Skip to main content

Don't be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son



 Zacarías en el templo
Gospel text (Lc 1,5-25): In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah, belonging to the priestly clan of Abiah. Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife, also belonged to a priestly family. Both of them were upright in the eyes of God and lived blamelessly in accordance with all the laws and commands of the Lord, but they had no child. Elizabeth could not have any and now they were both very old.
Now, while Zechariah and those with him were fulfilling their office, it fell to him by lot, according to the custom of the priests, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the time of offering incense all the people were praying outside; it was then that an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. On seeing the angel, Zechariah was deeply troubled and fear took hold of him. But the angel said to him, «Don't be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall name him John. He will bring joy and gladness to you and many will rejoice at his birth. This son of yours will be great in the eyes of the Lord. Listen: he shall never drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. Through him many of the people of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. He himself will open the way to the Lord with the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah; he will reconcile fathers and children, and lead the disobedient to wisdom and righteousness, in order to make ready for the Lord a people prepared».
Zechariah said to the angel, «How can I believe this? I am an old man and my wife is elderly, too». The angel replied, «I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and I am the one sent to speak to you and bring you this good news! My words will come true in their time. But you would not believe and now you will be silent and unable to speak until this has happened».
Meanwhile the people waited for Zechariah, and they were surprised that he delayed so long in the sanctuary. When he finally appeared, he could not speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He remained dumb and made signs to them. When his time of service was completed, Zechariah returned home and some time later Elizabeth became pregnant. For five months she kept to herself, remaining at home, and thinking, «What is the Lord doing for me! This is his time for mercy and for taking away my public disgrace».

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  A note to Helena Jaczek, MP from Markham. There must be serious worries that an election will happen very soon rather than later. Thanks God for His infinite mercy. Our people is suffering long enough under the yoke of the Liberal/NDP coalition. Since all the destruction you fostered and promoted, yes, you included. Or you think for a moment we are going to see you somewhere outside the circle of death that suffocates Canada?  Oh! But you are focused on Ukraine, and the pandemic ad what else, of course, the climate change, all of which are secondary to the freedom the people needs to enjoy, because God created us all, each and everyone of us free, with free will and with the ability to think, grow and prosper on our own, all suppressed by your government. Have you ever for a moment stopped to think about the suffering of the people?  Now you want to display yourself as a hard working individual ready to work… Is not that a bit, no, a lot, hypocritical? Oops. Are you off...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts about fear and faith

  Heretic heralds or heralds of the heretic. What is it? How did we get here? Somehow at some point in relative recent history, the world has been transformed to be a vehicle of fear. Fear has been instituted as the motive of human existence. Forgetting what we are and where we proceed from, and even the truth, the foundation of justice, we’ve been transformed onto irrational animals following ignorance, deception and confusion, stampeding at the existence of any noise, anyone whom without concept or science behind, just tell us to go to destruction and we obey, without questioning or even thinking or reflexion.  God, the one and only living One, our creator, to His image and likeness, since day one, when man ad woman were created, has been looking for us, individually and as a group, always revealing to us, putting before us evidence with clarity. And we have just drifted away from Him pushed or inspired by our own selfishness and ambitions, our greed, since that time describ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife

Gospel text ( Mathew 1,16.18-21.24a): Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus who is called the Christ ­—the Messiah. This is how Jesus Christ was born. Mary his mother had been given to Joseph in marriage but before they lived together, she was found to be preg­nant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her. While he was pondering over this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, «Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a son. You shall call him “Jesus” for he will save his people from their sins». When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do and he took his wife to his home.
Post a Comment
Read more