Churches of the Day

Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God - 

At the message of the Angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary received the Word of God in her heart and womb. Hence Mary is honoured as the Mother of God and the Redeemer, Jesus.

World Day of Peace
Today we also celebrate 'World Day of Peace' when we pray for justice and peace,
for each other and the whole world in the name of our God, our common Father.
FIRST READING

A reading from the book of Numbers             6:22-27
They are to call down my name on the sons of Israel and I will bless them.


The Lord spoke to Moses and said,
"This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel.
You shall say to them: ' Say this to Aaron and his sons:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace."

This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel,
and I will bless them.'

The Word of the Lord.              Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm           Ps 66:2-3, 5,m 6, 8
Response                               O God, be gracious and bless us.

1. God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth and all nations learn your saving help.     Response

2. Let the nations be glad and exult for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples. you guide the nations on earth.                          Response

3. Let the peoples praise you, 0 God; let all the peoples praise you.
May God still give us his blessing till the ends of the earth revere him.                     Response

SECOND READING         

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Galatians        4:4-7
God sent his son, born of a woman

When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman,
born a subject of the Law,  to redeem the subjects of the Law and
to enable us to be adopted as sons.

The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts:
the Spirit that cries, 'Abba, Father',
and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more;
and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.

The Word of the Lord.      Thanks be to God

Gospel  Acclamation    Heb 1: 1-2
Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in the past and in various different ways,
God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
Alleluia! 

GOSPEL                                         

The Lord be with you.                          And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke      2:16-21          Glory to you, O Lord
 They found Mary and Joseph and the baby... they gave him the name Jesus.


The shepherds hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say.

As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name 'Jesus', the name the angel had given him before his conception.

The Gospel of the Lord.         Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Gospel Reflection        January 1               Mary, the Holy Mother of God        Luke 2:16-21

I am very fond of that prayer of blessing at the beginning of today’s first reading. It is the blessing of Aaron over the people of Israel. It is a prayer of blessing any of us could pray for others, silently or aloud. That prayer of blessing contains a hope, a wish, for those for whom it is prayed. That hope came to be realized above all with the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph. It was then that 'the Lord God made his face to shine upon us and was gracious to us. It was then that he uncovered his face to us and brought us peace'. There are two references to the face of God in that blessing, ‘May the Lord let his face shine upon you… May the Lord uncover his face to you’. God let his face shine upon us and uncovered his face to us with the coming of Jesus.

It was a strongly held belief in the Jewish tradition that no one could see the face of God and live. Yet, God showed us his face through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was God with us, Emmanuel. As mother of Jesus, Mary was mother of God with us, mother of God. When we venerate Mary as mother of God, we are making a statement about her child, Jesus. He is God’s face made visible to us. It is by showing our face to one another than we become recognizable. In showing his face to us through Jesus, God has become recognizable. Jesus has revealed the face of God to be a face of love, a love that seeks out the lost, brings back the stray, suffers with those who suffer, brings new life out of death, a love that does not come to an end. There is much to ponder here. According to the gospel reading, Mary treasured all the things the shepherds said to her about her new born child and pondered them in her heart. God had given Mary much to ponder in calling her to be the mother of his Son, the mother of God. There is much to ponder here for all of us, as we contemplate the face of God in Jesus, Mary’s Son.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings  The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications  c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

Feast  of the Day: Jan 1st: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
At the Council of Ephesus (451), Mary, the mother of Jesus was proclaimed ' Mother of God' acknowledging the very Godhead of her Son, Jesus Christ.  Today's feast invites us to lay our hopes and plans for the new year under her motherly care and patronage.

In 431 the Council of Ephesus decreed that Mary is 'Theotokos' (literally "The God-Bearer") because her son Jesus is one person, who is both God and man, divine and human.

At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided not to add any new title to or make any new definition about Mary - for example, as "Mediatrix of all graces", as some of the more extreme Mariologists wanted at the time. Instead they went back to the tradition which saw Mary's greatness in her act of faith, by which she became "Mother of God",

Patrick Duffy explains.


The New Eve
At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided that, rather than defining any special doctrine about Mary, it would be more ecumenical to locate any statement about Mary within the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium ("On the Church") as a special chapter. In this way Mary is presented as the first and foremost of all believers, 'a New Eve', to reverse the trend to original sin begun by the first Eve.

'Lumen Gentium'
"The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the word of God in her heart and in her body... is acknowledged and honoured as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer.... Rightly, therefore, the Fathers see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience.... St Irenaeus says of her in his preaching: 'the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith'" (Lumen Gentium 53 and 56). and as the late Pope Francis described her  'Our Lady, looser of knots'.

Mother of the Church

The Roman Catholic church gets this Mary-exalting title of 'Mother of the church' primarily from the words of Jesus to John, as He hung from the cross: 'Behold your mother.'
St Pope Paul VI showed his solidarity with this position when he declared Mary, Mother of the Church (21-11-1964). And in his encyclical Marialis Cultus (1974) he stated: This celebration, assigned to 1st January in conformity with the ancient liturgy of Rome, is meant to commemorate the central part Mary played in the mystery of salvation.

Old year/New year
However, one has to acknowledge that today most people are thinking at this time about the end of the old year and the hopes they have for the new. And since the introduction of a Day of Prayer for World Peace, the liturgy of this day can seem a bit overloaded. So culturally this feast of the 'Theotokos' may not quite hit the mark or be given the prominence it deserves.

A Central Theme of our Faith

Catholics are proud to hold Mary's Motherhood of God as a central theme of their faith.

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Memorable Quotes about Mary and Ourselves

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much.
You can never love her more than Jesus did.”

~ St Maximilian Kolbe ~

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01-04 before Epiphany

Jesus has come to undo the work of the devil.

FIRST READING            

 A reading from the first letter of St John         3:7-10
He cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.

My children, do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as he is holy;
to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the beginning.
It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared.

No one who has been begotten by God sins; because God's seed remains inside him,
he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.
In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil:
anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God's.

The Word of the Lord          Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm      Ps 97
Response                            All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

1. Sing a new song to the Lord for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation.                                                                    Response

2. Let the sea and all within it, thunder; the world, and all its peoples.
Let the rivers clap their hands and the hills ring out their joy at the presence of the Lord.         Response

3. For the Lord comes, he comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.                                                     Response

Gospel  Acclamation          Jn 1:14.  12
Alleluia,    alleluia!
The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.
To all who received him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia! 

Or                                            Heb 1:1-2
Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in the past and in various different ways,
God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
Alleluia!     

GOSPEL                         

The Lord be with you.                        And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John     1:35-42          Glory to you, O Lord
We have found the Messiah.

As John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said,
'Look, there is the lamb of God'.

Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said,
'What do you want?'
They answered, 'Rabbi,' - which means Teacher -'where do you live?'
'Come and see' he replied;
so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.

One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.
Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah' - which means the Christ - and he took Simon to Jesus.
Jesus looked hard at him and said,
'You are Simon, son of John; you are to be called Cephas' - meaning Rock.

The Gospel of the Lord.              Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.


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Gospel Reflection          4th Jan.  before Epiphany,       John 1:35–42

In today’s gospel reading John the Baptist introduced two of his disciples to Jesus, saying to them, ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God’. It was because of what John the Baptist said to his two disciples that they began to follow Jesus. Jesus could then speak to them directly, ‘What do you want?’ ‘Come and see’. The Lord wants to speak to each one of us directly, but he often needs others to firstly pave the way. A person of faith takes some initiative towards us, and then we discover the call of the Lord for ourselves. John the Baptist created a space for Jesus to engage directly with his disciples and for them to respond. According to the gospel reading, that pattern then repeated itself. One of John the Baptist’s two disciples was Andrew. Having spent time with Jesus, having developed a personal relationship with Jesus, Andrew then introduced his brother Simon to Jesus. He created a space for Jesus to engage personally with Peter and for Peter to respond. What John the Baptist did for Andrew and what Andrew did for Peter, Peter would go on to do for many others.

He created a space for the Lord to relate in a very personal way to others and for them to respond. We can each give thanks for all those who introduced us to the Lord, who played the role in our lives that Andrew played in the life of Peter, that Peter played in the life of many others, and that, later on in John’s gospel, the Samaritan woman played in the life of her townspeople, and that Mary Magdalene played in the life of the other disciples on Easter Sunday morning. Both these women played a significant role in bringing others to the Lord. Each of us is called to bring others to the Lord, perhaps just one person. We don’t have to be great missionaries to introduce someone to the Lord. Very often our own quiet and faithful witness to the Lord and his way of life will, in time, bear that rich fruit for others.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings  2024: The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications , c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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