From: "Traudel" 

March 24th - St. Gabriel Archangel

In the New Testament the only two mentions of St. Gabriel are the foretelling to
Zachary of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and the Annunciation reported by
St. Luke (1:26-28). He was delegated by God to deliver that magnificent message
to Our Lady.

We can have an idea of this Archangel by considering the character of the task
he received. For there is a relation between the nature and virtue of the Angel
and the mission he receives from God. Through one thing we can conjecture the
other.

Gabriel means fortitudo Dei, the power of God. What was the essence of the
message he delivered to Our Lady? It affirmed various things:

First, he announced the Incarnation of the Word, therefore, the greatest act of
power and decision that God exercised over the world. For when the Word
took human flesh, this event prepared the way for the Redemption of
humankind, which
signified its rescue from Original Sin. That is, the Word was King of Creation
by right, and from the moment of Redemption on, He was also its King by
conquest. St. Gabriel, therefore, is the one who announced this victory
over the
Devil and the salvation of the fallen human race. He was the herald who
went before the victorious King announcing His arrival, His victory, and
His kingdom.

Second, he is the devotee of Mary par excellence. He was the one who first
greeted her with the Hail Mary - Ave Maria. More than that, he was the one
who
revealed to Our Lady who she was. Until that moment, according the good
interpretations that I know, Our Lady did not know that she was to be the
mother
of the Messiah. She was praying for the coming of the Messiah and had a
premonition that this would happen in her days. So, she asked to be the
servant
of the mother of the Messiah. This was her great desire.

It was St. Gabriel who revealed to her that she and no one else would be
the Mother of God. He made her understand the reason for the rivers of
precious graces she had continuously received. It was he who made her
comprehend the depth of the sanctity she was called to have and to
understand her own mission.

He was a kind of prophet who showed her the life she should live and the path
she should tread. He revealed Mary to Mary.

Doing this he rendered her the best service any creature could offer. It was an
act of supreme nobility that God commanded St. Gabriel to carry out. In
fulfilling it, a special link was established between the two; he is a
great devotee of Our Lady, and has a special union with her. This is
another aspect of
the personality of St. Gabriel.

Third, we can also consider the essential purity of the message he delivered.
There is no message so chaste as the one that announced the virginal maternity
of Mary. It indicated that the God's love of purity was so great that He desired
to preserve her immaculate virginity. He determined that Our Lord Jesus Christ
should be conceived without the concurrence of man, making her the Spouse of the
Holy Ghost.

We see in St. Gabriel, then, an Angel who is a special protector of purity. If
one of us were to see him, we would feel inspired in our will and sensibility to
acquire a most eminent purity.

So, we can turn to St. Gabriel and pray to him on his feast day, March 24, which
the Church had the delicacy to put on the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation.

Considering that St. Gabriel announced to Our Lady - and through her to all
humankind - the coming of the Messiah, the victory Christ would win over
the Devil, and the establishment of His Reign on earth, today we can ask
him for the
coming of the Reign of Mary.

The situation of our days is such that in many regards it is worse than the
situation of the world prior to the event of the Annunciation. Therefore,
we can
ask Our Lord and Our Lady through St. Gabriel to come and re-conquer, to put an
end to this period of darkness, and through Mary, to establish the Kingdom of
Christ. Our Lord who closed that period of History in the past can now open a
new one. Jesus Christ is the one who has the key that opens and closes, as the
Apocalypse affirms. Let us pray to St. Gabriel that he come to announce this now.

We should also ask him for a super-abundant devotion to Our Lady, a
devotion that increases everyday until our last breath.

Finally, we should ask St. Gabriel for a most ardent and intransigent love of
purity; that is to say, a militant love of purity, with a correspondent horror
for any type of impurity.

By the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)



Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself.  (Matthew 16:24)

"Make it your constant effort to mortify and trample underfoot your own will, to
such a degree as not to satisfy it in anything, if It be possible. Be careful,
therefore, to desire and rejoice that it may be often crossed; and when you see
anyone oppose it either in temporal or spiritual things, follow his will rather
than your own, if only his be good, even though your own be better. For,
contending with another, by lessening your humility, tranquillity, and
peace,
will always inflict upon you a loss greater than the advantage brought by any
exercise of virtue performed through your own will, in opposition to
another's" -St. Vincent Ferrer

St. Catherine of Genoa practiced this. She loved to submit her preference
to that of others, in all things; and if a wish to pursue any course arose
in her
own mind, it was sufficient to make her avoid it.

 When Father Thomas Sanchez would go to his Superiors to make a request, he
used
first to ask God, if it might be according to His pleasure, to move their hearts
to refuse it.

(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  March - Mortification)

Bible Quote
14 Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
15 And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters, having never
learned? 16 Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but his that
sent me. (John 7:14-16)



The first glorious mystery prayer of the Eucharistic Rosary, to be offered
before the Blessed Sacrament:

The Resurrection of Our Lord, offered for Faith, Hope, and Charity:

O Christ Jesus!  Thou comest forth glorious from the tomb, victorious over
all infernal powers; henceforth sufferings and death have lost their empire
over Thy glorious humanity. What a consolation for us to know that, though
confined to the humble condition of Thy sacrament, Thou art in full
possession of the life, joy, and glory of Thy resurrection!

We adore Thee, O immortal King of ages, and we beg of Thee, through the
intercession of Thy holy Mother a lively and loving faith in Thy real and
life-giving presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag