Liturgical Colour : White

Revelations 11 : 19a and Revelations 12 : 1-6a, 10ab

Then the sanctuary of God in the heavens was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant of God could be seen inside the sanctuary. A great sign appeared in heaven : a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain, looking to her time of delivery.

Then another sign appeared : a huge, red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and wearing seven crowns on its heads. It had just swept along a third of the stars of heaven with its tail, throwing them down to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour the Child as soon as it was born.

She gave birth to a male Child, the One Who is to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre; then her Child was seized and taken up to God and to His throne while the woman fled to the desert where God had prepared a place for her. Then I heard a loud voice from heaven : Now has salvation come, with the power and the kingdom of our God, and the rule of His Anointed.