DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

JUNE 9, 2025

MONDAY - MEMORIAL OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

FIRST READING

GENESIS 3:9-15, 20 OR (ACTS 1:12-14)

9 But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." 11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." 20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 87:1-3, 5-7

Response: Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
the LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

R. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God.
And of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her”;
for the Most High himself will establish her.

R. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

The LORD records as he registers the peoples,
“This one was born there.”
Singers and dancers alike say,
“All my springs are in you.”

R. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.
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GOSPEL

Woman, behold, your son! Disciple, behold, your mother!

JOHN 19:25-34 OR (MATTHEW 5:1-12)

25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" 27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. 28 After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst." 29 A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 31 Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; 33 but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

God borrows Mary's flesh to lead humanity to glory, by an anonymous early author from the Greek church

"The virgin mother, when wine was lacking, wanted Jesus to do a miracle. She was at once answered, 'Woman, what have I to do with you?' as if to say plainly, The fact that I can do a miracle comes to me from my Father, not my mother. For it was from the nature of his Father that he could do miracles but from the nature of his mother that he could die. When he was on the cross, then, in dying he acknowledged his mother whom he commended to the disciple, saying, 'Behold your mother.' And so, when he says, 'Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come" (John 2:4). he is in effect saying, In the miracle, which I did not from your nature, I do not acknowledge you. When the hour of death shall come, however, I shall acknowledge you as my mother, since it is from you that I can die."

(excerpt from LETTER 10.39.27)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.