The Solemnity for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Send us Fan MailTuesday, 24 June 2025 The Solemnity for the Nativity of Saint John the BaptistAntiphons and Readings on p 1659 of the Daily Missal  First Reading: Isaiah 49:1-6Listen to me, O islands,  and pay attention, you peoples from afar.  The Lord called me from the womb,  from the body of my mother he named my name.  He made my mouth like a sharp sword,  in the shadow of his hand he hid me;  he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.  And he said to me, “You are my servant,  Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”  But I said, “I have laboured in vain;  I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;  yet surely my right is with the Lord,  and my recompense with my God.” And now the Lord says,  who formed me from the womb to be his servant,  to bring Jacob back to him,  and that Israel might be gathered to him,  for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord,  and my God has become my strength— he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant  to raise up the tribes of Jacob  and to restore the preserved of Israel;  I will give you as a light to the nations,  that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 139:1-3.13-14.15 (R. 14a)R/. I thank you who wonderfully made me.O Lord, you search me and you know me. You yourself know my resting and my rising;    you discern my thoughts from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down;    you know all my ways through and through.For it was you who formed my inmost being,    knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you who wonderfully made me;    how wonderful are your works, which my soul knows well!   My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being fashioned in secret    and moulded in the depths of the earth.R/. I thank you who wonderfully made me. Second Reading: Acts 13:22-26In those days:  Paul said: “God raised up David to be our father’s king;  of whom he testified and said,  ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse  a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’  Of this man’s posterity  God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus,  as he promised.  Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance  to all the people of Israel.  And as John was finishing his course, he said,  ‘What do you suppose that I am?  I am not he.  No, but after me one is coming,  the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ “Brothers and sisters, children of the family of Abraham,  and those among you that fear God,  to us has been sent the message of this salvation.”Gospel: Luke 1:57-66.80Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered,  and she gave birth to a son.  And her neighbours and kinsfolk heard  that the Lord had shown great mercy to her,  and they rejoiced with her.  And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child;  and they would have named him Zechariah after his father,  but his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” And they said to her,  “None of your kindred is called by this name.”  And