The Holy Innocents, Martyrs–R (II) - Day Within the Octave of Christmas–W (Comm.)
It is because Herod believed the words of the Magi and of the high priests whom he consulted that he sees a rival in the Infant of Bethlehem and with jealousy pursues the Child, born King of the Jews. It is this God-King that the Innocents by dying confess. Their passion is the exaltation of Christ.
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Herod, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth of Our Savior, having heard that the Wise Men had come from the East to Jerusalem in search of the King of the Jews, was troubled. He called together the chief priests, and learning that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, he told the Wise Men: “When you have found Him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore Him.” But God having warned them in a dream not to return, they went back to their homes another way. St. Joseph, too, was ordered in his sleep to “take the Child and His Mother and fly into Egypt.” When Herod found that the Wise Men did not return, he was furious, and ordered that every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity of the age of two and under should be slain. These innocent victims were the flowers and the first-fruits of His martyrs, and triumphed over the world, without having ever known it or experienced its dangers.
Reflection—How few perhaps of these children, if they had lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world! What snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved from! So we often lament as misfortunes many accidents which in the designs of Heaven are the greatest mercies.
Morning Prayer (selections)
HYMN
Christ, in whose passion once was sown
All virtue of all saints to be,
From the white field of these thy own
We praise the seed and sower, thee.
Thine was the first and holiest grain
To die and quicken and increase;
And then came these, and died again,
That spring and harvest should not cease.
From thee the martyrs, we from those,
Each in thy grace's measure, spring;
Their strength upon our weakness flows
And guides us to the goal we sing.
These were thy great ones: we, thy least,
One in desire and faith with them,
Called by the Lord to keep one feast,
Journey to one Jerusalem.
PSALMODY
Antiphon 1: Clothed in white robes, they will walk with me, says the Lord, for they are worthy.
Antiphon 2: Clothed in white robes, they will walk with me, says the Lord, for they are worthy.
Antiphon 3: These children cry out their praises to the Lord; by their death they have proclaimed what they could not preach with their infant voices.
Canticle – Daniel 3:57-88, 56
Antiphon 4: From the mouths of children and babies at the breast you have found praise to foil your enemies.
Psalm 149
Antiphon: From the mouths of children and babies at the breast you have found praise to foil your enemies.
READING
Jeremiah 31:15
In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning,
of bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns her children,
she refuses to be consoled
because her children are no more.
RESPONSORY
The just are the friends of God. They live with him forever.
- The just are the friends of God. They live with him forever.
God himself is their reward.
- They live with him forever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
- The just are the friends of God. They live with him forever.
BENEDICTUS (Canticle of Zechariah)
Antiphon: At the king's command these innocent babies and little children were put to death; they died for Christ, and now in the glory of heaven as they follow him, the sinless Lamb, they sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord.
INTERCESSIONS
We rejoice in the glory of Jesus Christ, who conquered the enemy not by force of arms but with a white-robed army of children, and we cry out:
The white-robed army of martyrs praises you.
The Holy Innocents gave witness not by words but by their life's blood;
- give us the strength to be your witnesses before men, both by words and actions.
They were not ready for battle but you made them fit to win the palm of victory,
- now that we are prepared for victory, do not let us despair.
You washed the robes of the Innocents in your blood;
- cleanse us from all sin.
You rewarded the child martyrs with the first share of your kingdom,
- do not let us be cast out from the unending heavenly banquet.
You knew persecution and exile as a child
- protect all children whose lives are in danger from famine wars and disasters.
COLLECT
O God, whom the Holy Innocents confessed
and proclaimed on this day,
not by speaking but by dying,
grant, we pray,
that the faith in you which we confess with our lips
may also speak through our manner of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.