FRIday 06 January

SAINT André Bessette

He was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a significant figure of the Roman Catholic Church among French-Canadians, credited with thousands of reported miraculous healings.

Entrance Antiphon : Ps 111: 4

A light has risen in the darkness for the upright of heart; the Lord is generous, merciful and just.

Collect

Cast your kindly light upon your faithful, Lord, we pray, and with the splendour of your glory set their hearts ever aflame, that they may never cease to acknowledge their Saviour and may truly hold fast to him. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

First reading : 1 John 5: 5-13

Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood; with the Spirit as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth – so that there are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and all three of them agree. We accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son. Everybody who believes in the Son of God has this testimony inside him; and anyone who will not believe God is making God out to be a liar, because he has not trusted the testimony God has given about his Son. This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son; anyone who has the Son has life, anyone who does not have the Son does not have life. I have written all this to you so that you who believe in the name of the Son of God may be sure that you have eternal life.

Psalm 147:12-15,19-20

R/ O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Zion, praise your God! He has strengthened the bars of your gates he has blessed the children within you.

He established peace on your borders, he feeds you with finest wheat. He sends out his word to the earth and swiftly runs his command.

He makes his word known to Jacob, to Israel his laws and decrees. He has not dealt thus with other nations; he has not taught them his decrees.

Gospel Acclamation : cf. Mk 9: 6

Alléluia, alléluia! The heavens opened and the Father’s voice resounded ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him. Alléluia.

Gospel : Mark 1:6-11

In the course of his preaching John said: “Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.”

Prayer over the Offerings

Receive with favour, O Lord, we pray, the offerings of your people, that what they profess with devotion and faith may be theirs through these heavenly mysteries. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon: 1 Jn 4: 9

By this the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his Only Begotten Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

Prayer after Communion

O God, who touch us through our partaking of your Sacrament, work, we pray, the effects of its power in our hearts, that we may be made fit to receive your gift through this very gift itself. Through Christ our Lord.

Meditation

John the Baptist presents Jesus to us today in all humility… he who baptises in the Spirit. It is righteous to feel unworthy before the Lord; to recognize that we are nothing without him and that in him, the beloved Son in whom the Father finds joy, we have the fullness of life. Today’s Gospel gives us the opportunity for meditation; to ask ourselves whether we remember that God chooses us to manifest Christ in our lives through our Baptism.