Skema
2025-01-12
Biblical Readings for Office and Mass
1st Week in Ordinary Time

Mass Readings: Sunday (C), Weekdays (I)
January 12 – 18, 2025

Sun
12
Mon
13
Tue
14
Wed
15
Thu
16
Fri
17
Sat
18

Office
Baptism of the Lord
Weekday
Weekday
SS Maur & Placid
Office for Vocations
St Anthony, Abbot
Memorial of the BVM

Vigils
Isa 42:1-9, 49:1-9
1 Kings 1:1-31
1 Kings 1:32-53
1 Kings 2:1-12
1 Kings 2:13-35
1 Kings 2:36-46
1 Kings 3:1-15

Lauds
Acts 19:1-7
Joel 1:1-8
Joel 1:9-12
Joel 1:13-20
Joel 2:1-6
Joel 2:7-11
Joel 2:12-17

Mass
21
305
306
307
308
309
310

1st
Isa 40:1-5, 9-11
Heb 1:1-6
Heb 2:5-12
Heb 2:14-18
Heb 3:7-14
Heb 4:1-5, 11
Heb 4:12-16

2nd
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
1 Cor 1:1-9

Gospel
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Mark 1:14-20
Mark 1:21-28
Mark 1:29-39
Mark 1:40-45
Mark 2:1-12
Mark 2:13-17

Vespers
Rev 21:1-7
1 Cor 1:1-9
1 Cor 1:10-17
1 Cor 1:18-25
1 Cor 1:26-31
1 Cor 2:1-5
1 Cor 2:6-13

Vigils Reading - Baptism of the Lord
2025-01-12
BY WATER AND
THE HOLY SPIRIT
From a commentary by Hippolytus of Rome
◊◊◊
As soon as he had been baptized, Jesus came out of the water. The
heavens were opened to him and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove came
down and rested on him. Then a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved
son, in whom I am well pleased.
If the Lord had yielded to John’s persuasion and had not been baptized,
do you realize what great blessings and how many we should have been
deprived of? Heaven was closed until then; our homeland on high was
inaccessible. Once we had descended into the depths we were incapable of rising
again to such lofty heights. The Lord was not only baptized himself; he also
renewed our fallen nature and restored to us our status as God’s children. At
once the heavens were opened to him. The world we see was reconciled with the
world that lies beyond our vision; the angels were filled with joy, earthly
disorders were remedied; mysteries were revealed; enemies were made friends.
The heavens were opened to him you have heard the evangelist say. This
happened for three wonderful reasons. The heavenly bridal chamber had to
open its shining gates to Christ at his baptism because he was himself the
bridegroom. The gates of heaven also had to be lifted up to allow the Holy Spirit
to descend in the form of a dove and the Father’s voice to resound far and wide.
The heavens were opened to him and a voice said: This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
This is my beloved Son who appeared on earth without leaving his
Father’s side. He both appeared and did not appear, for he was not what he
seemed. As far as appearance goes the one who gives baptism is superior to the
one who receives it. This is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit down on him
from heaven. As in Noah’s ark a dove revealed God’s love for the human race, so
now it was in the form of a dove, as though with an olive branch in its beak that
the spirit descended. He did so to make sure that the Father’s voice would be
recognized and the ancient mystery would be believed. Which prophesy? The
one that says: The Father’s voice resounded over the waters. The God of glory
thunders. The Lord thunders across many waters. And what does he say? This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Pay close attention now, I beg you, for I want to return to the fountain of
life and contemplate its healing waters at their source. The Father of
immortality sent His immortal Son and Word into the world; he came to us to
cleanse us with the water and the spirit. To give us a new birth that would make
our bodies and souls immortal, He breathed into us the Spirit of life and armed
us with incorruptibility.
Therefore in a herald’s voice I cry: Peoples of every nation; come and
receive the immortality given in baptism. To you who have spent all the days of
your life in the darkness of ignorance I bring the good news of life. Leave your
slavery for freedom, the tyrant’s yoke for a kingdom. corruptibility for eternal
life. Do you wish to know how to do this? By water and the Holy Spirit. That is to
say, by the water through which we are born again and given life, and by the
Spirit who is the Comforter sent for your sake to make you a child of God.
