[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: December 27, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who through the blessed Apostle John have unlocked for us the secrets of your Word, grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvelously brought to our ears. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Mulled Rosé Punch
• St. John's Wine

ACTIVITIES

• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: December
• St. John's Wine
• Christmas Play
• Namedays
• Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: December
• Apostle Cookies
• Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
• Celebrating St. John the Apostle
• Christmas and the Eucharist
• St. John the Evangelist
• What is a Nameday?

PRAYERS

• Blessing of Wine
• Christmas Morning Prayers
• Christmas Evening Prayers
• St. John's Wine
• December Devotion: The Immaculate Conception
• Day Three ~ Blessing of Wine for the Feast of St. John the Apostle
• A Child's Gospel Night Prayer

LIBRARY

• Hauerietis Aquas (On the Sacred Heart) | Pope Pius XII
• The Sacred Heart And The Eucharist | Fr. John A. Hardon S.J.

Christmas: December 27th

Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist

Old Calendar: St. John

Today is the third day in the octave of Christmas. The Church celebrates the Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist. Born in Bethsaida, he was called while mending his nets to follow Jesus. He became the beloved disciple of Jesus. He wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse. His passages on the pre-existence of the Word, who by His Incarnation became the light of the world and the life of our souls, are among the finest of the New Testament. He is the evangelist of the divinity of Christ and His fraternal love. With James, his brother, and Simon Peter, he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration. At the Last Supper, he leans on the Master's breast. At the foot of the cross, Jesus entrusts His Mother to his care. John's pure life kept him very close to Jesus and Mary in years to come. John was exiled to the island of Patmos under Emperor Domitian.

The Third Day of Christmas

St. John
St. John, the Evangelist, who is styled in the Gospel, "the beloved disciple", was a Galilean, son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother to St. James the Greater, both of whom were fishermen. The two were called by Jesus to be disciples as they were mending their nets by the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus showed St. John particular instances of kindness and affection above all the rest. He had the happiness to be present with Peter and James at the Transfiguration of Christ, and was permitted to witness His agony in the Garden. He was allowed to rest on Our Savior's bosom at the Last Supper, and to him Jesus confided the care of His holy Mother as He hung dying on the Cross.

St. John was the only one of the Apostles who did not forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion and Death.

It seems that St. John remained for a long time in Jerusalem, but that his later years were spent at Ephesus, whence he founded many churches in Asia Minor. St. John wrote his Gospel after the other Evangelists, about sixty-three years after the Ascension of Christ; also three Epistles, and the wonderful and mysterious Book of the Apocalypse or Revelation. He was brought to Rome and, according to tradition, was cast into a caldron of boiling oil by order of Emperor Domitian. Like the Three Children in the fiery furnace of Babylon, he was miraculously preserved unhurt.

He was later exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse, but afterwards returned to Ephesus.

In his extreme old age he continued to visit the churches of Asia. St. Jerome relates that when age and weakness grew upon him so that he was no longer able to preach to the people, he would be carried to the assembly of the faithful by his disciples, with great difficulty; and every time said to his flock only these words: "My dear children, love one another."

St. John died in peace at Ephesus in the third year of Trajan (as seems to be gathered from Eusebius' history of the Saint); that is, the hundredth of the Christian era, or the sixty-sixth from the crucifixion of Christ, St. John then being about ninety-four years old, according to St. Epiphanus.

Excerpted from Heavenly Friends, St. Paul Editions

Patron: Against poison; art dealers; authors; bookbinders; booksellers; burns; compositors; editors; engravers; friendships; lithographers; painters; papermakers; poisoning; printers; publishers; tanners; theologians; typesetters; writers; Asia Minor; Taos, New Mexico; Umbria, Italy; diocese of Cleveland, Ohio; diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Symbols: Cup or chalice and serpent (cup or sorrow foretold by Jesus); eagle rising out of a cauldron (refers to being a martyr of spirit, but not in deed); serpent entwined on a sword; grave; Prester John seated on tomb, with book, orb, and sword; eagle on a closed book; scroll of his Gospel; scroll of the Apocalypse; nimbed eagle; book.

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Meditation: John 20:1-8

 Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

“He saw and believed.” (John 20:8)

Mary Magdalene’s report of an empty tomb was so troubling that Peter and John left the safety of the upper room to investigate. John got there first, and waited for Peter before going into the tomb. Once he saw the carefully rolled up burial cloth, he believed. Jesus had risen from the dead! All the words Jesus had spoken about this while he was still alive blossomed in John’s heart that moment, and a new faith was born.

Don’t you find this amazing? Even Peter, the leader of the apos­tles, the one who walked on water and confessed Jesus as the Holy One of God, didn’t believe—at least not yet. What was so different about John?

If we backtrack to Good Friday, we see that John, also known as the beloved disciple, was the only one of the Twelve to stay by the cross throughout Jesus’ passion. He was there, comforting Mary as they watched the Son of God give up his life. John saw Jesus’ faith­fulness, his absolute trust in his Father, and his self-sacrificing love in a way that the others didn’t. Witnessing such a dramatic scene must have made a deep impression on his heart.

Remember, too, that on the cross Jesus entrusted Mary into John’s care (John 19:25-27). Jesus knew that John had the same attitude of prayerful pondering that his mother had—the attitude that John showed as he laid his head next to Jesus’ heart at the Last Supper. While Peter was the active doer, John was more thoughtful and prayerful. So just the right bit of evidence—an empty tomb—could act as a kind of spark, igniting everything John had pondered during those three days of waiting.

Take St. John as your model as you pray today. Fix your eyes on Christ crucified, and pon­der his word. Let all the truths of this blessed Christmas season take deeper root in your heart. Just believe in Jesus. Draw close to his heart, and let his love wash over you.

“Lord, I don’t want to keep searching frantically for you. I believe that you are right here with me. Help me rest in your presence, so that my faith can deepen.”

1 John 1:1-4; Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12