Gospel: October 7, 2025
October 7, 2025 (Tuesday)
27th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3 / (White)
Our Lady of the Rosary
Ps 130:1b-2, 3-4ab, 7-8
If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
1st Reading: Jonah 3:1-10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.” In obedience to the word of the Lord, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from his fierce anger and spare us.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened upon them.
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he entered a village, and a woman called Martha welcomed him to her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to his words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving, and finally she said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!” But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Reflection:
“We contemplate the mystery of Christ with Our Lady.”
Martha and Mary present both aspects of a balanced life. Our action needs to be fueled by contemplation, so that our action is always motivated by God’s love. However, in keeping this balance, we need to recognize what is most important at different moments and different circumstances. In that way, we serve Christ in the most appropriate way, adoring him in prayer or serving him in our neighbor. Saints such as St. Vincent de Paul or St. Titus Brandsma describe this as leaving God to go to God. Perhaps we could say that this is Martha’s mistake when Our Lord comes to visit. The hospitality was important, but the opportunity of being with him and listening to him was being missed. As we celebrate today the feast of Our Lady of Rosary, we remember that we are to ponder the life of Christ, just as Our Lady treasured her experiences with Jesus and pondered them in her heart. And so, in the Holy Rosary, we contemplate the mystery of Christ with Our Lady. May we accompany Christ in our contemplation so that he might accompany us in all our deeds.
