Gospel: November 21, 2025

November 21, 2025 (Friday)

33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Psalter: Week 1 / (White)

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1 Chronicles 29:10bcd, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bcd

We praise your glorious name, O mighty God

See Also

Lacson: 2 got ‘kickbacks’ from insertions Co bared

1st Reading: 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59*

Gospel: Luke 19:45-48

Then Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers!” Jesus was teaching every day in the temple. The chief priests and teachers of the law wanted to kill him, and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.

Reflection:

“My house shall be a house of prayer.”

Today’s feast, influenced by the Protoevangelium of James, flourished in the East in the sixth century and in the Latin Church in the ninth century. The Protoevangelium of James presents an account of Joachim and Anne offering Mary as a little child to live and serve in the temple. Building upon that tradition, Saint Alphonsus wrote that, “the life of Mary in the temple was but one continual exercise of love, and the offering of her whole self to her Lord.” The Protoevangelium was not included in the books of the Bible, but nonetheless, it has influenced the Church in her prayer and devotion from early times. Whether all the details are accurate, we cannot be sure, but the fundamental idea of a total dedication to the Lord is clearly a truth of Mary’s life, and this is the focus of this feast. As a result, Saint Paul VI taught that there are some feasts of Our Lady “which, apart from their apocryphal content, present lofty and exemplary values and carry on venerable traditions” (Marialis Cultus, 8), and it is for these values that we continue to celebrate them with devotion. Mary, teach us to dedicate ourselves to God’s service.