Morning Prayer June 24th – Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

With Fr Ray Warren OMI in London

Good morning and welcome to De Mazenod House Tower Hill where we join Fr Ray Warren OMI for our morning prayer. Today is the solemnity of the birth of John the Baptist. Isn’t it interesting that there is only a few mentioned throughout the year of the church that have their birth honoured as well as their death? The other important to remember about this time is it’s exactly six months since Christmas Eve, the birth of Jesus. And that’s deliberate, because we’ve only just passed the summer solstice, 21st of June, when the sun was at the highest in the sky. And from these days on, the sun begins to go lower and the daylight drops down. This links us with John the Baptist, who would have said about Jesus that ” He must increase and I must decrease”. So there is a beautiful parallel with nature and creation in the sun and in John the Baptist.