Adoration of the Shepherds
Jacopo Bassano [Web Gallery of Art]
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people (John 1:4).
The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord has four different Mass formularies, each with its own prayer and readings. Any of the four fulfills our obligation to attend Mass. These are:
Vigil Mass, celebrated 'either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Nativity'; that means starting between 5pm and 7pm.
Mass During the Night, known before as 'Midnight Mass'. In many parts of the world it does begin at midnight but here in the Philippines since the 1980s it begins earlier, usually at 8:30pm or 9pm.
Mass at Dawn.
Mass During the Day.
When you click on 'Readings' below from the New American Bible you will find links to the readings for each of the four Masses. The readings from the Jerusalem Bible for the four Masses are all on one page.
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel (Mass During the Day) John 1:1-18 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)
In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not
one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the
life was the light of all people.
The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all
might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the
light. The true light, which enlightens
everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through
him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his
own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he
gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or
of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have
seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of
grace and truth. (John testified to him
and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead
of me because he was before me.”’) From his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the
only Son, who is
close to the Father’s heart, who has
made him known.
John 1:1-4
This is the Sign Language I am familiar with in the Philippines.
The Census at Bethlehem (detail)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder [Web Gallery of Art]
This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
By U.A. Fanthorpe
This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future's
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.
This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.
This was the moment when even energetic
Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.
Gradual 1 for San Michele a Murano
But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,
In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown
To beauty proud as was your Mother’s prime.
In that desired, delayed, incredible time,
You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,
And the dear heart that was your baby throne,
To die with death. And oh! they’ll give you rhyme
And reason: some will call the thing sublime,
And some decry it in a knowing tone.
So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,
And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,
Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,
But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed,
And for the secret Scripture of the poor.
Tom Kettle wrote To My Daughter Betty, The Gift of God just four days before he was killed during an assault on the village of Ginchy, France, on 9 September 1916.
The Secret Scripture of the Poor was the title given to a collection of writings by Columban Fr John Henaghan published posthumously in 1951. He was killed by the Japanese during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.
Mary's Boy Child
Written by Jester Hairston in 1956. The lyrics are in a Caribbean dialect of English.
The Secret Scripture of the Poor was the title given to a collection of writings by Columban Fr John Henaghan published posthumously in 1951. He was killed by the Japanese during the Battle of Manila in February 1945.
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