Announcement

The event took place in Nazareth, but included in the global commemorations today was a liturgy celebrated at the Armenian Catholic Church in Jerusalem.

Nine months before Jesus’ birth the Solemnity of the Annunciation is celebrated, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that reality has changed, and God is becoming a human being.  Mary accepts the role of being his mother, and 2,000 years later her response is still the gift of joy to everyone.

20 years isn’t quite as long a time, but that would be how long ago it was that I came into the Catholic Church with my family.  That year March 25 fell on the Easter Vigil, so we should celebrate twice, marking both the date and the day.

The Armenian church in Jerusalem was also commemorating a milestone today: this liturgy marked the beginning of Perpetual Adoration being held in their church.

The site is appropriate both for celebrating the Annunciation and for Eucharistic Adoration.  Alongside on the Via Crucis, it is located at the Fourth Station, remembering where Jesus met his mother on the way to Calvary.  That meeting could only take place because they had first been brought together at the Annunciation—and today we still join Mary in encountering her son.

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem were present.

  

Dozens of priests joined to concelebrate in the packed church.  Presiding was the Papal Nuncio, who was accompanied by an Armenian Catholic bishop from the United States as well as several other bishops; the Patriarch of Jerusalem was also present.

The photos and the following video were taken by my classmate Father Johnson.  The film gives you a glimpse of the interior of the church and lets you hear the choir, which did an outstanding  job.  Their music, and the liturgy as a whole, was one of the most polylinguistic events I’ve been to in a while: Latin, Armenian, Italian, English, Polish and Arabic all played a role.