Thursday December 8th: A call to serve

‘The angel Gabriel was sent by God’ 

Luke 1: 26-38

In this well-known scripture passage heralding the birth of Jesus we see Mary receiving a message from God: “Rejoice you highly favoured. The Lord is with you.” Mary was, ‘deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean.’

We, too, are God’s highly favoured and the Lord is with us, for we are temples of the Holy Spirit.  The angel Gabriel comes to us in our opportunities to serve God.  Each one is given a message according to their talents. We may be asked to do something in our parish, school, place of work but as long as it is something that will bring forth love to our neighbour, it is a message from God, for God is love.

Lord, give me the courage to answer your call with the words, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord.’