Gospel: August 22, 2025
August 22, 2025 (Friday)
20th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)
The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Ps 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10
Praise the Lord, my soul!
1st Reading: Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. One of them, a lawyer, questioned him to test him, “Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and the most important of the commandments. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets are founded on these two commandments.”
Reflection:
“Mary leads us to Christ.”
Testimony to the Church’s long-standing belief in Mary’s Assumption and heavenly Queenship can be found in the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Likewise, the two feasts are placed together in the liturgical calendar a week, or octave, apart to show that the two mysteries are connected.
God would not allow corruption to touch Mary’s mortal flesh as she was the mother of his Son. And as Christ is King of the Universe and Lord of all, it is fitting that his mother be honored as Queen, taking her place at his side in glory, just as she faithfully stood beside him in his passion.
Yet, this praise of Mary in the liturgy and in our devotions is not to be misconstrued as a worship of Our Lady. Rather, it is a praise of one so highly blessed that assists us in our worship of God, since contemplation of Mary’s love of God leads us to do the same.
Thus, Saint Leo XIII taught that in the rosary we accompany Mary in her contemplation of Christ. And so, Mary leads us to Christ and our prayer with Mary helps us in to deepen our love of God and of our neighbor.
