O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall proclaim Your praise.

O God, come to my assistance, O Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

"Rachel Mourns Her Children"

Christmas Day

During this octave of Christmas the Church celebrates the memory of the small children of the neighbourhood of Bethlehem put to death by Herod. Sacrificed by a wicked monarch these innocent lives bear witness to Christ who was persecuted from the time of His birth by a world which would not receive Him. It is Christ Himself who is at stake in this mass-murder of the children; already the choice, for or against Him, is put clearly before men. But the persecutors are powerless, for Christ came to perform a work of salvation that nothing can prevent; when He fell into the hands of his enemies at the time chosen by God it was to redeem the world by His own Blood.

Our Christmas joy is tempered today by a feeling of sadness. Our thought goes principally to the glory of the children, of those innocent victims, whom she shows us, in heaven following the Lamb wherever He goes.

Acclamations For Reflection:—

• These are they who have come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

• I saw under the altar of God the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the witness that they bore.

• The Saints were singing a new song before the throne of God and of the Lamb; and the earth resounded with their voices.