The Church’s prayer today
United States Roman Calendar · Year B → Year C at Advent · Cycle I. Liturgical color: violet.
Scripture for the liturgy
Dt 30:15-20/Lk 9:22-25 (220)
These references follow the annual calendar, including permitted reading choices. Optional memorials ordinarily retain the weekday readings. Daily reading pages for this future year may not yet be published. Use these references with the USCCB Bible, or open the annual calendar.
The seasonal Mass remains primary. A saint’s Collect may be used as permitted by GIRM 355(a).
Permitted observances today
- Our Lady of LourdesCommemorationSeasonal commemoration: the saint’s Collect may be used; the seasonal day retains precedence.
Enter the Marian mystery
Our Lady of Lourdes
At Lourdes, turn to the Immaculate Mother with the childlike confidence Saint Louis de Montfort describes.
Read the teaching, meditation, and prayer →Contemplate with Mary
And in having recourse to Mary, it will be best to beg her to ask for us, and to obtain for us those graces which she knows to be most expedient for our salvation.
Make this prayer your own
O SORROWFUL Virgin, O soul great in virtues and great also in sorrows, since both these and those spring from that great fire of love which you bear to God, while your heart can love nothing but God: Ah Mother, have pity on me, who have not loved God, and have so greatly offended him. Your sorrows give me great confidence to hope for pardon. But this is not enough for me: I wish to love my Lord; and who else can better obtain this for me than you, who are the Mother of fair love? Ah Mary, you console all; console me too. Amen.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori · The Glories of Mary · The Sixth Sorrow, prayerOne faithful act
Use the prayer of offering to entrust the sick to Jesus through Mary.
Pray for the sickCalendar 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.