Lady Day: Sunday 25th March 2018

Once upon a time – before the 6^th century, and again between 1155 and 1752 to be exact – today was New Year's Day! But instead of wishing you a Happy New Year, I'll remind you that, nine months from today it'll be Christmas Day. And no, this isn't a prompt to start planning, let alone shopping! But it is a day marked by Christian churches in commemoration of Jesus' conception – whenever and however that actually was. And that conception involves two 'awesome' things: the fact of incarnation in the person of Jesus, fully human, fully divine; and, necessary for that to happen, the 'yes' of Mary.

The story goes that Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, God's messenger, a spiritual being, one of only two named angels in the Bible (the other is Michael), who stand 'in the presence of the Lord' (Luke 1.19).

For those of us who have been sceptical about the existence of angels, it's worth noting that they make appearances several times in the New Testament:

• Gabriel visits Zechariah (father of John, the Baptist) as well as Mary;
• Joseph is twice visited by angels – regarding his marriage to Mary, and to warn him to flee from Herod;
• angels appear to the shepherds at the time of Jesus' birth;
• an angel ministers to Jesus after his temptation by the devil, and again to strengthen him in the Garden of Gethsemane;
• an angel stirs the waters of the pool of Bethesda, to enable healing;
• there are angels at the empty tomb where Jesus was laid;
• an angel frees the apostles from prison in Jerusalem;
• and finally angels appears to Cornelius, to Peter in prison in Joppa, and to Paul, at sea on one of his missionary voyages.

There are lots of other references to angels throughout the Bible, including Jesus being quoted as saying: '

'Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven'

(Matthew 18.10).

Whether you sense the presence of angels or not, you might like to celebrate this feast day either with an angel food cake (perhaps baked in a circular bundt or savarin cake tin, as a sign of the circle of the year?) or the classic British Angel Cake: pink, yellow, and plain sponge, sandwiched together with buttercream. Yum. If you're of a Swedish persuasion, make waffles – today is also Vaffeldagen!