FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Genesis 3:9-15, 20
After Adam had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called him and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me – she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it. “The LORD God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between you offspring and hers; He will stride at you head, while you strike at his heel.” The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.
The word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7
R/. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
His foundation upon the holy mountains
the LORD loves:
The gates of Zion,
more than any dwelling of Jacob. R/.
Glorious thing are told of you,
O city of God!
And of Zion they shall say:
“One and all were born in her;
And he who has established her
is the Most High LORD.” R/.
R/. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
They shall note, when the people are
enrolled:
“This man was born there.”
And all shall sing, in their festive dance;
“My home is within you.” R/.
ALLELUIA
Alleluia. Happy are you, holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise, for from you arose the sun of justice, Christ our God.
Alleluia
GOSPEL
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John, John 19:25-34
Stand by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciples there whom he loved, he said to his mother. “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold you mother,” And from that hour the disciples took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head he handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and them of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out.
The Gospel of the Lord
TODAY’S REFLECTION
Today we celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church – ‘Mater Ecclesiae’. Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. This unbreakable union of Mother and Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to His passion and death. Thus the Blessed Mother advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her relationship with her Son the intensity of His suffering. On the cross, our dying plan, enduring with her only son the intensity of His suffering. On the cross, our dying Savior gave His mother to his beloved disciple. This marked the beginning of another level of her relationship with the disciples, up to the Pentecost event and even after Mary, you who are truly the Mother of the Church, pray for us!