behind after the agape, prayed the responses. This then served as our Marian “tribute” for this year 2017.

Invigorated by these acts of faith, each one together with the other participants went home at the end of the rites at around 21:30, glad to be one with one another in honoring Our Lady, Mary of Nazareth, and together with her praying for peace all over the world, especially in the Middle East, particularly in the Holy Land and in Syria.