The Church’s prayer today
United States Roman Calendar · Year A → Year B at Advent · Cycle II. Liturgical color: violet.
Scripture for the liturgy
Ez 47:1-9, 12/Jn 5:1-16 (245)
These references follow the annual calendar, including permitted reading choices. Optional memorials ordinarily retain the weekday readings. The linked daily readings also include the responsorial psalm.
The seasonal Mass remains primary. A saint’s Collect may be used as permitted by GIRM 355(a).
Permitted observances today
- Saint Patrick, BishopCommemorationSeasonal commemoration: the saint’s Collect may be used; the seasonal day retains precedence.
Tender devotion and a child’s confidence
Secondly, it is tender, that is to say, full of confidence in the Most Blessed Virgin, like a child’s confidence in its good mother. It causes a soul to have recourse to her in all its needs of body and mind with great simplicity, confidence, and tenderness; it implores the aid of its good Mother at all times, in all places, and in all things: in its doubts, to be enlightened; in its strayings, to be set right; in its temptations, to be upheld; in its weaknesses, to be strengthened; in its falls, to be raised up; in its discouragements, to be heartened; in its scruples, to be freed of them; in its crosses, toils, and adversities of life, to be consoled. Finally, in all its ills of body and mind, Mary is its ordinary recourse, without fear of importuning this good Mother or of displeasing Jesus Christ.
Make this prayer your own
Permit me, then, to say to you: my mother, my most amiable mother. So I call you, and so I will always call you. You, after God, are to be always my hope, my refuge, and my love in this valley of tears.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori · The Glories of Mary · Mary Our Mother, prayer (excerpt)One faithful act
Have recourse to Mary in your needs with simplicity and confidence.
Pray with your MotherCalendar scope and local observance
Dates, ranks, and reading references follow the official calendar for the dioceses of the United States, with Ascension on Sunday. Diocesan, parish, patronal, and religious-family calendars may differ. Consult your parish for Mass schedules and obligations. The Marian meditation is a devotional aid accompanying the day.