SATURDAY 04 JANUARY 2020

by | Jan 3, 2019 | Evangelium

saturday 04 JANUARY 2020

 

St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774 – 1821)

he was born in New York into an Episcopalian family, who ostracized her and left her penniless when she became a Catholic in 1805. Seton was the first native-born American to be canonized by the Catholic Church.

White

Entrance Antiphon : Cf. Gal 4: 4-5

God sent his Son, born of a woman, so that we might receive adoption as children.

 

Collect

Almighty ever-living God, who were pleased to shine forth with new light through the coming of your Only Begotten Son, grant, we pray, that, just as he was pleased to share our bodily form through the child-bearing of the Virgin Mary, so we, too, may one day merit to become companions in his kingdom of grace. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 

First reading : 1 John 3:7-10

My children, do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as he is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the devil has done that the Son of God appeared. No one who has been begotten by God sins; because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God. In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of God’s.

 

Psalm 97:1,7-9

R/ All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

  1. Sing a new song to the Lord for he has worked wonders. His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation.
  2. Let the sea and all within it thunder; the world, and all its peoples. Let the rivers clap their hands and the hills ring out their joy
  3. At the presence of the Lord: for he comes, he comes to rule the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples with fairness.

 

Gospel Acclamation : Jn 1:14,12

Alleluia, alleluia! The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. To all who received him he gave power to become children of God. Alleluia!

 

Gospel : John 1:35-42

As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher –’where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour. One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock.

 

Prayer over the Offerings

O God, who give us the gift of true prayer and of peace, graciously grant that, through this offering, we may do fitting homage to your divine majesty and, by partaking of the sacred mystery, we may be faithfully united in mind and heart. Through Christ our Lord.

 

Communion Antiphon : Jn 1: 16

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

 

Prayer after Communion

May your people, O Lord, whom you guide and sustain in many ways, experience, both now and in the future, the remedies which you bestow, that, with the needed solace of things that pass away, they may strive with ever deepened trust for things eternal. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

Meditation

Today, John the Baptist tells his disciples to abandon him and follow Jesus for he is the ‘Lamb of God.’ John saw his role as that of pointing the way to Christ.   Our life is to reflect this same virtue of pointing the way to Christ.  When Andrew was called he did not think only of himself. The first thing he did was to seek out his brother Simon and tell him.  That is the spirit of community, the spirit of the Church.  We never stand alone in our relationship with God.  It is a relationship we enjoy in union with all the members of the Church.