'The baptismal font that unites the child with the Body of Christ and the life of the Church.' Sunday Reflections, The Baptism of the Lord, Year C

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The Baptism of Christ

Francesco Mochi [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Note: In the New American Bible (NAB) lectionary you will find an alternative First Reading, Responsorial Psalm and Second Reading that may be used in Year C.  The Jerusalem Bible version above gives only only what the NAB gives as alternative readings and psalm. The Gospel below is always read in Year C.

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)  

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,  John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Comfort ye, my people
From Handel's Messiah
Tenor: Jon Vickers; Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is the beginning of the alternative First Reading of today's Mass (Isaiah 40:1-3). The translation is that of the Authorized (King James) Version, used by Handel.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Baptism of Christ
El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

At our baptism the Father spoke the same words to each of us, his beloved sons and daughters. At Mass yesterday, Saturday, these powerful words of St John were read: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins  (1 John 4:9-10).

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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