Christ is the son of Mary: come, let us adore him
Year: C(II). Psalm week: 3. Liturgical Colour: White.
| Our Lady of the Rosary |
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The
feast of the Holy Rosary was instituted by Pope Pius V to celebrate the
anniversary of the defeat of the Turkish fleet at the battle of Lepanto
on the first Sunday in October 1571, which ended the threat of Muslim
domination of the Mediterranean and was ascribed in part to the prayers
and processions of the Rosary confraternity in Rome. Later the feast was
moved to the fixed date of 7 October.
| Liturgical colour: white |
|---|
White
is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts
of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and
the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if
something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should
be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
In the earliest centuries all vestments were white –
the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the
redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As
the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began
to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of
the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell
and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour
for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the
19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.
| Mid-morning reading (Terce) | Romans 1:16-17 |
|---|---|
The power of God saves all who have
faith – Jews first, but Greeks as well – since this is what reveals the
justice of God to us: it shows how faith leads to faith, or as scripture
says: The upright man finds life through faith.
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| Noon reading (Sext) | Romans 3:21-22 |
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God’s justice that was made known
through the Law and the Prophets has now been revealed outside the Law,
since it is the same justice of God that comes through faith to everyone
who believes.
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| Afternoon reading (None) | Ephesians 2:8-9 |
|---|---|
It is by grace that you have been
saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from
God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the
credit.
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