Lady Day

Father of love
Through your most Holy Spirit
Mary, the Jewish girl conceived your Son
May his beauty, his humanity,
His all transforming graced be born in us
And may we never despise the strange and stirring gentleness
Of your almighty power. Amen

(NZ Prayer Book)

The Annunciation reminds us that it's nine months until the Nativity, and the cycle of creation is made afresh, even in the aridness of the Lenten desert there is new life, new hope, new beginnings.