Happy Easter!

 

Better late than never better be true! Today’s post is all about the Annunciation. Problem is today is Wednesday and the feast was Monday which was delayed because the original feast is set on March 25th which happened to be Good Friday this year. Phew!

 

During morning prayer on Monday the children chose to sing “Hail Holy Queen”, their current favorite Marian hymn. I’d like to say they know this one because I’m an excellent teacher and drill into them all the classic hymns as a part of their education. But I owe their enthusiasm and memorization of this one to Whoopi Goldberg and the “silly nun business” of Sister Act. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Ah, the educational tool that is the YouTube.

 

I explained to them that the feast is usually celebrated on March 25th and asked them why they thought this was. We counted together forward nine months, and their little eyes grew wide with excitement as they made the connection. December 25th! Christmas! Jesus was in Mary’s belly for 9 months! Thankfully no further questions were required. And J-boy surprised me with, “The power of the Holy Spirit put Jesus in Mary’s belly.” Profound from a 5 year old. And, as I said, thankfully no further questions.

 

Later in the day, after school and chores, we worked together to make Angel Food Cupcakes and blueberry sauce. They turned out amazingly! And I had the kiddos color a coloring sheet of the Annunciation.

These celebrations at home are just coming back for us. They’ve been on hiatus for a while as we settled into our new home, schedules, routines. There have been disruptions in normalcy, which is why we need these. Ordinary needs some extraordinary breaks in order to educate, to form, to shore up graces. And the extraordinary does not need to be grand in order to do this. Another point I need to remind myself of. And probably a reason I didn’t offer these gems for the children. I had that mental block thinking these things needed to take hours and weeks to prepare. But they can be simple. A friend of mine recently reminded me of this. A story, a conversation, a treat, a coloring page is all it takes. As long as something marks the day as special, just a little different than ordinary.

 

And the Annunciation is special. The day we recall that God took on flesh, made his dwelling among us, began again the process of sanctification. And that’s why we celebrate these feast days anyway. Because we are sanctified by that act of God made man. Because he sanctified the ordinary stuff of life by sharing life with us. The bread, the water, the meal, the movements.

 

And we honor Mary in the white and blue of the cake. We learn her submission to the will of God in the posture of her form in the coloring page. We sing of her honor in our hymn. And we ask her intercession through our prayers.

It’s in the little things!