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Week 23 of Ordinary Time

Morning Prayer · The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Prayer Reading Mode: Prayer Space

Hours Depth: Medium

About today

Nine months after the Immaculate Conception the Church keeps Mary’s birthday on 8 September. The Gospels do not narrate her infancy; the feast simply rejoices that the Mother of the Lord was born among us. Salvation has a human beginning in a child of Israel, born like us so that the Word might have a Mother. The feast is a birthday of hope. Ask today for gratitude that God works through families and hidden years, and for a welcome like hers when the Word draws near.

Original – Prayer on Fire.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin MaryChoose how you want to pray this hour:

Opening

Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Hymn

Morning by morning you awaken me. Help me to listen before I speak. Let praise be the first word I find, And mercy the last I keep. Christ of the rising light, go with me. Where I am weary, be my rest. Where I am eager, make me wise. In all things, make me blessed.

Original – Prayer on Fire

Psalm I

Antiphon

Handmaid of the Lord, help us say yes when we are afraid.

Psalm 63 (62)

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Psalm

O God, my God: to you, I keep vigil until first light. For you, my soul has thirsted, to you my body, in so many ways. By a deserted land, both inaccessible and waterless, so I have appeared in the sanctuary before you, in order to behold your virtue and your glory. For your mercy is better than life itself. It is you my lips will praise. So will I bless you in my life, and I will lift up my hands in your name. Let my soul be filled, as if with marrow and fatness; and my mouth will give praise with exultant lips. When I have remembered you on my bed in the morning, I will meditate on you. For you have been my helper. And I will exult under the cover of your wings. My soul has clung close to you. Your right hand has supported me. Truly, these ones have sought my soul in vain. They will enter into the lower parts of the earth. They will be delivered into the hand of the sword. They will be the portions of foxes. Truly, the king will rejoice in God: all those who swear by him will be praised, because the mouth of those who speak iniquity has been blocked.

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Antiphon

Handmaid of the Lord, help us say yes when we are afraid.

Psalm II

Antiphon

Mary, quiet flame of faith, keep us near your Son.

Psalm 90 (89)

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Psalm

O Lord, you have been our refuge from generation to generation. Before the mountains became, or the land was formed along with the world: from ages past, even to all ages, you are God. And, lest man be turned aside in humiliation, you have said: Be converted, O sons of men. For a thousand years before your eyes are like the days of yesterday, which have passed by, and they are like a watch of the night, which was held for nothing: so their years shall be. In the morning, he may pass away like grass; in the morning, he may flower and pass away. In the evening, he will fall, and harden, and become dry. For, at your wrath, we have withered away, and we have been disturbed by your fury. You have placed our iniquities in your sight, our age in the illumination of your countenance. For all our days have faded away, and at your wrath, we have fainted. Our years will be considered to be like a spider’s web. The days of our years in them are seventy years. But in the powerful, they are eighty years, and more of these are with hardship and sorrow. For mildness has overwhelmed us, and we shall be corrected. Who knows the power of your wrath? And, before fear, can your wrath be numbered? So make known your right hand, along with men learned in heart, in wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And may you be persuaded on behalf of your servants. We were filled in the morning with your mercy, and we exulted and delighted all our days. We have been rejoicing, because of the days in which you humbled us, because of the years in which we saw evils. Look down upon your servants and upon their works, and direct their sons. And may the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. And so, direct the works of our hands over us; direct even the work of our hands.

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Antiphon

Mary, quiet flame of faith, keep us near your Son.

Silence

A moment of silence

Reading of the feast

Galatians 4:4–5

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

But when the fullness of time arrived, God sent his Son, formed from a woman, formed under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, in order that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Responsory

The Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Benedictus

Antiphon

Raise up your salvation in us, and we will serve you without fear.

Luke 1:68–79

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Canticle

“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and has wrought the redemption of his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant, just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy Prophets, who are from ages past: salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all those who hate us, to accomplish mercy with our fathers, and to call to mind his holy testament, the oath, which he swore to Abraham, our father, that he would grant to us, so that, having been freed from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear, in holiness and in justice before him, throughout all our days. And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the face of the Lord: to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people for the remission of their sins, through the heart of the mercy of our God, by which, descending from on high, he has visited us, to illuminate those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to direct our feet in the way of peace.”

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Antiphon

Raise up your salvation in us, and we will serve you without fear.

Intercessions

For the Church, that Mary’s yes may still teach us how to trust.

R. Speak, Lord, we are listening.

For the lowly, that they may be lifted as she was lifted.

R. Speak, Lord, we are listening.

For the dying, that they may be received into the same joy.

R. Speak, Lord, we are listening.

For our own hearts, that we may keep the Word as she kept it.

R. Speak, Lord, we are listening.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Closing prayer

God our Father, on this Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you lifted her into the joy of your presence. Receive our praise this day, and keep us near her Son until we too are gathered home. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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An original Prayer on Fire offering for the hours of the day