Loading ...
Today is the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, one of only three Nativity feasts celebrated by the Church — since St. John the Baptist is one of only three people in history who left the womb without the burden of Original Sin (his having been cleansed by our Lord’s presence at the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin to St. Elizabeth).
There are two other notable things about today. First is that pictured in the chant above — the hymn from the Second Vespers of this feast is the origin of the note-names for the Solfege system, the famous Ut (later Do)-Re-Mi naming of notes, immortalized in that favorite film of a certain, slightly unbalanced, bishop of some uncertain amount of schismatism. For the full text of the hymn to St. John the Baptist from which the notes come, click here. Sing it today for the Forerunner!
Finally, today is traditionally known as Midsummer’s day, since starting today (actually, a couple of days ago), the days of the year start getting shorter — an echo in the natural world of the Baptist’s saying, Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui, He must increase, and I must decrease.
Wow. I never knew that, about the origin of the Solfege system. What a cool little piece of Catholic trivia! Thank you for posting it!
The Baptist is definitely not given enough attention among Catholics today. In the tradition of the Church, he is the one permitted to stand at Christ’s side at the Judgment (with the Blessed Mother on the other hand — hence Our Lord’s words to the apostles that these places were already reserved) but, sadly, we rarely talk about him, perhaps because he’s just such a strange figure. Anyway, happy feast!
St. John the Baptist was free from Original Sin!
I don’t think so!
From the time when our Lady greeted St. Elizabeth, not from his conception.
David, Iosephus.
John the Baptist was not concieved without Original sin, but when Mary greeted St. Elizabeth and “the baby leapt in her womb” is considered to be the moment when JTB was cleansed of Original Sin and thereby the stain of it was removed.
“One is free to believe this, but it is not a necessary conclusion or a matter of faith, something that must be held. ” - from the following website:
This information from Ask a Franciscan here:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Feb1997/Wiseman.asp
You may have to scroll down the page to get this answer.
We definitely read that hymn in Fr. Foster’s class on Monday.
We did my year as well
Looking forward to a few words on the Te Deum, the Hymn of Thanksgiving.