Solemnity of the Nativity
of St John the Baptist - June 24
Today's Entrance Antiphon - Jn 1:6-7; Lk 1:17
A man was sent from God, whose name was John. He came
to testify to the light, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.
"Fortunate is John, who through the spirit of God deserved
to express his joy before he uttered any infant cries.
Fortunate is he who deserved to possess divine benefits before
he got human goods. Fortunate is he who deserved acquaintance
with heaven sooner than with earth, Fortunate is he who deserved
to announce future events before he saw any present ones. Fortunate is
who could receive God before he was received into his own body,
Fortunate, yes, outstandingly fortunate, is he who acquired merit before
he knew how to seek it. Fortunate is he who did not come to grace
through toil but was enabled by grace and then proceeded to his labors."
St Peter Chrysologus
Hat tip : Magnificat, Vol 20, N0. 4/June 2018
www.magnificat.com
Today's Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia! You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. Alleluia, alleluia!
"Happy birthday of John the Baptist. His birth is the culmination of an age, an era, a Covenant. He is the last of the Old Testament Prophets. His birth signals an end and a beginning. The Book of Hebrews says By calling this covenant “new,” [God] has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear (Hebrews 8:13).
Hence John would later say, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease. (Jn 3:29-30). Today John the Baptist is born who will usher in the new by answering the most significant question ever posed: "But where is the Lamb?'"
Msgr Charles Pope
Pastor ~ Holy Comforter - St Cyprian Parish ~ Washington, DC
“Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.”
(St John the Baptist is quoted at every Mass)
Prayer after Communion (Today's Mass)
Having feasted at the banquet of the heavenly Lamb,
we pray, O Lord,
that, finding joy in the nativity of Saint John the Baptist,
your Church may know as the author of her rebirth
the Christ whose coming John foretold.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
“I want to show you a sun that shone more brightly than all these, a soul that was truly free and detached, cleaving only to the will of God. I have often wondered who is the most mortified of the saints I know, and after some reflection I have come to the conclusion that it was Saint John the Baptist. He went into the desert when he was five years old and knew that our Savior and his came on earth in a place quite close by, one or two days' journey perhaps. How his heart, touched with love of his Savior from the time He was in His Mother's womb, must have longed to enjoy His presence! Yet he spends twenty-five years in the desert without coming to see our Lord even once; and leaving the desert he stays to catechize without visiting Him but waiting till our Lord comes to seek him out. Then when he has baptized Him he does not follow Him but stays behind to do his appointed task. How truly mortified was his spirit! To be so near his Savior and not see Him, to have Him so close and not enjoy His presence! Is this not a completely detached spirit, detached even from God Himself so as to do His will and serve Him, to leave God for God, and not to love God in order to love Him better? The example of this great saint overwhelms me with its grandeur.” ~ St Francis de Sales
St John the Baptist, pray for us!
