Advent Weekday
Liturgical Color: Violet
Rosary Mysteries: Glorious Mysteries
Daily Readings
First Reading: 2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
1 And it came to pass when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies,
2 He said to Nathan the prophet: Dost thou see that I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is lodged within skins?
3 And Nathan said to the king: Go, do all that is in thy heart: because the Lord is with thee.
4 But it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:
5 Go, and say to my servant David: Thus saith the Lord: Shalt thou build me a house to dwell in?
8 And now thus shalt thou speak to my servant David: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I took thee out of the pastures from following the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel:
9 And I have been with thee wheresoever thou hast walked, and have slain all thy enemies from before thy face: and I have made thee a great man, like unto the name of the great ones that are on the earth.
10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them, and they shall dwell therein, and shall be disturbed no more: neither shall the children of iniquity afflict them any more as they did before,
11 From the day that I appointed judges over my people Israel: and I will give thee rest from all thy enemies. And the Lord foretelleth to thee, that the Lord will make thee a house.
12 And when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son: and if he commit any iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.
16 And thy house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom for ever before thy face, and thy throne shall be firm for ever.
1 Factum est autem cum sedisset rex in domo sua, et Dominus dedisset ei requiem undique ab universis inimicis suis,
2 dixit ad Nathan prophetam: Videsne quod ego habitem in domo cedrina, et arca Dei posita sit in medio pellium?
3 Dixitque Nathan ad regem: Omne quod est in corde tuo, vade, fac: quia Dominus tecum est.
4 Factum est autem in illa nocte: et ecce sermo Domini ad Nathan, dicens:
5 Vade, et loquere ad servum meum David: Hæc dicit Dominus: Numquid tu ædificabis mihi domum ad habitandum?
8 Et nunc hæc dices servo meo David: Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Ego tuli te de pascuis sequentem greges, ut esses dux super populum meum Israël:
9 et fui tecum in omnibus ubicumque ambulasti, et interfeci universos inimicos tuos a facie tua: fecique tibi nomen grande, juxta nomen magnorum qui sunt in terra.
10 Et ponam locum populo meo Israël, et plantabo eum, et habitabit sub eo, et non turbabitur amplius: nec addent filii iniquitatis ut affligant eum sicut prius,
11 ex die qua constitui judices super populum meum Israël: et requiem dabo tibi ab omnibus inimicis tuis: prædicitque tibi Dominus quod domum faciat tibi Dominus.
12 Cumque completi fuerint dies tui, et dormieris cum patribus tuis, suscitabo semen tuum post te, quod egredietur de utero tuo, et firmabo regnum ejus.
14 Ego ero ei in patrem, et ipse erit mihi in filium: qui si inique aliquid gesserit, arguam eum in virga virorum, et in plagis filiorum hominum.
16 Et fidelis erit domus tua, et regnum tuum usque in æternum ante faciem tuam, et thronus tuus erit firmus jugiter.
Gospel: Luke 1:67-79
67 And Zachary his father was filled with the Holy Ghost; and he prophesied, saying:
68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
70 As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
71 Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
72 To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
73 The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
74 That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
77 To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
78 Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orientfrom on high hath visited us:
79 To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.
67 Et Zacharias pater ejus repletus est Spiritu Sancto: et prophetavit, dicens:
68 [Benedictus Dominus Deus Israël,
quia visitavit, et fecit redemptionem plebis suæ:
69 et erexit cornu salutis nobis
in domo David pueri sui,
70 sicut locutum est per os sanctorum,
qui a sæculo sunt, prophetarum ejus:
71 salutem ex inimicis nostris,
et de manu omnium qui oderunt nos:
72 ad faciendam misericordiam cum patribus nostris:
et memorari testamenti sui sancti:
73 jusjurandum, quod juravit ad Abraham patrem nostrum,
daturum se nobis
74 ut sine timore, de manu inimicorum nostrorum liberati,
serviamus illi
75 in sanctitate et justitia coram ipso,
omnibus diebus nostris.
76 Et tu puer, propheta Altissimi vocaberis:
præibis enim ante faciem Domini parare vias ejus,
77 ad dandam scientiam salutis plebi ejus
in remissionem peccatorum eorum
78 per viscera misericordiæ Dei nostri,
in quibus visitavit nos, oriens ex alto:
79 illuminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent:
ad dirigendos pedes nostros in viam pacis.]
A Daily Question from the Summa Theologica
Whether the Blessed Virgin should be called the Mother of God?(Article 4 of 8 of Question 35. Of Christ’s Nativity from the Treatise on the Incarnation)
Objection 1: It would seem that the Blessed Virgin should not be called the Mother of God. For in the Divine mysteries we should not make any assertion that is not taken from Holy Scripture. But we read nowhere in Holy Scripture that she is the mother or parent of God, but that she is the “mother of Christ” or of “the Child,” as may be seen from Mat. 1:18.Therefore we should not say that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God.
Objection 2: Further, Christ is called God in respect of His Divine Nature. But the Divine Nature did not first originate from the Virgin. Therefore the Blessed Virgin should not be called the Mother of God.
Objection 3: Further, the word “God” is predicated in common of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If, therefore, the Blessed Virgin is Mother of God it seems to follow that she was the Mother of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which cannot be allowed. Therefore the Blessed Virgin should not be called Mother of God.
On the contrary, In the chapters of Cyril, approved in the Council of Ephesus (P. 1, Cap. xxvi), we read: “If anyone confess not that the Emmanuel is truly God, and that for this reason the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, since she begot of her flesh the Word of God made flesh, let him be anathema.”
I answer that, As stated above (Q[16], A[1]), every word that signifies a nature in the concrete can stand for any hypostasis of that nature. Now, since the union of the Incarnation took place in the hypostasis, as above stated (Q[2], A[3]), it is manifest that this word “God” can stand for the hypostasis, having a human and a Divine nature. Therefore whatever belongs to the Divine and to the human nature can be attributed to that Person: both when a word is employed to stand for it, signifying the Divine Nature, and when a word is used signifying the human nature. Now, conception and birth are attributed to the person and hypostasis in respect of that nature in which it is conceived and born. Since, therefore, the human nature was taken by the Divine Person in the very beginning of the conception, as stated above (Q[33], A[3]), it follows that it can be truly said that God was conceived and born of the Virgin. Now from this is a woman called a man’s mother, that she conceived him and gave birth to him. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is truly called the Mother of God. For the only way in which it could be denied that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God would be either if the humanity were first subject to conception and birth, before this man were the Son of God, as Photinus said; or if the humanity were not assumed unto unity of the Person or hypostasis of the Word of God, as Nestorius maintained. But both of these are erroneous. Therefore it is heretical to deny that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God.
Reply to Objection 1: This was an argument of Nestorius, and it is solved by saying that, although we do not find it said expressly in Scripture that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God, yet we do find it expressly said in Scripture that “Jesus Christ is true God,” as may be seen 1 Jn. 5:20, and that the Blessed Virgin is the “Mother of Jesus Christ,” which is clearly expressed Mat. 1:18. Therefore, from the words of Scripture it follows of necessity that she is the Mother of God.
Again, it is written (Rom. 9:5) that Christ is of the Jews “according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever.” But He is not of the Jews except through the Blessed Virgin. Therefore He who is “above all things, God blessed for ever,” is truly born of the Blessed Virgin as of His Mother.
Reply to Objection 2: This was an argument of Nestorius. But Cyril, in a letter against Nestorius [*Cf. Acta Conc. Ephes., p. 1, cap. ii], answers it thus: “Just as when a man’s soul is born with its body, they are considered as one being: and if anyone wish to say that the mother of the flesh is not the mother of the soul, he says too much. Something like this may be perceived in the generation of Christ. For the Word of God was born of the substance of God the Father: but because He took flesh, we must of necessity confess that in the flesh He was born of a woman.” Consequently we must say that the Blessed Virgin is called the Mother of God, not as though she were the Mother of the Godhead, but because she is the mother, according to His human nature, of the Person who has both the divine and the human nature.
Reply to Objection 3: Although the name “God” is common to the three Persons, yet sometimes it stands for the Person of the Father alone, sometimes only for the Person of the Son or of the Holy Ghost, as stated above (Q[16], A[1]; FP, Q[39], A[4]). So that when we say, “The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God,” this word “God” stands only for the incarnate Person of the Son.
Continue reading the rest of the articles on Sacred Texts Archive website.