OCIA Coordinators’ Update 12/13/2024
OCIA: Entrusting our Lives in Service of God’s Word
December 13, 2024
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The past Monday, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our OCIA members reflected on the day’s gospel, which recounts the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to a young virgin living in Nazareth, betrothed to a man named Joseph. She is startled and “greatly troubled” as she ponders the greeting: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
In his Angelus message on this Feast, Pope Francis describes Mary as “entirely at the service of the Word of God, always with the Lord, to whom she entrusts herself completely. In her, there is nothing that resists His will, nothing that opposes truth and charity.”
At our baptism, we are called children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord is with us in a unique way as the Body of Christ. Our vocation is to put our lives in service of the gospel. In what ways do our lives reflect the presence of Christ in us? Do we entrust our lives completely to God? Do we sometimes resist God’s will for us? How do we promote truth and charity?
Mary was conceived without sin and lived without sinning. She placed her complete trust in God’s will. She stood by Christ in his ministry leading up to his death on the cross and into his resurrected life. She gathered with the apostles as the Holy Spirit shook the upper room, just as the Angel’s message shook up her ordinary life in Nazareth. Her response is always: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Body and soul in heaven she sits beside Jesus, listens to our prayers and intercedes for us!
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Our unbaptized OCIA members are responding to God’s call to unite themselves with Christ through the saving waters of baptism. Our OCIA members, baptized in Protestant Churches, are seeking to join the fullness of Christ’s grace in the professing faith in the Roman Catholic Church. Our baptized Catholic OCIA members are seeking to complete their full initiation into the Church, so that strengthened by God’s Spirit, they may more fully reflect the presence of Christ in the world.
There is still time to join our OCIA journey toward the sacraments of Initiation into Christ and His Church this coming Easter. If you are unbaptized, baptized in another Christian Church or a baptized Catholic seeking Confirmation, the OCIA journey welcomes you.
For more information, please contact Ed Harasim, OCIA Coordinator, eharasim@clement.org or Fr. Brett Williams, bawilliams@clement.org
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