October 7, 2025
Memorial of Our Lady of the
Rosary
Lectionary: 462
Reading
1
The word of the
LORD came to Jonah a second time:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD's bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,
put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
"Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth
and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive,
and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish."
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (3) If
you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Let Israel wait for the LORD,
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and observe it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus entered a
village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
"Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me."
The Lord said to her in reply,
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100725.cfm
Commentary on Jonah 3:1-10
After his three
days and nights in the belly of the big fish, Jonah was, at the word of God,
“vomited out onto the dry land”. Without delay, the word of Yahweh comes to
Jonah a second time. It is almost as if God was saying to his prophet,
“OK…let’s try this one more time!”
Jonah is told
again to rise up, to go to Nineveh and to preach to it in the words that Yahweh
will lay down. That, of course, is the role of the prophet—to pass on a message
from God, not to preach his own word. A much chastened Jonah now submissively,
if not with much enthusiasm and against his better judgement, obeys and sets
out for Nineveh. He is not expecting much response.
We are told that:
Nineveh was an
exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across.
In Hebrew, it is
literally “great in the eyes of God”—the strongest superlative in the Hebrew
language. So big, in fact, that it took three days to walk across it.
Later in the story
we are told that the city had more than 120,000 inhabitants, just a large town
by today’s standards. Archaeological excavations indicate that the later
imperial city of Nineveh was about 12 km around. The fact, however, that “a
visit required three days” may suggest a larger area, such as the four-city
complex of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen mentioned in Genesis 10.
Greater Nineveh covered an area of some 100 km in circumference.
On the other hand,
“three days” seems to have been a conventional way of describing a
medium-length distance. But as we are dealing here with a story, the author
simply wants to say that Nineveh was a very big place with a lot of people.
Having arrived at
Nineveh, Jonah had only walked one day’s distance into the city proclaiming
Yahweh’s warning:
Forty days
more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
The 40 days are
reminiscent of the 40 days of the Flood or the 40 years of Israel wandering in
the desert. Jesus will also fast for 40 days in the desert and, in the Acts of
the Apostles, ascend to his Father 40 days after his resurrection. And the
response:
…the people of
Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small,
put on sackcloth.
A fast and
sackcloth were conventional signs of repentance for sin. This speedy conversion
of the Ninevites after hearing God’s word will be commented on later by Jesus
and contrasted with the reluctance of the scribes and Pharisees to accept
Jesus’ word:
The people of
Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it,
because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something
greater than Jonah is here! (Matt
12:41)
Then:
When the news
reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered
himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
This is the mighty
King of Assyria, king of an empire which brought so much suffering to the
Chosen People. Here he is, humbly submitting to Yahweh and acknowledging his
sinfulness.
Further, he gives
orders for a general fast from eating and even drinking water, an order
extended to both people and animals. And he gives the order:
Humans and
animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God.
All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their
hands.
Inclusion of
domestic animals was unusual, but here it expresses the urgency with which the
Ninevites were to seek mercy.
Said the king:
Who knows? God
may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we
do not perish.
He knew they
deserved any punishment God could send them, but they lived in hope that
Jonah’s God might relent and put aside his great anger against them. In
Jeremiah, Yahweh says:
At one moment I
may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break
down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns
from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to
bring on it. (Jer
18:7-8)
And, indeed, God
does see their efforts to abandon their evil ways and withdraws the disaster he
had planned for the city.
One would imagine
that Jonah would have been absolutely delighted with such a response to his
preaching and with the conversion of the Ninevites to the Lord, but he reacted
very strangely indeed. For his actual response we will have to wait for
tomorrow’s reading.
Like the pagan
sailors in the boat, the people of Nineveh show that they are ready to change
their ways and recognise the power of Yahweh. Ironically, the one rebellious
person in the story is a member of God’s own people and his prophet. In our
world, too, non-Christians can frequently put us to shame in the way they show
a Christian spirit.
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Commentary on Luke 10:38-42
Today we find
Jesus in the home of the sisters, Mary and Martha. We also know that they have
a brother named Lazarus. We meet the sisters again (showing the same
characteristics as in this story) in John’s account of the raising from death
of their brother (John 11:1-44). They lived in Bethany, a village about 3-4 km
from Jerusalem and it seems that Jesus was a familiar visitor to the house and
a friend, for at the time of Lazarus’ illness, Jesus is told:
Lord, he whom
you love is ill. (John
11:3)
The story of
Martha and Mary is, in a way, a contrast to the previous story about the Good
Samaritan. It restores a balance in our following of Christ. The story about
being a neighbour could lead us to think that only if we are doing things
are we loving God.
Martha was a
‘doer’ to the point of being a fusspot. Martha, we are told:
…was distracted
by her many tasks…
Serving others is
something that Jesus himself did constantly, and he urged his followers to do
the same. But it should not be a burden or distraction. And, after Martha had
complained about her sister, Jesus told her:
…you are
worried and distracted by many things…
A true servant
does not experience anxiety and worry because that signifies a lack of peace.
Because Mary
seemed to be doing nothing, Martha saw her as idling and even selfish. Martha
must have been somewhat surprised when Jesus said that:
Mary has chosen
the better part, which will not be taken away from her.
What was that
better part? Wasn’t Mary just sitting at the feet of Jesus and doing nothing?
No! We are told that she:
…listened to
what he was saying.
Listening to his
message is something Jesus tells his disciples and the crowd they need to be
doing all the time. And we have mentioned before that listening involves
understanding, accepting and assimilating that message so that it becomes part
of our very selves.
If we do not spend
time listening to him, how can we know that our activity is properly directed?
It is easy for us Christians to be very busy, but are we busy about the right
things?
To answer that
question we have to stop to listen, to discern and to pray. And, ultimately,
the highest form of activity in our lives is contemplation—being in conscious
contact with God and his Word. If I find myself saying that I do not have time
to give some time to prayer or contemplation each day, then there is a serious
imbalance in my priorities and in my understanding of what it means to love and
serve my God.
This story blends
nicely with the parable of the Good Samaritan which went before it. Taken
together they express what should be the essence of Christian living—action for
others that is guided by what we learn in contemplation. This was the pattern
of Jesus’ own life—he spent long hours bringing healing to people’s lives
(being a neighbour), but also retired to quiet places to be alone in communion
with his Father. The same pattern must be ours too. We call it being
‘contemplatives in action’.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/o1273g/
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, your love
for us
surpasses all our
hopes and desires. Forgive our failings, keep us in your peace and lead us in
the way of salvation.
We ask this
through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 10: 38-42
In the course of
their journey, he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into
her house.
She had a sister
called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking.
Now Martha, who
was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not
care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell
her to help me.'
But the Lord
answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things,
and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better
part, and it is not to be taken from her.'
Reflection
• Context. The journey of Jesus, undertaken
in 9: 51, is surrounded by particular encounters, among which with the Doctors
of the Law (10, 25-37), that precedes the encounter with Martha and Mary (vv.
38-42). Above all, there is a doctor of the Law who asks Jesus a question and
that for the reader it becomes a convenient occasion to discover how eternal
life is inherited or gained which is intimacy with the Father. One can have
access to eternal life by participating in the mission of Jesus, the first one
sent who has shown us God’s mercy fully (v. 37). In Jesus the Father has become
close to men, he has shown his paternity in a tangible way. At the end of the
encounter the expression that Jesus addresses to the Doctor of the Law and to
every reader is crucial: “Go, and do the same yourself” (v. 37). To become a
neighbor, to get close to others as Jesus did makes us become instruments to
show in a living way the merciful love of the Father. This is the secret key to
enter into eternal life.
• Listening to the Word.
After this
encounter with an expert of the Law, while he is on the way, Jesus enters into
a village and is welcomed by old friends: Martha and Mary. Jesus is not only
the first one sent by the Father but he is also the one who gathers together
men and in our case the members of the house of Bethany, in so far as he is the
only Word of the Father. If it is true that there are many services to be
carried out, welcoming, attention to the needs of others, and even more it is
true that what is irreplaceable is listening to the Word. The account that Luke
gives is a real episode and at the same time an ideal. It begins with the
welcome of Martha (v. 38), then, it sketches Mary with an attitude typical of
the disciple, sitting at the feet of Jesus and totally attentive to listen to
his Word. This attitude of Mary is extraordinary because in Judaism at the time
of Jesus it was not permitted for a woman to go to the school of a Teacher, a
Master. Up until now we have a harmonious picture: the welcome of Martha, the
listening of Mary. But soon the welcome of Martha will be transformed into
super activism: the woman is “pulled,” divided by the multiple services; she is
so absorbed that she is unable to control the domestic services. The great
amount of activities, understandable for such a guest, becomes however,
disproportionate so much so as to prevent her living what is essential
precisely in the time that Jesus is present in her house. Her worry or concern
is legitimate, but then it becomes anguish, a state of mind that is not
convenient when a friend is welcomed.
• Relate service to listening.
Her service of
acceptance, of welcome is very positive but it is detrimental because of this
state of anxiety with which she carries it out. The Evangelist makes the reader
glimpse to show that there is no contradiction between the ‘diaconia’ of the table and that of the
Word, but he wants to suggest that the service should be related to listening.
Because she did not relate the spiritual attitude of service to that of
listening, Martha feels that she has been abandoned by her sister, but instead,
of dialoguing with Mary, she complains with the Master. Trapped in her solitude
she goes against Jesus who seems to be indifferent to her problem (“Lord do you
not care”...) and then with the sister, (“that my sister is leaving me to do
the serving all by myself?”) In his response Jesus does not reproach her, nor
criticize her, but he tries to help Martha to recover that which is essential
at that moment: listening to the Master. He invites her to choose that part,
unique and a priority that Mary has spontaneously taken. The episode invites us
to consider a danger which is always frequent in the life of Christians:
anxiety, worry, super activism that can isolate us from communion with Christ
and with the community. The danger is more underhanded because frequently the
material concerns or worries carried out with anxiety, we consider them a form
of service. What presses Luke is that in our communities the priority that
should be given to the Word of God, and to listen to it, should not be
neglected. Before serving the others, the relatives, and the ecclesial
community it is necessary to be served by Christ with His Word of grace. And
thus immersed in the daily tasks, like Martha, we forget that the Lord desires to
take care of us... It is necessary, instead, to place in Jesus and in God all
our concerns and worries.
Personal Questions
• Do you know how to relate service to
listening to the Word of Jesus? Or rather do you allow yourself to be taken up
by anxiety because of the multiple things to be done?
• Have you understood that before serving you
have to accept to be served by Christ? Are you aware that your service becomes
divine only if previously you will have accepted Christ and his word?
Concluding Prayer
Yahweh, you
examine me and know me, you know when I sit, when I rise, you understand my
thoughts from afar. You watch when I walk or lie down, you know every detail of
my conduct. (Ps 139: 1-3)
Our Lady of the Rosary is a title of the Virgin Mary related
to the prayer of the Rosary, whose origin has been attributed to an apparition
of Our Lady to St Dominic in 1208 in the monastery church at Prouille, near
Carcasonne in the south of France.
Pope Pius V instituted the feast of “Our Lady of Victory” to
commemorate the naval victory of Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet at
Lepanto on 7 October, 1571, the first Sunday of the month. The victory was
attributed to the help of the Mother of God, because a rosary procession had
been offered on that day in St Peter’s Square in Rome for the success of the
League in preventing Muslim forces from overrunning Western Europe. Two years
later, at the request of the Dominican Order, Pope Gregory XIII, in 1573,
allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar
dedicated to the Holy Rosary. In 1671, the observance of the feast was extended
by Pope Clement X to the whole of Spain.
Somewhat later, Pope Clement XII, following the victory over
the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 6 August, 1716 (the feast of our Lady of
the Snows), at Peterwardein in Hungary, decreed that the Feast of the Rosary be
celebrated by the whole Church on the first Sunday in October.
Pope Pius X changed the date to 7 October, and in 1969, Pope
Paul VI changed the name of the feast to “Our Lady of the Rosary”. Today’s
celebration invites all of us to meditate often on the mysteries of Jesus’
life.
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