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In the Eastern Church, Catholic and Orthodox, the day after a major feast day is itself a special one. Known as the “leave-taking” of the feast, this day celebrates one or more of the saints who were involved in the event that the feast celebrates.
Thus March 26, the Leave-Taking of the Annunciation, is dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger who announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that God had chosen her to bear his son.
At noon Rome time, 7 a.m. here in Huntington, Indiana, Catholics around the world joined Pope Francis in praying the Our Father for an end to the current pandemic. On this solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, those words that we too often recite by rote took on a special meaning: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
At midnight tonight, OSV headquarters will fall silent. In line with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home order, we have everyone who can work remotely doing so, while the production and distribution staff will take a much-needed rest after weeks of producing as much as possible, in preparation for a shutdown.
In the midst of it all, I paused to read the psalm for today’s Mass. Psalm 46 seems eerily relevant to what the world is going through today: “God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress. Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.”
Today, the light went out in the chapel.
On Thursday, we passed the midpoint of Lent 2020. The Sunday after the midpoint — today — has long been known as Laetare Sunday, after the first word (in Latin) of the entrance antiphon of Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. / Be joyful, all who were in mourning; / exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.”
Across the United States, and indeed around the world, the rose-colored vestments that we also see on Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, made their appearance on video rather than in person.