Holy Innocents, Martyrs - December 28

Red Ornements

Liturgy of the Mass

Introit

(Ps. 8, 3) Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings, O God, Thou hast perfected praise because of Thine enemies. — Psalm. Lord our God, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth! Gloria Patri.

Collect

O God, Whose praise the martyred Innocents did this day proclaim, not by speaking, but by dying, destroy in us all the malice of sinfulness, that our lives may also proclaim Thy faith, which our tongues profess. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

Commemoration of Christmas
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the new birth in the flesh of Thine only-begotten Son may set us free, whom the old bondage doth hold under the yoke of sin. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

Lesson

Lesson of the Apocalypse of Saint John (14:1-5)
In those days I saw a Lamb standing upon Mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a noise from heaven, as the noise of many waters and as the voice of great thunder; and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers, harping on their harps. And they sung as it were a new canticle before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the ancients: and no man could say the canticle, but those hundred forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb: and in their mouth there was found no lie: for they are without spot before the throne of God.

Gradual

(Ps. 123:7-8) Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. ℣. The snare is broken, and we are delivered: Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who hath made Heaven and earth.
Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. Praise the Lord, ye children, praise the name of the Lord. Alleluia.

Gospel

_Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew (2:13-18).
At that time an Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the Child and His mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I tell thee: for it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy Him. Who arose, and took the Child and His mother by night, and retired into Egypt; and He was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the Prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called My Son. Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry, and sending, killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Sources: Daily Traditional Latin Mass Readings, 1962
The Liturgical Year, authored by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)