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Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
Today’s feast points our attention to our hope of heaven, where Mary has gone ahead of us.
· The reason for today’s feast is expressed in the Catechism: “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body” (CCC 974).
· The first reading, from the Book of Revelation, depicts a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, wearing a crown of twelve stars. Catholic piety has identified the woman with Our Lady. The visionary language is strange - rather like some science fiction today. In the original context, the woman may have been a personification of the people of Israel, with the twelve stars representing the twelve tribes of Jacob (Gen 37:9). But we believe that Mary (or Miriam of Nazareth) perfectly embodies Israel’s call to love God and love neighbour.
· In the second reading, St Paul speaks of the resurrection, where Christ is the first fruits, while those who belong to him will be raised at the second coming of Christ. Catholic tradition teaches that Our Lady was granted a privileged advance share in the resurrection, because she was completely united with her Son.
· Today’s gospel celebrates Mary who is full of love of her neighbour—visiting her aged relative Elizabeth to help her in her time of pregnancy. It also includes Mary’s great song of praise (the Magnificat), where she expresses her great love of God.
· Many people today suffer from mental health issues. We can easily feel under stressful pressure from family, work, and society, as well as sometimes from traumatic events.
· Mary felt many pressures. She was called to give birth to her only son in a stable after a long and tiring journey. When her baby was small, she had to flee with the baby’s foster father to another land. Later, when her only son grew up, she did not always understand what he was doing. And finally she witnessed him dying a traumatic death. Yet her hope was not quenched by all these sorrows.
· Her joyful humility, expressed so beautifully in the Magnificat, can inspire us to join her song of praise: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”
· Mary’s example also can help us to recognize so many signs of God’s love in our own lives: “The Almighty has done great things for me.”
· At the end of her earthly life, Catholic teaching says that she was taken up into heaven. Her share in Jesus’ risen life offers us hope of sharing the same risen life when the sorrows of our earthly life are past.
“My soul glorifies the Lord” is clearly a major theme for today’s solemnity. Even though it’s a weekday, it would be wonderful to be able to include a simple sung setting of the Magnificat that everyone could join in with. The easiest way to do this would be to use a psalm-tone chant designed for this purpose — for example, Alan Rees’s New Testament Canticle tone or Laurence Bévenot’s 7th psalm-tone, both very easy to pick up. Since it’s a holy day of obligation, some of the parish’s musicians might be present to assist if they are not away on holiday.
The readings speak to us of the woman giving birth in John’s Apocalyptic vision, of Christ, the first-fruits, born of a woman, and of Mary and Elizabeth. Today is therefore clearly a day to celebrate the work of women in our Church, and we can make this evident in our choice of readers, ministers of Communion, servers, cantor, etc, favouring female ministers for these roles on this day.
The Hail Mary is technically not part of the Bidding Prayers and its use there is in fact discouraged by Rome. Nevertheless, in parishes where the custom of adding the Hail Mary persists, today is one day when it might be appropriate to include the Hail, Holy Queen at this point in the rite instead. A sung Salve, Regina is also a possibility.
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
