2 Timothy 4:5-8
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
5 As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
6 For I am already on the point of being sacrificed;[a] the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Mark 1:1-8
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.[a]
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,[b]
“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way;
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight—”
4 John the baptizer appeared[c] in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
3 The holy prophet Malachi, who, after the return from the Babylonian Captivity, announced the great day of the Lord and his coming to his temple, and that, always and everywhere, a pure offering should be made to the name of the Lord. He prophesied of the coming kingdom which would be heralded by the return of Elijah, fulfilled in the Forerunner. After Malachi, no prophet arose in Israel until his words were fulfilled four hundred years later in the coming of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner, John the Baptist.
The holy martyr Gordius, praised in the writings of our Holy Father Basil the Great, was a centurion who suffered for the faith. (304)
Sunday, January 3 –
