Responsorial Psalm

℟. (See 11d) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
   but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
   then said I, “Behold I come.”

℟. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O God, is my delight,
   and your law is within my heart.”

℟. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
   I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

℟. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;
   your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;
I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth
   in the vast assembly.

℟. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

2nd Reading

Heb 10:4-10

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews

Brothers and sisters:
It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats
   take away sins.
For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:
 
   “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
         but a body you prepared for me;
      in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.
      Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
      behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”

First Christ says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
   holocausts and sin offerings,
   you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated
   through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Glory to You,
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the Living God.

The Word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us;
and we saw his glory.

Glory to You,
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the Living God.

Gospel

Lk 1:26-38

✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
   to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
   to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
   of the house of David,
   and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
   “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
   and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
   “Do not be afraid, Mary,
   for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
   and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
   and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
   and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
   and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
   “How can this be,
   since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
   “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
   and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
   will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
   has also conceived a son in her old age,
   and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
   for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Then he kisses the book, saying quietly:

Through the words of the Gospel
may our sins be wiped away.

The Creed is said. At the words and was incarnate all genuflect.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.

Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of
the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right
hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the
Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son
is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism
for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to
the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.
As our Mother, you love us and know us:
no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy,
how often we have experienced your watchful care and
your peaceful presence! You never cease to
guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.
We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies
of the last century,
the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.
We have disregarded the commitments we made as
a community of nations.
We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.
We grew sick with greed,
we thought only of our own nations and their interests,
we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.
We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions,
to grow arrogant and aggressive,
to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.
We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and
stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden
of the earth with war and by our sins we have
broken the heart of our heavenly Father,
who desires us to be brothers and sisters.
We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.
Now with shame we cry out:
Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness,
amid our struggles and weaknesses,
amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war,
you remind us that God never abandons us,
but continues to look upon us with love,
ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.
He has given you to us and made your
Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church
and for all humanity.
By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us;
even in the most troubled moments of our history,
you are there to guide us with tender love.

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.
We are your beloved children. In every age you make
yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.
At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.
Say to us once more:
“Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”
You are able to untie the knots of our hearts
and of our times. In you we place our trust.
We are confident that, especially in moments of trial,
you will not be deaf to our supplication
and will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee,
when you interceded with Jesus
and he worked the first of his signs.
To preserve the joy of the wedding feast,
you said to him:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).
Now, O Mother, repeat those words
and that prayer, for in our own day
we have run out of the wine of hope,
joy has fled, fraternity has faded.
We have forgotten our humanity
and squandered the gift of peace.
We opened our hearts to violence
and destructiveness. How greatly
we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us
be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects
and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge,
and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world
from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us
realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family,
show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir
our hardened hearts.
May the tears you shed for us make this valley
parched by our hatred blossom anew.
Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn
our thoughts to peace.
May your maternal touch soothe those who
suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.
May your motherly embrace comfort those
forced to leave their homes and their native land.
May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion
and inspire us to open our doors and to care
for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.
Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath
the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side,
said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26.)
In this way he entrusted each of us to you.
To the disciple, and to each of us, he said:
“Behold, your Mother” (v. 27).
Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.

At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother,
to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust
and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity,
especially Russia and Ukraine.
Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.
Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.
The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the
doors of history to the Prince of Peace.
We trust that, through your heart,
peace will dawn once more.
To you we consecrate the future of the
whole human family, the needs and expectations
of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.


Through your intercession, may God’s mercy
be poured out on the earth and the
gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.
Our Lady of the “Fiat,” on whom the Holy Spirit
descended, restore among us the harmony
that comes from God. May you, our
“living fountain of hope,”
water the dryness of our hearts.
In your womb Jesus took flesh;
help us to foster the growth of communion.
You once trod the streets of our world;
lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.

Gospel Canticle

Ant. In his great love for us, God sent his Son in the likeness of our sinful nature.

Canticle of Zechariah
Luke 1:68-79
The Messiah and his forerunner

Blessed + be the Lord, the God of Israel; *
he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior, *
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old †
  that he would save us from our enemies, *
  from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers *
and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: *
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear, *
holy and righteous in his sight
   all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God *
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, *
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.


Ant. In his great love for us, God sent his Son in the likeness of our sinful nature.