📜Introit (Ps 8, 3 | ib., 2)
Ex ore infántium, Deus, et lacténtium perfecísti laudem propter inimícos tuos. Dómine, Dóminus noster: quam admirábile est nomen tuum in univérsa terra!
Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings, O God, Thou hast perfected praise, because of Thine enemies. O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth!
📜Epistle (Apoc 14, 1-5)
In those days, I beheld the Lamb standing on 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 voice 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.
📜Gospel (Mt 2, 13-18)
📜Epistle (Apoc 14, 1-5)
In those days, I beheld the Lamb standing on 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 voice 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.
📜Gospel (Mt 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 shall 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.
🩸The Baptism of Blood and Innocent Glory
🕯️The feast of the Holy Innocents reveals the depth of the mystery of redemption and the sovereignty of divine grace, which operates beyond human understanding. These children, unable to profess the faith with their lips, confessed Christ by their death, becoming, as the Mass prayer says, witnesses who glorified Him "not by speaking, but by dying" (non loquendo, sed moriendo). Saint Augustine meditates on this paradox, stating that Herod's cruelty provided them with a glory unmerited by their age but granted by grace: "The tender bodies of infants are slain because a new Child is born. [...] O admirable gift of grace! What merits did these children have to conquer in this way? They do not yet speak, and already they confess Christ" (Saint Augustine, Sermon 373). The Gospel narrates the fury of an earthly king against the King of Heaven, but this very persecution becomes the means by which the Innocents are associated with the Passion of Christ. The Church recognizes in their death a "Baptism of Blood," which purifies and sanctifies, bestowing the fruits of sacramental Baptism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ" (CCC 1258). The reading from Revelation illuminates the glorious destiny of these martyrs. They are seen as part of the 144,000, the virgins who "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" and are the "firstfruits to God and to the Lamb." Their purity is not merely an absence of personal sin but a total conformity to the innocence of Christ Himself. The "new canticle" they sing is the hymn of a victory achieved not by strength or wisdom, but by weakness and sacrifice-a silent yet eloquent testimony that God's power is made manifest in fragility and that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like children.
🔗See English version of the critical articles here.