Daily Readings for: January 01, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: O God, who through the fruitful virginity of Blessed Mary bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation, grant, we pray, that we may experience the intercession of her, through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life, 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.
- Almond Pretzels
- Basilopitta
- Black Bun
- Children’s Punch
- Eggnog
- English Eggnog
- Glogg
- Glogg -- American Style
- God Cakes
- Initial Cookies
- Lemon Wafers
- New Year Cookies
- New Year's Cake
- New Year's Day Refreshments
- New Year's Dinner Menu
- New Year's Eve Punch
- New Year's Eve: Midnight Buffet Menu
- New Year's Kranz
- New Year's Pretzel
- New Year's Pretzel
- New Year's Rolls
- Oliebollen I
- Oliebollen II
- Roast Suckling Pig
- Rum Rolls
- Scotch Shortbread
- Scripture Cake
- Seed Cake
- Snow Balls
- Spanish Eggnog
- Sylvester Punch
- Vasilopita I
- Vasilopita II
- Vasilopitta
- Wassail Bowl
- ’Tis Said of Our Dear Lady
- A Single Branch Three Roses Bore
- Ave Maria Dear
- Beautiful, Glorious
- Celebrating the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin
- Child Jesus So Dear
- Christmas and the Eucharist
- Christmas Play
- Day Eight ~ Activities for New Year's Day
- Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
- Feasts of Mary in the Family
- Feasts of Our Lady in the Home
- Mary Garden
- New Year's Day Ceremony
- New Year's Day, Honoring Godparents
- New Year's Eve Activities
- New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
- New Year's Eve Family Celebration
- New Year's Eve Party
- New Year's Family Resolutions
- New Year's Visit
- Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas
- Pomander
- Salve Regina
- Song for the New Year
- Stella Matutina
- Virgin Blessed, Thou Star the Fairest
- What is a Nameday?
RECIPES
ACTIVITIES
PRAYERS
Christmas: January 1st
Octave of Christmas and Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Holy Day of Obligation USA)
Old Calendar: Octave Day of Christmas; Circumcision of Our Lord
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, our Lady's greatest title. This feast is the octave of Christmas. In the modern Roman Calendar only Christmas and Easter enjoy the privilege of an octave. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the Solemnity of Circumcision of Our Lord.
"Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts on wisdom in relation to Mary. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the "Seat of Wisdom." — Catechism of the Catholic Church 721
A plenary indulgence may be gained by reciting or singing the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus on the first day of the year. This hymn is traditionally sung for beginnings of things, calling on the Holy Spirit before endeavoring something new.
Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
Mary the Mother of God
Like the Churches of the East, Rome wished to honor the Virgin Mother of God during the days after Christmas. As a result the Natale S. Mariae ("Anniversary of St. Mary") made its appearance on January 1 in the seventh century; it has accurately been called "the first Marian feast of the Roman liturgy." — The Church at Prayer
On New Year's Day, the octave day of Christmas, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God. The divine and virginal motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a singular salvific event: for Our Lady it was the foretaste and cause of her extraordinary glory; for us it is a source of grace and salvation because "through her we have received the Author of life" (127).
The solemnity of 1 January, an eminently Marian feast, presents an excellent opportunity for liturgical piety to encounter popular piety: the first celebrates this event in a manner proper to it; the second, when duly catechised, lends joy and happiness to the various expressions of praise offered to Our Lady on the birth of her divine Son, to deepen our understanding of many prayers, beginning with that which says: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners."
In the West, 1 January is an inaugural day marking the beginning of the civil year. The faithful are also involved in the celebrations for the beginning of the new year and exchange "new year" greetings. However, they should try to lend a Christian understanding to this custom making of these greetings an expression of popular piety. The faithful, naturally, realize that the "new year" is placed under the patronage of the Lord, and in exchanging new year greetings they implicitly and explicitly place the New Year under the Lord's dominion, since to him belongs all time (cf. Ap 1, 8; 22,13)(128).
A connection between this consciousness and the popular custom of singing the Veni Creator Spiritus can easily be made so that on 1 January the faithful can pray that the Spirit may direct their thoughts and actions, and those of the community during the course of the year (129).
New Year greetings also include an expression of hope for a peaceful New Year. This has profound biblical, Christological and incarnational origins. The "quality of peace" has always been invoked throughout history by all men, and especially during violent and destructive times of war.
The Holy See shares the profound aspirations of man for peace. Since 1967, 1 January has been designated "world day for peace."
Popular piety has not been oblivious to this initiative of the Holy See. In the light of the new born Prince of Peace, it reserves this day for intense prayer for peace, education towards peace and those values inextricably linked with it, such as liberty, fraternal solidarity, the dignity of the human person, respect for nature, the right to work, the sacredness of human life, and the denunciation of injustices which trouble the conscience of man and threaten peace.
Excerpted from the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy.
The Circumcision of Our Lord
The old liturgy celebrated three feasts in one. The first was that which the old Roman sacramentaries called "the octave of the Lord," and indeed the greater part of the Mass was of the octave of Christmas with many extracts from the Masses of Christmas. Various portions of the Mass and Office celebrated the divine maternity of Mary. The third feast was that of the Circumcision which has been celebrated since the sixth century. Eight days after His birth Christ underwent, like all the Jews, this rite enjoined on Abraham by God as a pledge of his faith, and He received the name of Jesus.
When Our Lord submitted to the cut in His flesh at the Circumcision he began His work as Redeemer. He commenced that shedding of Blood which would reach its highest point of generosity in the Passion and Death.
In giving to Abraham the law of circumcision God bestowed on him his new name — Abraham. With the Jews henceforward the giving of a name had a spiritual significance; like circumcision it meant that the person belonged to the people of God. The bestowal of the name of Jesus has an even loftier significance: it is an assertion of His mission as Savior of the world.