Mary, Mother of God, Solemnity
- St. Giuseppe Maria Tomasi Cardinal C.R. (1649-1713)
- St. Zygmunt Gorazdowski priest and founder (1845-1920)
- Saint of the day
First Reading
They shall invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.
From the Book of Numbers
Nm 6:22-27
The Lord said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: ‘This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.’
So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
The Word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
From Ps 67
R. May God bless us in his mercy.
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation. R.
May the nations be glad and exult,
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide. R.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him! R.
Second Reading
God sent his Son, born of a woman.
From the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians
Gal 4:4-7
Brothers and sisters: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As proof that you are sons, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son. (Heb 1:1-2)
Alleluia.
Gospel of the Day – January 1, 2026
The shepherds found Mary and Joseph and the infant. When eight days were completed, he was named Jesus.
From the Gospel according to Luke
Lk 2:16-21
The shepherds went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
The Gospel of the Lord.
The Creed is said.
Blessed Guerric of Igny (ca 1080-1157)
Cistercian Abbot
Sermon 1 for the Assumption (transl. cb@evangelizo)
Like children in their mother’s arms…
If the Apostle, a servant of Christ, continues to bring children into the world with solicitude and ardent desire until Christ be formed in them (cf. Gal 4:19), how much more true is this for the mother of Christ! Paul generated them by preaching the word that regenerated them; Mary did so in a far more holy and divine way by generating the Word within herself. I praise in Paul the mystery of preaching, but I admire and venerate more in Mary the mystery of generation. See if, on their part, the children recognize their mother. Driven by a kind of natural instinct given by faith, they spontaneously and irresistibly turn to the invocation of her name in every need and in all dangers, as children throw themselves into their mother’s arms. Thus, I do not think it absurd to believe that it is precisely of these children that the prophet speaks when he makes the following promise: “Your children shall dwell in you” (Is 62:5; LXX); without losing sight of the fact that this prophecy applies primarily to the Church. For already we dwell under the protection of the Mother of the Most High; we rest under her protection and as if in the shadow of her wings. Later we will share her glory, and be as if warmed in her bosom. Then the unanimous cry of the children acclaiming their mother will resound: “All we who are in joy, our dwelling is in you” (cf. Ps 87:7 LXX).
THE WORDS OF THE POPES
By being born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary as Man, God-the-Word accepts time. He enters into history. He submits to the law of the human flow. He closes the past: with Him the time of waiting, that is, the old covenant, ends. He opens the future: the new covenant of grace and reconciliation with God. He is the new “Beginning” of the new time. Every new year participates in this Beginning. It is the year of the Lord. (…) Today the Church particularly venerates the Motherhood of Mary. This is like a final message of the octave of Christmas. Birth always speaks of the Mother, of her who gives life, of her who gives man to the world. The first day of the new year is the Mother’s Day. We see her then – as in so many paintings and sculptures – with the Child in her arms, with the Child at her breast. Mother, she who generated and nourished the Son of God. Mother of Christ. There is no image more known and that speaks more simply of the mystery of the birth of the Lord than that of the Mother with Jesus in her arms. Is not this image the source of our singular trust? Is it not precisely she who allows us to live in the circle of all the mysteries of our faith, and, contemplating them as “divine,” consider them at the same time so “human”? (Saint John Paul II, Homily at Holy Mass on the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God, January 1, 1979)
