Tag: Saint John

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

From the responsorial psalm: “Light dawns for the just; and gladness, for the upright of heart. Be glad in the LORD, you just, and give thanks to his holy name. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 20:1a and 2-8)

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

John describes the events that take place at the discovery of the empty tomb following the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene first goes to the tomb and finds that the stone has been rolled away and then tells Peter, the first pope, and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter and John immediately run to the tomb, and John arrives first and out of respect for his authority of office waits for him to enter first. Going inside the tomb, Peter finds the burial cloths and the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head. John then enters and sees the burial cloths. In John’s own account, which he describes in third person writing about himself, he says, “he saw and believed.” As the first apostles, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John run to seek out the risen Christ. The risen Christ, present in the Eucharist, is ours to run to today.

God, help me take in the words of Saint John from the first reading as it applies to the Gospel: “what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.” Fellowship with you and with Jesus is your gift and mine to receive. Give me the grace to do that through participation in the sacraments of the Church and through the intercession of Saint John and the Blessed Mother. Just as John accepted the invitation of Jesus from the cross to take Mary into his home, show me the way to do the same for the sake of your glory. Saint John, pray for us!

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.

“We can.” | Feast of Saint James, Apostle

From the responsorial psalm: “Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, They shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 20:20-28)

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

In response to the mother of James and John, Jesus asks them if they can accept the suffering that Jesus himself will face. Asking them whether they are prepared to give over their lives as they suffer in the service of the Lord, Jesus wishes to know their sincerity of heart. In their affirmative response, Jesus sees their devotion to him and to his mission and so says, “My chalice you will indeed drink.” In obedience to the Father, Jesus tells them that anything more is not his to give. When the other ten hear of the request of James and John, they become resentful. But gathering them together, he says, “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” In the same way, Jesus tells them, he came not to be served “but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

God, help me see how Jesus invited James and John to model their lives after his. He asked them if they desired to drink the same chalice of suffering that he would drink, and he invites me to do the same. How is it that I would willingly take up suffering in a life of service to you, Lord? What is there in that invitation that would keep me from fleeing in the opposite direction? I am comfortable; I don’t suffer much. Yet, I know suffering has come and will come again. If suffering is inevitable, let me welcome Christ as it comes because he alone brings life in the shadow of death. In the midst of every kind of suffering, Saint Paul says, we do this for your glory. We have in our mortal bodies your surpassing power, “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” Saint James, pray for us!

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.

“Out of Egypt I called my son.” | Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 2:13-18)

When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son.

Joseph obeys the angel’s instructions and takes his family to Egypt, where they stay until Herod’s death. Matthew goes on to give an account of the innocent children who were slaughtered. The Massacre of the Holy Innocents also reveals the suffering and persecution Jesus will endure after he begins his public ministry. In contrast to the evil actions of Herod, we see the purity and innocence of the child Jesus and the Holy Innocents.

God, help me understand today’s Gospel as a way to comprehend how evil is perpetrated. I have come to learn that while you don’t cause evil–the human misuse of freedom does–and in its mystery, you permit it to bring about a greater good. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.” This is beyond my understanding. Teach me to trust in your mercy and the redemptive work of Jesus your Son as a way to overcome evil through love, justice, and mercy. Holy Innocents, pray for us!

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.

“And he saw and believed.” | Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 20:1a and 2-8)

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

When Mary Magdalene tells Peter and John that the tomb is empty, they both run to it. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and a younger man, runs faster than Peter. Do they run because they know they will find Jesus risen from the dead or because, like Mary Magdalene, they don’t know where Jesus’ body has been taken. They run, knowing that Jesus is no longer in the one place they believed he remained: dead in the tomb. But when they arrive, they find the burial cloths and the cloth that covered Jesus’ head rolled up in a separate place. John tells us this as an answer to their bewilderment, how they each came to believe in the resurrection. In John’s own words as he speaks about what he witnessed: “Then the other disciple went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.”

Father in heaven, you made visible the Word of life in Jesus your Son. This is the meaning of Christmas, that the Word became incarnate to make all who believe his adopted sons and daughters. Yet, here is the story of the resurrection, a leap from Christmas to Easter, from birth to death to resurrection. The burial cloths, not unlike the swaddling clothes of the infant Jesus, a necessity for the care of a body placed in the tomb, the place where corpses are placed. But Jesus casts off the ritual trappings of death to rise to new life, not for himself only but for all who believe. Help me, God, take this in today; give me the grace to see and believe as Peter and John saw and believed.

From the Gospel acclamation: “We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord;
the glorious company of Apostles praise you.” Saint John, pray for us!

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.

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.

Today’s Gospel begins with the first words of the first chapter of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” The Word, Emmanuel, who was with God from the beginning came into the world through God. John says his own people did not accept him, as there will always be those who don’t accept him. But those who do believe in his name have power to become children of God, not by their choice but by God’s grace. The wording in today’s Gospel deserves rereading after rereading and never fails to nurture and edify. How can I remember just the few words “power to become children of God . . . nor by a man’s decision but of God.”?

God, help me understand the words John crafted through the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Jesus, Emmanuel, you are and always have been consubstantial with the Father, one with Him; through Him, all things come to be so that you are itself “light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” To pray these words from the Nicene Creed is to profess the desire to be one with the Word: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father.” Incarnate Word, you are the light of the human race.

Lord, what lies hidden in mystery from the beginning you reveal to me in the infant Jesus. “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” born of Mary, ever virgin. In saying Jesus’ name, I take to the way of belief and pray for constancy in the moments of unbelief. Stay with me, Lord!

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.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

Today’s Gospel reading from Saint John tells the story of the Resurrection, when Mary Magdalene ran to Peter and John to tell them that they had taken Jesus from the tomb. Both disciples ran to the tomb to discover that the burial cloths were placed beside where Jesus’ body had been. On seeing this, the passage says that John “saw and believed.” What prompted Peter and John to drop everything they were doing and run to the tomb? In my life, what kind of revelation would it take for my faith to elevate me to “see and believe?”

Lord, help me understand that you are God of the living. In the first reading, John writes: “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life—for the life was made visible.” Jesus, Word of life, help strengthen my faith. You, who Mary Magdalene said they had taken from the tomb, sit at the right hand of the Father. Give me the grace to use the gift of my senses to know that you are present at every Mass in the Eucharist. From the Roman Missal: “For in the mystery of the Word made flesh a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that, as we recognize in him God made visible, we may be caught up through him in love of things invisible.”

Living God, thank you for your goodness. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner! Stay with me, Lord!

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.

Readings