Ordinary TimeMemorial

The Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Today the Church keeps a memorial of holy witnesses to Christ. Remembering the saints gives thanks for His grace at work in human lives and asks their intercession for our own fidelity. Hear the Word of God, offer the duties of your vocation, and ask Mary to form in you the generous love that bears fruit in holiness.

Keep this day with Mary

The Church’s prayer today

United States Roman Calendar · Year C → Year A at Advent · Cycle II. Liturgical color: red.

Scripture for the liturgy

2 Thes 2:1-3a, 14-17 (426)/Mk 6:17-29 (634)

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.

Tender devotion and a child’s confidence

Confidence · Read with the saints

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.

St. Louis de Montfort · True Devotion §107 · excerpt

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 Mother
Calendar 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.

Sources for this teaching