Liturgical Readings for : Monday, 7th October, 2024
Monday of the Twenty Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
A cry to all to pray the ‘rosary’
FIRST READING
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 1:12-14
These joined in continuous prayer, together with Mary the mother of Jesus.
After Jesus ascended, the apostles went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James.
All these joined in continuous prayer, together with several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1 :46-55 Rv 49
Response The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name!
1. My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my saviour. Response
2. He looks on his servant in her nothingness; henceforth all ages will call me blessed.
The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy his name! Response
3. His mercy is from age to age, on those who fear him.
He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud-hearted. Response
4. He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.
He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty. Response
5. He protects Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy,
the mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons for ever. Response
Gospel Acclamation Lk 1: 2
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women.
Alleluia
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 1: 26-38 Glory to you, O Lord.
You are to conceive and bear a son.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her,
‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’
She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her,
‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David;
he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’
Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?‘
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’, the angel answered, ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.
Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God’
‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection Oct 7th, Our Lady of the Rosary Luke 1:26-38
The great Marian prayer of the Rosary is sometimes traced back to Saint Dominic and his companions who preached against the Albigensian heresy in the thirteenth century. However, it seems more likely to have taken its present familiar form some centuries later. The structure of the Rosary evolved between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. During the sixteenth century, the structure of the five-decade rosary based on the three sets of mysteries prevailed. Since then it has become a much loved prayer of believers in every generation. The Rosary has been described as the gospel on its knees. The fifteen decades, or twenty decades if we include the Mysteries of Light introduced by Pope John Paul II, are an invitation to reflect on the great mysteries of the Lord’s life, passion, death, resurrection and glorification, and on the role of Mary within those great mysteries.
Two of these mysteries feature in the two readings for this Memorial, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and Mary in the first reading and the annunciation to Mary in the gospel reading. Both readings feature the Holy Spirit, the first reading implicitly. It was through the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mary that she brought her son, who is also God’s Son, into the world. It was through the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the first disciples, including Mary, that they were empowered to proclaim the gospel of Christ crucified and risen, beginning in Jerusalem and extending to the ends of the earth. In the first reading the disciples and Mary were in continuous prayer before the coming of the Spirit. Prayer opens us up to receive the Spirit afresh into our lives. In praying the Rosary, we are opening our hearts to the coming of the Holy Spirit, through whose power we can continue to bring the Lord to others. In that sense, the praying of the Rosary can be our own Annunciation and Pentecost moments.
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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
