Feasts and Festivals of Our Lady

We will now turn to the chief Feasts and Festivals of Our Lady.  On March 25th there is the Annunciation of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so named because it commemorates the day on which the Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the Mother of the Son of God.  July 2nd (or May 31st) the Visitation, commemorates the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of St John the Baptist.  The next great celebration is on August 15th, the Assumption, when at the end of her earthly life she was taken to Heaven and was there reunited with Jesus, her Son.  On September 8th we celebrate Mary’s Nativity or Birthday, and on December 8th we celebrate her Conception, also known as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Other celebrations

Besides the Feast and Festivals of Our Lord and Our Lady, there are many other celebrations during the year.  For example, on March 19th we celebrate St Joseph, June 24th is the Nativity of St John the Baptist and September 29th is the Festival of St Michael and All Angels, also known as Michaelmas.  And then, of course, we celebrate the Apostles and other Saints.  And there is the Dedication Festival of our parish church.

Our worship

Some of the Feasts and Festivals of the Church are more important than others and we should make every effort to celebrate them by being present at the Eucharist.  We shall come back to this a little later in the year when we think about our Rule of Life.