Mass Readings
Liturgical Readings for : Thursday, 1st January, 2026Léachtaí Gaeilge
Next Sunday’s Readings
Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God –
At the message of the Angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary received the Word of God in her heart and womb. Hence Mary is honoured as the Mother of God and the Redeemer, Jesus.
World Day of Peace
Today we also celebrate ‘World Day of Peace’ when we pray for justice and peace,
for each other and the whole world in the name of our God, our common Father.
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Numbers 6:22-27
They are to call down my name on the sons of Israel and I will bless them.
“This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel.
You shall say to them: ‘ Say this to Aaron and his sons:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”
This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel,
and I will bless them.‘
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:2-3, 5,m 6, 8
Response O God, be gracious and bless us.
1. God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth and all nations learn your saving help. Response
2. Let the nations be glad and exult for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples. you guide the nations on earth. Response
3. Let the peoples praise you, 0 God; let all the peoples praise you.
May God still give us his blessing till the ends of the earth revere him. Response
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Galatians 4:4-7
God sent his son, born of a woman
born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and
to enable us to be adopted as sons.
The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts:
the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’,
and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more;
and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Gospel Acclamation Heb 1: 1-2
Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in the past and in various different ways,
God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 2:16-21 Glory to you, O Lord
They found Mary and Joseph and the baby… they gave him the name Jesus.
As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name ‘Jesus‘, the name the angel had given him before his conception.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
*****************************
Gospel Reflection January 1 Mary, the Holy Mother of God Luke 2:16-21
I am very fond of that prayer of blessing at the beginning of today’s first reading. It is the blessing of Aaron over the people of Israel. It is a prayer of blessing any of us could pray for others, silently or aloud. That prayer of blessing contains a hope, a wish, for those for whom it is prayed. That hope came to be realized above all with the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph. It was then that ‘the Lord God made his face to shine upon us and was gracious to us. It was then that he uncovered his face to us and brought us peace‘. There are two references to the face of God in that blessing, ‘May the Lord let his face shine upon you… May the Lord uncover his face to you’. God let his face shine upon us and uncovered his face to us with the coming of Jesus.
It was a strongly held belief in the Jewish tradition that no one could see the face of God and live. Yet, God showed us his face through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was God with us, Emmanuel. As mother of Jesus, Mary was mother of God with us, mother of God. When we venerate Mary as mother of God, we are making a statement about her child, Jesus. He is God’s face made visible to us. It is by showing our face to one another than we become recognizable. In showing his face to us through Jesus, God has become recognizable. Jesus has revealed the face of God to be a face of love, a love that seeks out the lost, brings back the stray, suffers with those who suffer, brings new life out of death, a love that does not come to an end. There is much to ponder here. According to the gospel reading, Mary treasured all the things the shepherds said to her about her new born child and pondered them in her heart. God had given Mary much to ponder in calling her to be the mother of his Son, the mother of God. There is much to ponder here for all of us, as we contemplate the face of God in Jesus, Mary’s Son.
_________________
The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and used with the permission of the publishers. http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/
Feast of the Day: Jan 1st: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
At the Council of Ephesus (451), Mary, the mother of Jesus was proclaimed ‘ Mother of God’ acknowledging the very Godhead of her Son, Jesus Christ. Today’s feast invites us to lay our hopes and plans for the new year under her motherly care and patronage.
At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided not to add any new title to or make any new definition about Mary – for example, as “Mediatrix of all graces“, as some of the more extreme Mariologists wanted at the time. Instead they went back to the tradition which saw Mary’s greatness in her act of faith, by which she became “Mother of God”,
Patrick Duffy explains.
The New Eve
At the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the bishops decided that, rather than defining any special doctrine about Mary, it would be more ecumenical to locate any statement about Mary within the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (“On the Church“) as a special chapter. In this way Mary is presented as the first and foremost of all believers, ‘a New Eve’, to reverse the trend to original sin begun by the first Eve.
‘Lumen Gentium’
“The Virgin Mary, who at the
Mother of the Church
St Pope Paul VI showed his solidarity with this position when he declared Mary, Mother of the Church (21-11-1964). And in his encyclical Marialis Cultus (1974) he stated: This celebration, assigned to 1st January in conformity with the ancient liturgy of Rome, is meant to commemorate the central part Mary played in the mystery of salvation.
Old year/New year
A Central Theme of our Faith
Catholics are proud to hold Mary’s Motherhood of God as a central theme of their faith.
***************************
Memorable Quotes about Mary and Ourselves
“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much.
You can never love her more than Jesus did.”
~ St Maximilian Kolbe ~
*********************************