“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end."
Luke 1:30-33
"Let Gabriel’s word be held in your mind, for nothing is impossible to his glorious Majesty, who humbled Himself for us and was born of our humanity. God assumed smallness in her, without diminishing His nature, to make us great."
Ephrem of Edessa, (306-373)
“The Church Fathers were fond of exploring the relationship between Eve, mother of all the living, and the new Eve, Mary the Mother of God. Where Eve grasped and lost, Mary surrendered and received; where Eve said no to the alluring mystery, Mary said yes.”
Robert Barron
"God has prepared for Himself one great song of praise throughout eternity, and those who enter the community of God join in this song. It is the song that the 'morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy' at the creation of the world. It is the victory song of the children of Israel after passing through the Red Sea, the Magnificat of Mary after the annunciation, the song of Paul and Silas in the night of prison, 'the song of Moses servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.' It is the song of the heavenly fellowship.
God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs His wonders where one would least expect them.
In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.
Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horror? I've seen something wondrous peering through my joy in the beautiful, a sense of its creator. Only people can be truly ugly, because they have free will to separate themselves from this song of praise.
It often seems they will drown out this hymn with cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy. But I have realized they will not succeed. And so I want to throw myself on the side of the victor.”
Sophie Scholl
Stocks were weakly trading today, perhaps digesting their recent gains from the other day.
Gold and silver were off a bit, perhaps for the same reason.
The Dollar chopped sideways and finished essentially unchanged.
Next week should provide a challenge for the precious metals, given our recent experience.
On Monday we have a Comex option expiration for the April futures contracts for gold and silver.
And on Friday we will be seeing the Non-Farm Payrolls Report for March.
In the background we still have a simmering geo-political stew that could boil over at any time.
The ascent of selfishness and pride causes many to turn away from the faith. And false prophets appear, and deceive many. And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many grows cold.
But his kingdom will not end, and the darkness will not prevail.
So let's see what happens.
Have a pleasant weekend.
