The Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
by VP
Posted on Monday June 24, 2024 at 01:00AM in Saints
Daily Missal with Vespers for Sunday
"He was sanctified in his mother's womb. A good instruction for mothers, to pray for their children before they are born. Very much depends on their natural constitution and temper; the difference of inclinations is very observable. Why then should not they pray for such as may lead to virtue and happiness?
St. John was the forerunner of Christ, and proclaimed Him to the world, preparing His way before Him, by preaching penance and conversion from sin. Pray that you may hear his voice, and enter into those holy dispositions which he requires. Prepare your soul, as he directs, that Christ may follow, and take up his abode in your heart.
We have it from the mouth of Christ himself, that amongst all born of women there is none greater than St. John Baptist. And yet we find nothing in him which the world esteems great; his whole life being a contempt of the world, and an entire renunciation of all that which is reputed valuable in it. For, his habitation being a desert, his clothing being of camel's hair, and his food locusts and wild honey, it is evident that neither riches, nor honour, nor pleasures, nor the satisfaction of any sense, nor any sort of vanity, had place in him. Making no further use of the world than necessity required, he renounced all that which could contribute to these common objects of human greatness. His greatness therefore, was in the contempt of all these things; and this was necessary in him, who was to be the precursor of the Messias; that so not only in words, but by example too, he might teach the world to prepare the ways of the Lord, and make good what he said of himself: I am a voice. For thus was he a voice, whilst all that he did carried with it the same instruction with what he said.
This instruction we are to receive this day, by learning from St. John the only methods of preparing the ways of Christ, and obtain some degrees of that greatness, which rendered him the just subject of our Redeemer's love and praise. This instruction has but one point, and that is, forsaking or contemning the world and ourselves. This is the lesson which he teaches: and the case is plain. For as to prepare for the world, and seek its greatness, there is a necessity of pursuing all those ways which the world
values, and are calculated to raise its admiration and esteem; and
since to be great in our own eyes, there is a necessity of observing the dictates of self-love; -so, to prepare the ways of Christ, and obtain some part of that greatness which he commends, there is a like necessity of contemning
what he disesteems, and walking in all those ways which he approves and
teaches, as ways that lead to Him. And since he has declared the world to be his enemy; since the great things of the world are the very things which he has rejected; since we are taught that all its ways are vanity, and that self-love is the root of all evil; it is no less than demonstration, that the only means of preparing the ways of our Lord, and being great with him, is to forsake or despise the world and ourselves. Not that all are bound to retire into a desert with St. John, or confine themselves to the rigours of his eating or clothing; but that in all these particulars, whilst great allowances are granted, in consideration of health and education, degrees and custom, great care likewise ought to be had by Christians, not to seek themselves or the world, any more than the Baptist did, who renounced them all. Because, whatever we do, pushed on by the love of the world or ourselves, we do not in this prepare the ways of Christ; nor can we by such ways become great with him. By frequent selfdenial, a Christian comes near to the spirit of St. John. And is not this the only means for preparing the ways of our Lord, and arriving at that greatness, which he commends? This indeed is contrary to what the world expects; but since the world is opposite to Christ, the ways of Christ must necessarily be opposite to those of the world; and there can be no engaging in the one, but by forsaking the other.
Teach us therefore, O Jesus thy ways: and may thy holy Baptist obtain
for us that spirit, without which we can have no hopes of coming to thee." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Prayers in Honor of St. John the Baptist
O Glorious St. John the Baptist, of those born of women the greatest of prophets (Luke vii. 28); thou, though sanctified from thy mother's womb and most innocent, didst nevertheless will to retire into the desert, there to practice austerities and penance; obtain for us from Our Lord the grace to be detached, at least in the affections of our hearts, from all earthly treasure, and to practice Christian mortification with interior recollection and a spirit of holy prayer,
Pater, Ave, and Gloria.
Most zealous apostle, who, without working any miracle on others, but solely by the example of thy life of penance and the power of thy words, didst draw after thee crowds, in order to prepare them to worthily receive the Messiah, and listen to His heavenly teaching; grant that it may be given to us also, by the example of a holy life and the practice of good works, to lead many souls to God and, above all, those who have been enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance, and led astray by vice.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.
O unconquered martyr, who for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, didst, with heroic constancy, and at the cost of life itself, withstand the impious Herod reproving him openly for his bad and dissolute life; obtain for us a brave and generous heart, so that, overcoming all human respect, we may boldly profess our faith, and follow the teaching of our divine master, Jesus Christ.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.
V. Pray for us, St. John the Baptist.
R.That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
O God, Who hast made this day worthy of honor in the nativity (commemoration) of St. John, grant to thy people the grace of spiritual joys, and direct the minds of all the faithful into the way of eternal salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Pius X, Jan 11, 1904 (Indulgences.) Blessed Sacrament Book by Father Francis Lasance p1131)
"A Prophet of the Most High" (Alleluia), St. John is pre-figured by Isaias and Jeremias (Introit, Epistle, Gradual); still more, he was consecrated before birth to announce Jesus (Secret) and to prepare souls for His coming.
The Gospel narrates the prodigies which accompanied his birth. Zachary gives his child the name which St. Gabriel has brought him from heaven, which signifies: The Lord has pardoned. He immediately recovers his speech and, filled with the Holy Ghost, he foretells the greatness of his son: "He shall walk before the face of the Lord to give unto the people the knowledge of salvation." The angel Gabriel had announced to Zachary that "many would rejoice in the birth of St. John the Baptist". Indeed, not only “the neighbors and relations of Elizabeth" solemnized the event, but every year, on its anniversary, the whole Church invites her children to share in this holy joy. She knows that the nativity "of this Prophet of the Most High " at this summer Christmas is intimately connected with the Advent of the Messiah.
After the feast of the Nativity of St. John, the days become shorter, while, on the contrary, after the Nativity of the Savior, of which this feast is the prelude, the days become longer. The Precursor must efface himself before Jesus Who is the true light of souls. "He must increase," says St. John," and I must decrease."
The solstices were the occasion of pagan feasts when fires were lighted to honor the orb which gives us light. The Church Christianized these rites seeing in them a symbol of St. John who was a burning and brilliant lamp." Indeed "she encouraged this kind of manifestation which corresponded so well with the character of the feast. The St. John bonfires happily completed the liturgical solemnity; they showed the Church and the earthly city united in one thought." The name of the Precursor is inscribed in the Canon of the Mass at the head of the Second List.
Formerly, on his feast day three masses were celebrated in his honor, and numerous churches were dedicated to him. Parents loved to give his name to their children.
Paul the Deacon, a monk of Monte Cassino and a friend of Charlemagne, had composed, in honor of St. John the Baptist, the hymn: “Ut queant laxis." In the thirteenth century the Benedictine monk Guy of Arezzo noticed that the notes sung on the first syllables formed the sequence of the first six degrees of the scale. He named each degree by the corresponding syllable: (Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) and thereby greatly facilitated the study of musical intervals.
"That Thy servants may sing with full voice the marvels of Thy works, purify their sullied lips, O St. John."Immediately Zachary made signs that he wished to call his son John,. he recovered his speech; and lo! a hymn composed in honor of the Prophet, whose voice resounds in the desert, becomes the occasion of a new progress in music. Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the welfare spiritual and temporal of his Parishioners." Daily Missal with Vespers page 1436 1925
