The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, Solemnity - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

As for you, little child, you shall be called
a prophet of God, the Most High.
You shall go ahead of the Lord
to prepare his ways before him. LK 1:76

ISAIAH 49:1-6

My Soul's Beloved,

Those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that are humble, obedient, and conformed to the Holy Spirit will recognize that God has revealed His plan of salvation from the moment He laid the foundations of the earth. Slowly but surely, in the measure that we could receive and understand, God has made known to us that He created us for a glorious destiny with Him. Sharing His very life, we were to be like Him. Sadly, Adam and Eve chose to be beguiled by Satan rather than to believe in God and thus we were separated forever from our Creator.

Our Heavenly Father loved the human race too much to be separated from us eternally, and from the very first, He promised that He would give the world the Fruit of the womb of the Woman clothed with the Sun, You, my Beloved,  to save and redeem the world. 

Here in the verses from Isaiah, as the Church celebrates the nativity of St. John the Baptist, Your cousin, we read of the prophecies that will be fulfilled eventually. All the marvels that God has done and continues to do in the lives of those who are members of Your Body, Your Church.

We thank our Heavenly Father for His faithfulness and His mercies which are renewed each morning.

Islands, listen to me,
pay attention, remotest peoples.
The Lord called me before I was born,
from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name.
He made my mouth a sharp sword,
and hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me into a sharpened arrow,
and concealed me in his quiver.
He said to me, ‘You are my servant (Israel)
in whom I shall be glorified’;
while I was thinking, ‘I have toiled in vain,
I have exhausted myself for nothing’;
and all the while my cause was with the Lord,
my reward with my God.
I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord,
my God was my strength.
And now the Lord has spoken,
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
to gather Israel to him:
‘It is not enough for you to be my servant,
to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel;
I will make you the light of the nations
so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’

PSALM 138(139):1-3,13-15

I thank you for the wonder of my being.

O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,

my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

I thank you for the wonder of my being.

ACTS 13:22-26

LUKE 1:57-66,80