Gospel and Saint of the day: 23 December 2019

Book of Malachi 3,1-4.23-24.
Thus says the Lord God:
«Behold, I will send a messenger of mine to prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will immediately enter his temple; the angel of the covenant, which you sigh, here comes, says the Lord of hosts.
Who will bear the day of his coming? Who will resist its appearance? He is like the fire of the smelter and like the lye of the launderers.
He will sit to melt and purify; he will purify the children of Levi, he will refine them as gold and silver, so that they can offer the Lord an oblation according to justice.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in ancient days, as in distant years.
Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives,
because it converts the heart of the fathers towards the children and the heart of the children towards the fathers; so that I am not coming to the country with extermination. "

Salmi 25(24),4bc-5ab.8-9.10.14.
Lord, make your ways known;
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
because you are the God of my salvation.

The Lord is good and upright,
the right way points to sinners;
guide the humble according to justice,
teaches the poor its ways.

All the paths of the Lord are truth and grace
for those who observe his covenant and precepts.
The Lord reveals himself to those who fear him,
he makes known his covenant.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke 1,57-66.
For Elizabeth the time of childbirth was fulfilled and she gave birth to a son.
Neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had exalted her mercy in her, and rejoiced with her.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the boy and they wanted to call him by the name of his father, Zechariah.
But his mother said: "No, his name will be Giovanni."
They said to her, "There is no one in your family named after this name."
Then they nodded to his father what he wanted his name to be.
He asked for a tablet, and wrote: "John is his name." Everyone was amazed.
In that same instant his mouth opened and his tongue loosened, and he spoke blessing God.
All their neighbors were filled with fear, and all these things were discussed throughout the mountainous region of Judea.
Those who heard them kept them in their hearts: "What will this child be?" they said to each other. Truly the hand of the Lord was with him.

23 December

SAN SERVOLO THE PARALYTIC

Rome, † 23 December 590

Servolo was born into a very poor family, and struck by paralysis as a child, asked for alms at the door of the Church of San Clemente in Rome; and with such humility and grace he asked for it, that everyone loved him and gave it away. Fallen sick, everyone rushed to visit him, and such were the expressions and sentences that came out of his lip, that everyone left consoled. Being agonizing, he suddenly shook himself exclaimed: “Hear! oh what harmony! are the angelic choirs! ah! I see them the Angels! " and expired. It was the year 590.

PRAYER

For that exemplary patience you always kept and in poverty and distress and infirmity, imply to us, O Blessed Servolo, the virtue of resignation to the divine wills so that we never have to complain about everything that could happen to us left