Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 1:1-5 The Kinds of Monks
Mass: Micah 5:1-4a or Rom 8:28-30; Resp Ps 13; Mt 1:1-16, 18-23

With delight I rejoice in the Lord.

LET US JOYFULLY CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF BLESSED MARY SO THAT SHE MAY INTERCEDE FOR US BEFORE JESUS CHRIST THE LORD.
(Liturgy of the Hours, Morning Prayer)

Our reading at the celebration of Vigils, from Walter Kasper, Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life.

Among all creatures, Mary embodies the gospel of divine mercy most purely and most beautifully. She is the purest creaturely representation of God's mercy and the mirror of what is the heart and sum of the Gospel. She radiates the total congeniality of divine mercy and displays the splendor and the all-transforming beauty that descends upon the world from God's gracious mercy. Precisely in the face of today's often austere living conditions and the often very flat or trite understanding of life, Mary can, therefore, be an archetype and shining model for a new culture of mercy. She can be that for the life of every Christian, for the church and its renewal on the basis of the idea of mercy, and, ultimately, for the construction of a culture of mercy in our society. Thus we can rightly describe Mary as the archetype and exemplar of a renewed Christian culture and spirituality of mercy.

OF HER WAS BORN JESUS WHO IS CALLED THE CHIRST.

(Mt 1:16)

Today's photo: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.

© Gertrude Feick 2020