First reading 1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31
You together are Christ’s body: each of you a different part
Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.
Nor is the body to be identified with any one of its many parts. Now you together are Christ’s body; but each of you is a different part of it. In the Church, God has given the first place to apostles, the second to prophets, the third to teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers, good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles, or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages, and all interpret them? Be ambitious for the higher gifts.
Responsorial Psalm 99(100)
We are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.
Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age.
Gospel John 19:25-27
‘Woman, this is your son’
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.
Mary, Mother Of Sorrows
At the foot of Jesus’ cross, Mary, His mother, stood with steadfast love, silent courage and deep trust in God. She watched her Son suffer rejection, humiliation and death. As a mother, she experienced pain beyond words. Yet Mary did not turn away; she stood firm and continued to believe that God’s love was still at work, even when everything seemed lost.
Today, let us reflect on Mary’s presence at the foot of the cross. This is what faithful love looks like. Although she could not take suffering and death away from Jesus, she stood to stay close to her beloved Son. Mary, Mother of Sorrows, continues to stand with us as we face the crosses of our lives. She lends us her strength when we find it hard to go on, and reminds us always to look at her Son, whose love will never fail us, and whose Resurrection shows us that love always has the final word.
Reflective question:
Is there a sorrow in my life that I can place in Mary’s loving care?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year A” by Sr Maria Jose FMVD
