Quote/s of the Day – 29 August – The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist – Jeremias 1:17-19, Mark 6:17-29 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“Yet the least in the Kingdom of God
is greater than he.”
Luke 7:28
“However great and famous John might be,
it is less than the least in the Kingdom,
as the Apostle Paul said: “Our knowledge is in part…
but when what is perfect has come, what is in part, will pass away” (1Cor 13,9-10).
Yes, John is great – he who had the presentiment to say –
“Behold, the Lamb of God ”(Jn 1,29) –
but this greatness is no more than a tiny foretaste,
compared to the glory to be revealed to those
who are found worthy.
To put it another way – all great and wonderful things
here below, appear in all their smallness and insignificance,
compared to the blessedness above…
… Yet, if “of all that are born of women
none is greater than John,” the Lord’s Forerunner,
how much greater must they be,
whose feet the Lord washed
and into whom He breathed His Spirit?”
St Ephrem (306-373)
Father and Doctor of the Church
“Immediately his mouth was opened,
his tongue freed and he spoke blessing God.”
Luke 1:64
“Consider, then, the merit of the holy Baptist –
he gave his father back his voice,
he restored the faculty of speech to the priest.
Consider, I say, his merit –
John unloosed the mouth that the Angel had bound.
What Gabriel had closed, the little child unlocked.
When John is born,
the father suddenly becomes a prophet or priest,
speech attains its use,
love receives an offspring,
the office recognises the priest.”
St Maximus of Turin (Died c420)
AnaStpaul 