Meditation on the Feast of the Annunciation by Fr. Gordon MacRae

March 25 

- Written By Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

March 25, Solemnity of the Annunciation

The Gospel of Saint Luke opens with a news flash from the Archangel Gabriel for Zechariah the priest, and Mary — Theotokos — the new Ark of the Covenant. On the 25th day of March, the Church remembers the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary marking a pivotal event in Salvation History. The account is conveyed to us in the first chapter of the Gospel According to Saint Luke, a Gentile physician and a companion of the Apostle Paul. Several of the Fathers of the Early Church attribute the Third Gospel to Saint Luke and affirm his authorship of it. I once wrote of this unique Gospel in “Saint Luke the Evangelist, Dear and Glorious PhysicianThis Gospel reveals many facets of the life and mission of Jesus, but foremost among them is its universal message of Salvation. Luke, despite being a Gentile, anchors his Gospel in the traditions of the earlier Covenant, the Old Testament, portraying Jesus as the Savior and Redeemer of God’s Old Covenant people. He thus presents Jesus in history as one foretold by the Prophets (Isaiah 11:10-12, 49:6, and Ezekiel 39:25-29). Luke thus depicts Jesus as the Royal Messiah in the line and legacy of King David to reunite the scattered tribes of Israel and gather them into one nation. Given that he is the only Gentile Evangelist, that is an amazing feat through which Luke has prepared an artistic and spiritual masterpiece.                             [Read the rest at Beyond These Stone Walls.]

Muhammad's Night Journey to the Jewish Temple Mount

Part 1 – Muhammad’s Night Journey to the Jewish Temple Mount

Muhammad's Flight Plan

Twelve years after Muhammad became a prophet he said that he was physically transported through the sky 775 miles from Mecca to Jerusalem and back again in one night on his winged steed, Al-Borak. [Likewise, when I was a child, I believed that there was a man with a beard who could travel right around the world in one night on a sleigh pulled by magic reindeer.]

This particular story of Muhammad’s Night Journey (Lailat-al-Miraj) is taken from The Life of Mohamet written in 1697 by Humphrey Prideaux and reprinted in 1808. Undeniably the older a book written about Islam the more clear the information since it would have been written closer in time to actual events and during an era when no political correctness existed. This book was typeset in old English therefore the following is “translated” into more readable English for ease of understanding.

Who is Muhammad's Angel Gabriel?

The Angel of Peace - Fatima

The Story of Muhammad 

and Gabriel the Genie

Could those who blindly follow Muhammad as their heaven-sent prophet and leader and adhere to Islam as the one divinely revealed religion and the only true way to salvation possibly be deceived by Satan?

City Journal, Spring 2004, published an article by Theodore Dalrymple, titled When Islam Breaks Down. Dalrymple said, “No Muslim in an Islamic society would dare to suggest that the Koran was not divinely dictated through the mouth of the Prophet but rather was a compilation of a charismatic man’s words, and incorporating, with no very great originality, Judaic, Christian, and Zoroastrian elements.”

To be sure, Muslims believe that the Koran is of divine origin, eternal and co-existing in the very essence of Allah and is his sacred and direct word dictated in Arabic by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad, containing Islamic revelations and doctrine. They believe that through Muhammad’s visions of the Archangel Gabriel, the Koran was revealed by installments, some at Mecca and some at Medina, over the span of twenty-three years. As the words flowed from Gabriel to the inspired lips of the Prophet Muhammad, they were written down upon palm leaves, leather or wood by his secretaries Zeid and Abdullah.