The Church’s prayer today
United States Roman Calendar · Year A → Year B at Advent · Cycle II. Liturgical color: green.
Scripture for the liturgy
1 Kgs 17:7-16/Mt 5:13-16 (360)
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.
Permitted observances today
- Saint Ephrem, Deacon and Doctor of the ChurchOptional Memorial · white
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.
Hear a saint remembered today
The bosom of Mary amazes me, that it sufficed for Thee, Lord, and embraced Thee.—All creation were too small, to conceal Thy Majesty;—Heaven and earth too narrow, to be in the likeness of wings, to cover Thy Godhead.—Too small for Thee was the bosom of earth; great enough for Thee was the bosom of Mary.—He dwelt in the bosom and healed in her bosom.
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.