Recta Ratio

In pre-1962 use, each of the three feast days after Christmas have octaves of their own. Today is the Octave of Saint Stephen. Tomorrow is Saint John's Octave. And Sunday is the Octave of the Holy Innocents. That leads right into the Holy Name and Epiphany.

January First has many titles in the Church, a proliferation coming after Vatican II, as the church seems unable to settle on lasting theme having diminished its previous traditional theme for the day. But traditionally it has been observed as the Feast of the Circumcision.

The Catholic Encyclopedia on this feast.

My father, George Thomas Senior, died twenty-six years ago this morning. He had just returned from 9:30 Mass with my mother, and went around the corner to chip ice away from the door of an elderly neighbor. Moments later, there was a frantic phone call that he had collapsed. I dressed and rushed to the scene and arrived just in time to see the ambulance crew carry him in. Efforts to revive him failed.

V. Requiem aeternam, dona ei Domine.
R. Et lux perpetua luceat in ei.
V. Requiescat in pace.
R. Amen.

Deus, qui nos patrem et matrem honorare praecepisti: miserere clementer animabus patris et matris meae eorumque peccata dimitte: meque eos in aeternae claritatis gaudio fac videre. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Amen.

In your charity, please pray for the repose of his soul.

From The Golden Legend

From Catholic On Line



Remember the especial vehemence with which English protestants attacked the cult of Saint Thomas a Becket, because Henry VIII saw it as a potential rallying point for anti-royal Catholic revolt. So celebrate this great martyred with special emphasis.

The Coventry Carol

1. Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.

2. O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

3. Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.

4. Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.



In Herod's time, a slaughter of holy innocent babes was an outstanding once-in-a-lifetime event. For us, the murderous sin of abortion has made the slaughter of holy innocents a daily, constant massacre. So desensitized to the slaughter of our babies are we now that a gunman two weeks ago thought nothing of brutally gunning down classrooms full of kindergarterners and First Graders.

God help us!

Adeste Fideles by Lucianno Pavarotti https://youtu.be/TbV3CrQ6Sa0
Master's In This Hall by Beth & Barry Hall https://youtu.be/PX6BbFDlGLE
What Child Is This by The Harp Twins https://youtu.be/uEk3-OlvcCc
Lo, How A Rose 'Ere Blooming by Sting https://youtu.be/EgP3cXSHYNU
Miss Houlihan's Christmas Cake by The Revels https://youtu.be/9xknyv3lWwk

This is the feast of one of my special patrons, Saint John the Evangelist. John is my confirmation name.

From The Golden Legend

A prayer to Our Blessed Lady and to her adopted son, Saint John (translation by Michael W. Martin):

O Intemerata

O UNSPOTTED and forever blessed, unique and incomparable virgin Mary, Mother of God, most graceful temple of God, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, gate of the kingdom of heaven, by whom next unto God the whole world liveth, incline O Mother of Mercy thy ears of piety unto my unworthy supplications, and be merciful to me a most wretched sinner, and be unto me a helper in all things.

O most blessed John, the beloved and friend of Christ, which by the same Lord Jesus Christ was chosen a virgin, and among the rest more beloved, above all instructed in the heavenly mysteries, for thou wast made a most worthy Apostle and Evangelist: thee also I call upon with Mary, the mother of the same Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to afford me thy aid with hers.

O ye two celestial jewels, Mary, and John. O ye two lights divinely shining before God. Chase away by your bright beams the clouds of my offenses.

For you are those two in whom God the Father through His own Son, specially built His own house, and in whom the only-begotten Son of God as the reward of your most sincere virginity confirmed the privilege of His love while hanging on the Cross, saying thus to one of you: "Woman, behold thy son," and then to the other, "Behold thy mother."

In the sweetness therefore of His most sacred love, through which by our Lord's own mouth, as mother and son you were joined to each other, I, a most wretched sinner, commend this day to you my body and soul, that at all hours and moments, inwardly and outwardly, you would vouchsafe to be unto me steadfast guardians and devout intercessors before God.

I indeed firmly believe and accept beyond any doubt that one who wants to be yours will belong to God and one who does not want to be yours will not belong to God, for you can obtain whatever you ask from God without delay. By virtue of your most powerful worthiness, beg, I beseech you, for the well being of my body and soul.

Plead, I beseech you, plead for me by your holy prayers that the loving Spirit, the best giver of graces, may vouchsafe to visit my heart and dwell therein, the self same Spirit who may thoroughly purge me from all filth of vice, lighten and adorn me with sacred virtues: who would cause me to stand perfectly and to persevere in the love of God and my neighbor, and, after the course of this life, may this most benign comforter bring me to the joys of His elect, He, who with God the Father and the Son is co-eternal and consubstantial with them and in them, liveth and reigneth as Almighty God, forever and ever.
Amen.