Thursday, June 24, 2021

Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 18:12-19

Mass: Is 49:1-6; Resp Ps 139; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66, 80

Wonderful are your works.

JESUS, LAMB OF GOD,
HAVE MERCY ON US.

Today we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths (Lk 3:4). We too prepare the way of the Lord. First, let us repent of our sins, then let us leap with joy as did John the Baptist in the womb of his mother (Lk 1:44). One way to leap is to pray with Psalms 148, 149, and 150 as we do at Vigils. Praise the Lord from the heavens; give praise in the heights ... Let everything that has breath give praise to the Lord! We give praise to the God who is, praise to the God who was, praise to the God who is to come, for ages unending Amen. 

Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds and there is room for more.
(Saint Joseph Cafasso, 1811-1860)

Did a Magdalene, a Paul, a Constantine, an Augustine become mountains of ice after their conversion? Quite the contrary. We should never have had these prodigies of conversion and marvelous holiness if they had not changed the flames of human passion into volcanoes of immense love of God.
(Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1850-1917)

When John was preaching the Lord's coming he was asked: Who are you? And he replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The voice is John, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.
(From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop, in Office of Readings, June 24)

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST,
SAINT JOSEPH,
PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: An Otto family camping trip at the Metolius River in central Oregon. Here the sunrise from the top of Black Butte, see Mount Washington in the distance. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

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