{"id":4125,"date":"2015-03-25T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/03\/the-annunciation\/"},"modified":"2015-03-25T07:15:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T06:15:00","slug":"the-annunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2015\/03\/the-annunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Annunc.14th.cent\"<\/a>The First and Indispensable School of Holy Preaching<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading this sermon of Pope Saint Leo the Great, given for Matins of today’s feast in the monastic breviary, I am struck both by its poetic beauty and theological precision. The Fathers are, for all who are called to announce the Word of God in the midst of the Church, the first and indispensable school of holy preaching. While academic courses in homiletics may have their place in seminaries, and while certain technical skills must be acquired if one is to speak well, nothing, absolutely nothing can replace the familiarity with the Fathers that comes from reading them aloud day in and day out, as the Church does at Matins (Vigils), and from allowing their words to strike the ear of the heart.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the time appointed for the redemption of mankind had come,
\nour Lord Jesus Christ entered this lower world,
\ndescended from His heavenly throne, and,
\nwithout receding from the glory that He had with the Father,
\ntook flesh by a new means, by a new birth:
\ninvisible in His own nature,
\nHe became visible in ours;
\nbeing incomprehensible,
\nHe willed to be comprehended;
\nremaining before time began,
\nHe began to exist in time;
\nthe Lord of the universe veiled the glory of His majesty
\nand took the form of a servant;
\nimpassible God
\ndid not disdain to become a suffering man;
\nand immortal God
\nsubjected Himself to the laws of death.<\/p>\n

(Saint Leo the Great
\nSermon at the Second Nocturn of Matins
\nFeast of the Annunciation)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First and Indispensable School of Holy Preaching Reading this sermon of Pope Saint Leo the Great, given for Matins of today’s feast in the monastic breviary, I am struck both by its poetic beauty and theological precision. The Fathers are, for all who are called to announce the Word of God in the midst <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessed-virgin-mary","category-florilegium-patristicum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-14x","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9728,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions\/9728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}