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Happy Feast of the Annunciation!

At this point, you might have two questions.

1. What's the Annunciation?
2. Is it really today?

Answers:

1. The Annunciation is that yearly festival of the remembrance of Gabriel's announcement that Mary is pregnant with God's son.
2. Well, not really, and herein lies some controversy. Mary, a human mother, carries her child for nine months (before Christmas, that is). In the liturgical calendar, however, a feast that normally falls on a Sunday (25 Mar 2007) is transferred to the next available day (26 Mar 2007).

This has ramifications for Christmas 2007. Will the liturgical Jesus, born on that day, actually be one day premature? Does he have the efficacy of a Jesus fully developed in utero?

A connection might be made here with the 2006 film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby in which the central character, Ricky Bobby, has a liturgical preoccupation with "little baby Jesus", to whom he addresses prayer.

What does fictional NASCAR sensation Ricky Bobby reveal about American culture? Do we, in fact, desire to pray to a younger Jesus? Do we desire a underdeveloped Jesus to kill and resurrect?

Does the shortening of Jesus' pre-natal period indicate the creeping liberalism of the Episcopal Church through deviously devised deviations of the Ordo?

There are also vague liturgitheological questions that arise. How soon after Mary's divine impregnation is Gabriel made aware of the event? Is it responsible for him to delay the announcement (see all Jesus' teachings about just going ahead and doing stuff on the Sabbath anyway, i.e., not "transferring")?

Labels: Annunciation, liturgy