January 1 on the Church Calendar

This icon by Aidan Hart is titled, The Mother of God and Savior. Notice that although Jesus is imaged as as a child, his muscularity and strength are beyond his years. At the same time, Mary is rendered as great, indeed large enough to be the Mother of God. A similar shift in proportion is at work in the familiar Pieta where the figure of Mary is much larger than the Christ she holds in her lap. (Click on the image for a larger version.)

January 1 is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God on the liturgical calendar. On the civil calendar it is New Year's Day. It is also the World Day of Peace and the Pope's message for that purpose can be found here.

The scriptures for this day are, I believe, the shortest lections of the whole liturgical year. You can find them here.

Neil, a regular contributor to Todd's blog, Catholic Sensibility, has a fine post on tomorrow's gospel. Heads up: ConcordPastor is grateful for this and fully intends to lean on Neil's work for his homily on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!