Resources to Observe The Annunciation and St. Joseph, Guardian of Our Lord
Bulletin Insert
- Order at CPH: The Annunciation and St. Joseph, Guardian of Our Lord
- Download: The Annunciation and St. Joseph, Guardian of Our Lord
The Church Year
March 19 – St. Joseph, Guardian of Jesus
March 25 – The Annunciation of Our Lord
Salvation starts three trimesters ahead of December. Christmas—and forgiveness—begins already in March.
And it includes a gestating baby and an adoptive father!
The week that culminates in the Festival of the Annunciation (March 25) kicks off with the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19).
So the Word became flesh (John 1:14) and God with us (Matthew 1:23) in a surprise pregnancy.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ commences with this kind of crisis and proves that unplanned doesn’t always indicate only disaster.
The Mother of our Lord may have been unmarried, but He did not leave her to carry the Child alone.
Elizabeth and Bethlehem also intervened and assisted.
But God gave Joseph to accompany her all along because His grace is about always abiding nearby.
Her betrothed, of course, had his own anxieties. Childbearing is a serious honor and responsibility. And even this saint did not act with entire innocence. His panic concocted a myopic maneuver to get them out of trouble.
The Good Lord, though, appointed this one and not another to protect and provide for both mother and child before birth as well as after.
The otherwise obscure ancient tradesman from nowhere Nazareth recognized how men have a pivotal vocation in bringing forth children and bringing them up.
He put entire trust upon the solemn promise that the Little One’s life embodied.
So, Scripture pronounced him for posterity a righteous man.
From the Blessed Virgin and her bridegroom, unsuspecting Mary and unassuming Joseph, Jesus Himself first learned humble servanthood. The resulting sacrifice forgave their insufficiencies and everyone else’s.
Heaven remembers them immortal as encouragement and invitation for us to receive every neighbor as gift and privilege, no matter what they have or lack, where they come from or how they got here.
Sanctity of life means miracles we’d never have imagined.
Thanks be to God He still does it like Mary and Joseph!
Additional Downloadable Resources:
- Brochure – The Annunciation and Abortion (PDF)
- Bulletin Insert – Miracle of the Incarnation (PDF)
- Sermon – Annunciation – Pregnant with God James Lamb (WORD)
- Sermon – Annunciation – Pregnant with God (PDF)
- Worship Service – The Annunciation of Our Lord (WORD)
- Worship Service – The Annunciation of Our Lord (PDF)
- Sermon – Annunciation – Pregnant with God James Lamb (WORD)
- Handout – Sacrificial Early Months of the Life of our Redeemer (PDF)