Friday, 19th December – Advent Year A. – ANNUNCIATION DAILY ROSARY REFLECTION

Friday, 19th December – Advent Year A.

Judges 13:2-7,24-25a/Ps.71:3-4a,5-6ab/Lk.1:5-25 Both the first reading and the gospel today are set within moments of divine encounter, moments when God breaks into ordinary human circumstances and transforms what appears impossible. In the first reading, the birth of Samson is announced by an angel to a woman who is barren. Her inability to conceive, a deep…

FR. PETER AKOMANYI

19th Dec 2025

2–3 minutes

Cardinal Sarah, Catholics in Ghana, ghanaweb.com, Nuncio USA, Pavone, Pontiff, Pope Leo

Judges 13:2-7,24-25a/Ps.71:3-4a,5-6ab/Lk.1:5-25

Both the first reading and the gospel today are set within moments of divine encounter, moments when God breaks into ordinary human circumstances and transforms what appears impossible. In the first reading, the birth of Samson is announced by an angel to a woman who is barren.

Her inability to conceive, a deep personal and social limitation, does not prevent God’s saving purpose from unfolding. When God enters the story, barrenness becomes fruitfulness, and weakness becomes the birthplace of divine strength.

The gospel presents another annunciation, this time in the Temple. Zechariah, a priest at prayer, stands before the Lord while the people outside are also praying.

It is within this atmosphere of prayer that God speaks unexpected good news through the angel Gabriel.

Though Zechariah and Elizabeth are advanced in years, Elizabeth will conceive and bear a son. Like Samson, this child, John, will be set apart by God and entrusted with a special mission: to prepare the way of the Lord.

Yet Zechariah struggles to believe what he hears.

The promise seems too wonderful, too far beyond the limits of human expectation. He asks for a sign, and in doing so, he himself becomes the sign.

His sudden inability to speak points to the fact that God has acted in a profound and mysterious way. God’s work often leaves us speechless, because it surpasses what our minds can grasp or our words can express.

The pattern is clear in both readings: when God enters human history, barriers no longer define the future. Age, barrenness, weakness, and limitation cannot confine God’s purpose.

Saint Paul gives voice to this truth when he speaks of being caught up into Paradise, an experience so deep that words failed him.

Elsewhere he reminds us that God’s power at work within us can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

Advent invites us to live with this holy expectancy. Even when our circumstances appear closed, God is still at work. Even when hope seems fragile, God is already preparing new life.

Like Zechariah, we may not always understand what God is doing, but like the barren women of today’s readings, we are reminded that no situation is beyond God’s transforming presence.

This awareness sustains us in difficult times and keeps hope alive in our hearts. With the psalmist, we can confidently pray:

“It is you, O Lord, who are my hope.”

Author

Written by

FR. PETER AKOMANYI

Rev. Fr. Peter Akomanyi Tawiah is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Damongo. Savannah Region – Ghana, West – Africa. I was ordained a priest on 11th June,2022 at St. Anne’s Cathedral, Damongo by Most Rev. Peter Paul Y. Angkyier, Catholic Bishop of Damongo. My first assignment as a Parochial Vicar is St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Lingbinsi – Daboya. Much of my ministry is spent in serving most especially the deep rural stations of the parish, the poor and vulnerable, promoting devotion to praying the Holy Rosary, the Youth and those interested in becoming Catholic through the sacrament of Christian Initiation. My zeal for such an area of primary evangelization, is to ensure the spreading of the Word of God to a people who are still largely not Christianized. So I consider the work of evangelization and promotion of human development as my main call to mission in this part of the country (Lingbinsi – Daboya, Ghana ).