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.

New Year's Day

Christmas Day

The oldest Roman records of early Church celebrations of Christmas indicate the first Christians marked the completion of a whole week given to commemorating the birth of Christ. As the 1st January was the 8th day, commencing a new week, it started the Christian custom of capping the week's festivity with some special or appropriate focus. Then, unlike today, little attention was given to the fact that, in this case, it was the first day of the secular calendar. From the beginning, therefore, the Church extended some of the Christmas celebration over into the Octave Day. Later a second celebration was added, the divine motherhood of Mary, and references to this appear in our devotions today. Since the sixth century a third festival has been incorporated into the Octave Day — that of the Circumcision of Jesus.

Eight days after His birth, Jesus underwent, like all Jewish boys, the ceremony of circumcision enjoined on Abraham by God as a pledge of his faith: and He received the name of Jesus. The festival commemorates our Lord's first shedding of His Precious Blood, for love of us; reminds us of the great price paid by Him for our redemption; vividly portrays His obedient humility. In need of no spiritual cleansing, Christ obeyed the Jewish Law by undergoing Circumcision, a pre-figurement of Baptism. What Circumcision symbolised, Baptism accomplishes: the removal of evil from the soul.

Acclamations For Reflection:—

• In the beginning, before the ages began, the Word was God, and it is He who was born today as Saviour of the world.

• Begotten before the daystar and before the ages began, the Lord, our Saviour deigned to be born today.

• When the Lord was born, a choir of Angels kept singing, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb".