December 22, 2025
Monday of the Fourth Week of
Advent
Lectionary: 198
Reading
1
In those days,
Hannah brought Samuel with her,
along with a three-year-old bull,
an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,
and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh.
After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull,
Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:
“Pardon, my lord!
As you live, my lord,
I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD.
I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request.
Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD;
as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD.”
She left Samuel there.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (see 1a) My
heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
“My heart exults in the LORD,
my horn is exalted in my God.
I have swallowed up my enemies;
I rejoice in my victory.”
R. My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
“The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry batten on spoil.
The barren wife bears seven sons,
while the mother of many languishes.”
R. My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
“The LORD puts to death and gives life;
he casts down to the nether world;
he raises up again.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich,
he humbles, he also exalts.”
R. My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
“He raises the needy from the dust;
from the dung heap he lifts up the poor,
To seat them with nobles
and make a glorious throne their heritage.”
R. My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
O King of all nations and keystone of the Church;
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”
Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months
and then returned to her home.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122225.cfm
Commentary on 1
Samuel 1:24-28
The reading comes from the beginning of the First Book of
Samuel. In our Bible, there are two books, although there was only one in the
original Hebrew. They speak about three principal characters—Samuel, Saul
(Israel’s first king), and his successor, David.
The accounts of Samuel and Saul are found in the first book,
while the second half of the first, and the whole of the second, deal with
David. Like many of the more significant characters in the Old Testament,
Samuel was born of a woman who was barren and had lost hope of having children.
We mentioned already the cases of Sarah (Gen 17:16-19), Rebekah (Gen 25:21-26),
Rachel (Gen 29:31; 30:22-24) and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist
(Luke 1:5-17).
As we saw in the case of Samson (see the First Reading
commentary for 19 Dec), a woman giving birth late in life indicated that God
played a special part in the birth of the child, who was destined for some
outstanding service to God and his people. And so it is, too, with Samuel.
It all starts with an ordinary couple living a familiar
drama in a hill town. A woman, afflicted with sterility, complains to
Yahweh—she is not resigned to a seemingly useless life. Yahweh listens to the
afflicted and his answer always exceeds what they ask for. He not only gives
Hannah a son, he also gives his people a prophet.
According to the Christian Community Bible:
“God likes to choose his servants precisely from those
families who have no hope of having children. It is God who gives life to the
dead and hope to those who have none. The same happens with the birth of Isaac
and John the Baptist (Luke 1:5). In the book of Isaiah is a poem which starts
with these words: ‘Shout out for joy, oh you who were barren!’ (Isa 54:1)”
Hannah is gifted with a son, but as we saw earlier with
Samson, he does not belong totally to her. The language suggests that he is
‘lent’ by God to her, because she will give him back to devote his whole life
in the service of Yahweh. She dedicates the child, even before his birth, to be
a minister in the sanctuary. And like Samson, his hair remains uncut as a sign
of total dedication to God’s service. And, she confirms this in the final words
of the reading:
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me the
petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as
he lives, he is given to the Lord.
Many a mother must have prayed like this when she saw her
son leave home to become a priest or Brother or her daughter leave to become a
Sister.
Immediately following the reading is the Responsorial Psalm.
It is actually not from one of the Psalms, but rather from 1 Samuel (2:1, 4-8),
and represents the hymn of praise and thanksgiving Hannah makes for the birth
of her son:
My heart exults in the Lord my Savior.
It is an ancient poem, originally thought to have nothing to
do with Samuel’s birth, but it fits perfectly into the context.
In language and context, it bears many similarities to the
Magnificat, the prayer of praise and thanksgiving that is put on the lips of
Mary on the occasion of her Visitation to Elizabeth, and which is given in the
Gospel for today. The Magnificat, however, is more personal in tone. Hannah and
Samuel, then, are seen as prototypes of Elizabeth and John the Baptist, but
also, though in a different way, of Mary and Jesus.
For us, it is an opportune time to see how God has called us
to his service and to what extent we are following that call. Every one of us
has a ‘vocation’—we are all, through our Baptism, called to love and service of
brothers and sisters, and to working together to build God’s Kingdom on earth.
We might also at this time give thanks for our parents who brought us into this
world and set us on the road to Life.
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Commentary on Luke
1:46-56
The Magnificat is not exactly what one would expect to hear
from the lips of a simple village girl. It has been described as a highly
dangerous revolutionary statement with strong political overtones. It is Mary’s
response to the greeting she received from her cousin Elizabeth, who protested
that the “mother of her Lord” should come to visit her when it should have been
the other way round.
The song is full of joy, especially because Mary recognises
that God has acknowledged the presence of a simple girl living in a small place—in
the eyes of the world, a person of no consequence. But where God is concerned,
everyone is of equal consequence. She proclaims:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…
Then, considering her present obscurity, she makes an
extraordinary prophecy:
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me…
Blessed indeed with the unique grace of being chosen as
Mother of the Incarnate God. Yet the prophecy has more than been fulfilled and
is as true today as it ever was.
Mary then goes on to say that she is not the only one of
God’s ‘little ones’ who will experience a reversal of affairs:
…indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
God has great things in store for his people. It is again a
vision of the Kingdom, of God’s will being done on earth. It is the Good News.
All this is very much in line with the picture of Jesus that
Luke will show emerging as one reads through his Gospel. His is a Gospel where
the poor, the weak, the marginalised, the outcast and the sinful have a special
place in the eyes of Jesus.
We, too, can rejoice with Mary in the long list of good
things that we have been gifted with by our loving Lord. Those gifts are not
just for our enjoyment. Our task, in accordance with those gifts, is to make
sure that the love of God is tangibly experienced by the poor, the weak, the
marginalised, the outcast and the sinful in our own midst.
The realisation of what Mary sings about will only take place
when we all work together with Jesus to bring it about. With Mary, let us say
today a resounding ‘Yes’ to God’s plans for his children.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/a1222g/
Monday,
December 22, 2025
4th Week of
Advent
Opening Prayer
God of the little ones,
with Mary we rejoice and give you thanks
that you let Jesus Christ become one of us and let him bring us the dignity of
your sons and daughters. May we live up to that dignity and to the joy that
says that we are deeply loved by you. Like you, may we also learn to care for
all that is little and brittle and bring your justice to the poor through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading – Luke 1: 46-56
And Mary said: My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
because he has looked upon the
humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me
blessed,
for the Almighty has done great
things for me. Holy is his name, and his faithful love extends age after age to
those who fear him.
He has used the power of his
arm; he has routed the arrogant of heart. He has pulled down princes from their
thrones and raised high the lowly. He has filled the starving with good things,
sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help of Israel
his servant, mindful of his faithful love according to the promise he made to
our ancestors - of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.
Reflection
The canticle of Mary was one of the
canticles of the community of the first Christians. It reveals the level of
awareness or consciousness and the firmness of the faith which animated her
interiorly. Sung in the community, this canticle of Mary teaches us to pray and
to sing.
•
Luke 1: 46-50: Mary begins by proclaiming the
change which is taking place in her life under the loving look of God, full of
mercy. Because of this, she sings joyfully: “I rejoice in God, my Savior.”
•
Luke 1: 51-53: Afterwards she sings the fidelity
of God toward his people and proclaims the change which the arm of the Lord was
realizing on behalf of the poor and the hungry. The expression “arm of God”
reminds us of the liberation of the Exodus. This is the force of salvation and
of liberation of Yahweh which bring about the changes: he has routed the
arrogant of heart (Lk 1: 51), he has pulled down princes from their thrones and
raised high the lowly (Lk 1: 52), he has filled the starving with good things,
sent the rich away empty (Lk 1: 53).
•
Luke 1: 54-55: At the end Mary recalls that all
this is the expression of God’s mercy toward his people and expression of his
fidelity to the promises made to Abraham. The Good News seen not as a reward
because of the observance of the Law, but rather as an expression of the goodness
and of the fidelity of God to his promises. This is what Paul taught the
Galatians and the Romans.
Personal Questions
•
The canticles are the thermometer of the life of
the community. They reveal the degree of consciousness and of commitment.
Examine the canticles of your community.
•
Analyze the social conscience which comes from
Mary’s canticle. In the 20th century after Christ, this canticle was censured
by the military of Latin America because it was considered subversive.
Concluding Prayer
The Lord raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy
from the dunghill to give them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of
honor. (1 Sam 2: 8)
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