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PRAYER OF THE DAY
Almighty God, you have filled all the earth with the light of your incarnate Word. By your grace empower us to reflect your light in all that we do, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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GOSPEL ACCLIMATION
Alleluia. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Alleluia. (Ps. 98:3)
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THE READING: John 1:1-16
John 1. 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me." ') 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
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MUSINGS
John conveys to us the birth of Christ not as a narrative of events unfolding, but rather gets right to the crux of it by proclaiming the truth about God and Jesus Christ. John brilliantly and beautifully portrays a second creation account hearkening the one found in the Old Testament. In Genesis, with nothing more than a word, God creates light and deems the light as good. For John, the Word, Jesus, is the light of the world. But Jesus' light is life itself. The great gift to us is God's desire to be known to us intimately through God's incarnation in Jesus Christ.
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MOTET
John most eloquently sets to prose that which humankind cannot fully comprehend. Perhaps that is why, year after year, I am so drawn to and never tire of these verses. The profound truth expressed so exquisitely in this text is augmented all the more when set to music. May it be that way also for you hearing John's Gospel proclaimed in a setting by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612).
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Verbum Caro Factum Est - Hans Leo Hassler - Heritage HS Concert Choir
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Verbum caro factum est The Word was made flesh,
Et habitavit in nobis and lived among us,
et vidimus gloriam ejus and we have seen his glory,
gloriam quasi unigeniti a Patre the glory as of a father's only son,
plenum gratiae et veritatis. full of grace and truth.
Thanks be to God!
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