Tag Archive for ‘Mary’
Monday 22nd April
Easter Octave Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; Matthew 28:8-15 Filled with awe We can starve ourselves from awe. When we do, we fall into believing that it is all up to us; our days then increase in heaviness and drudgery. Our schedules demand, and every crisis we hear about overwhelms us. At such times it […]
Tuesday 1 January
SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 66 (67):2-3, 5, 6 ,8; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 New Year We begin our New Year honouring Mary, the Mother of God. We praise God for creating Mary and giving her her vocation. We thank Mary for her generous response to God. We ask Mary’s help […]
Sunday 30 December
The holy family 1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28; Psalm 83 (84):2-3, 5-6, 9-10; 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24; Luke 2:41-52 Mary’s song Mary’s reference to ‘generation after generation’ and the promise ‘made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants’ includes the land. She walks on the land promised to her ancestors. Her pregnant body is sustained […]
Saturday 22 December
Samuel 1:24-28; (Responsorial): 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8; Luke 1:46-56 Mary’s whole person In Mary’s song of praise almost every line is patterned on Hannah’s canticle (1 Samuel 2:1-10). Mary’s opening words are translated usually as: ‘My soul (psychē) magnifies the Lord, and my spirit (pneuma) rejoices …’ The Greek psychē, like the Hebrew word it […]
Friday 21 December
Song of Songs 2:8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18; Psalm 32 (33):2-3, 11-12, 20-21; Luke 1:39-45 In their bodiliness When she heard Mary’s greeting, the Spirit-filled Elizabeth offers the first of the many blessings in this gospel. She blesses Mary in her own person first, in her own right, and then after that blesses the fruit of […]
Thursday 20 December
Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 23 (24):1-6; Luke 1:26-38 Consent illumined her More often than not we are told of Mary’s seemingly meek obedience to the request of God made through the angel. Denise Levertov in her poem, ‘The Annunciation’ highlights her courage. Mary did not cry out ‘I can’t,’ or ‘I am not worthy,’ or ‘I […]
Tuesday 18 December
Jeremiah 23:5-8; Psalm 71 (72):1-2, 12-13, 18-19; Matthew 1:18-24 Emmanuel ‘God with us’ The name Emmanuel, ‘God with us,’ is given to Jesus during the crisis Joseph experienced when he discovered that Mary, to whom he was betrothed, was pregnant. Immediately before this (Matthew 1:1-17), a look at a sample of her child’s ancestors uncovers […]
A Christmas Story … Emmanuel — God-With-Us
In 1994 in Moscow two missionaries told the story of Christmas to a group of children in an orphanage. They had been abused and abandoned, and they had never before heard the story that we have just heard again in our readings. The children were entranced, some of them sitting on the edges of their […]
No Room at the Inn
The children were talking in class about the birth of Jesus. What did the angels look like? How many animals were in the stable? The only negative character in the story was the landlord of the inn. “He was mean!” a boy said. Really? I wondered why the world’s most beautiful story had to have […]
Mary’s Month
I have never been convinced by the claim of northern hemisphere Catholics that “May is Mary’s Month.” I have never been convinced by explanations that try to attach Christian meanings to non-Christian customs and festivals. I prefer to follow the liturgical year and the church calendar that have been set out for us in the […]
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