On the Octave Day of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, January 13, 2026

Today, Tuesday January 13, 2026, is the Octave Day of the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jeus Christ in the General Roman Calendar of 1954 in which is read the Gospel of the Baptism of Our Lord at the hands of Saint John the Baptist, who administered unto His Divine Cousin the symbolic baptism of repentance that he, the last of the Old Testament Prophets, was administering unto sinners. (This day, January 13, 2026, is the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ in those fully traditional chapels following the General Roman Calendar of 1958.)

Following the death of His foster-father, Saint Joseph, Our Blessed Lord and Jesus Christ, having sanctified both domestic life and manual labor during His Hidden Years in Nazareth, set out to do His Co-Equal, Co-Eternal God the Father’s Holy Will by traveling to the Jordan River to receive that which He did not need, a baptism of repentance.

As in all things, Our Lord exhibited humility in accepting a baptism which He did not need to teach us the humility that we must have in seeking out His forgiveness in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance and, quite importantly, so that He could fulfill in His own Flesh everything that He had caused to be written about Himself in Holy Writ as he sanctified the waters of the Jordan River--and hence all the waters on the face of the earth--as valid matter for the Baptism of spiritual regeneration He would win for us during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. The voice of His Co-Eternal, Co-Equal God the Father uttered these words as a dove, symbolic of God the Holy Ghost, hovered above Our Lord as He was baptized symbolically by Saint John the Baptist, who had leapt for joy in his mother's womb as his unborn Divine Redeemer, hidden from the view of men in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of His Most Blessed Mother, freed him from Original Sin at the Visitation in anticipation of the merits He would win for us all as He atoned for Adam's sin in His own Sacred Humanity, thus paying back the debt of sin owed to Him in His Infinity as God.

At that time, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of Whom I said, ‘After me there comes One Who has been set above me, because He was before me.’ And I did not know Him. But that He may be known to Israel, for this reason have I come baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon Him. And I did not know Him. But He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He upon Whom you will see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, He it is Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. (John 1: 29-34.)

Saint Augustine of Hippo provided an exegesis on this Gospel passage highlighting the second of the three great epiphanies of Our Lord that is contained in the readings for Matins in today's Divine Office:

John knew Jesus even before He came to be baptized of him in Jordan, as we perceive by the words I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest Thou to me? Behold, how he knew that He was the Lord, how he knew that He was the Son of God! How do we prove that he knew that He it was Who should baptize with the Holy Ghost? Before the Lord came to the river, when many betook themselves to John to be baptized of him, the Baptist said I indeed baptize you with water but One Mightier than I cometh; the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. (Luke iii. 16.) Behold, John knew this also.

Yet John saith: I knew Him Now, how are we to explain this without calling John a liar? and God forbid that we should ever even think anything of the kind. Was it not that when the Dove descended on Christ, John then for the first time knew Him to have that peculiar attribute, that, whosoever should baptize with His Baptism, whether they were themselves just or unjust, the virtue of the Sacrament should proceed, not from them, but from Him on Whom abode the Dove; so that He is the real Baptizer in every Christian Baptism until the end of time, and it is in this sense that it is said of Him the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost Whether it be Peter, or Paul, or Judas, that performeth the ceremony, the real Baptizer and effectual Worker is Christ. For if the holiness of the baptism depended on the holiness of the particular officiator, no two baptisms would be exactly alike, and every one would be supposed to be more or less regenerated according as the minister who baptized him was more or less of a saint.

Now, my brethren, understand me. The saints themselves, those good men who appertain to the Dove, those good men whose portion is in Jerusalem, those good men in the Church, of whom the Apostle saith: the Lord knoweth them that are His, 2 Tim ii. 19, these good men differ one from another by diversities of graces, and are not all of the same worthiness. Some are holier than others, and some are better than others. Supposing then for the sake of argument that A is baptized by B, a righteous saint, and C is baptized by D who is less worthy in the sight of God, who hath attained only a lower degree in godliness, who is not so chaste, and whose life is not so good as B's, yet A and C receive just the same thing. And how is this, unless it be that it is Christ Himself Who is the effectual Baptizer? (Saint Augustine of Hippo, Matins, January 13.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., provided the following reflection on these events in The Liturgical Year:

The thoughts of the Church, today, are fixed on the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, which is the second of the three Mysteries of the Epiphany. The Emmanuel manifested himself to the Magi, after having shown himself to the Shepherds; but this manifestation was made within the narrow space of a stable at Bethlehem, and the world knew nothing of it. In the Mystery of the Jordan, Christ manifested himself with greater publicity. His coming is proclaimed by the Precursor; the crowd, that is flocking to the river for Baptism, is witness of what happens; Jesus makes this the beginning of his public life. But who could worthily explain the glorious circumstances of this second Epiphany?

It resembles the first in this, that it is for the benefit and salvation of the human race. The Star has led the Magi to Christ; they had long waited for his coming, they had hoped for it; now, they believe. Faith in the Messias’ having come into the world is beginning to take root among the Gentiles. But faith is not sufficient for salvation; the stain of sin must be washed away by water. He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved. (St. Mark, xvi. 16.) The time is come, then, for a new manifestation of the Son of God, whereby there shall be inaugurated the great remedy, which is to give to Faith the power of producing life eternal.

Now, the decrees of divine Wisdom had chosen Water as the instrument of this sublime regeneration of the human race. Hence, in the beginning of the world, we find the Spirit of God moving over the Waters, (1 Gen. i. 2.) in order that they might “even then conceive “a principle of sanctifying power,” as the Church expresses it in her Office for Holy Saturday. (2 The Blessing of the Font.) But, before being called to fulfill the designs of God’s mercy, this element of Water had to be used by the divine justice for the chastisement of a sinful world. With the exception of one family, the whole human race perished, by the terrible judgment of God, in the Waters of the Deluge.

A fresh indication of the future supernatural power of this chosen element was given by the Dove, which Noe sent forth from the Ark; it returned to him, bearing in its beak an Olive-branch, the symbol that peace was given to the earth by its having been buried in Water. But, this was only the announcement of the mystery; its accomplishment was not to be for long ages to come.

Meanwhile, God spoke to his people by many events, which were figurative of the future Mystery of Baptism. Thus, for example, it was by passing through the waters of the Red Sea, that they entered into the Promised Land, and during the miraculous passage, a pillar of a cloud was seen covering both the Israelites, and the Waters, to which they owed their deliverance.

But, in order that Water should have the power to purify man from his sins, it was necessary that it should be brought in contact with the sacred Body of the Incarnate God. The Eternal Father had sent his Son into the world, not only that he might be its Lawgiver, and Redeemer, and the Victim of its salvation — but that he might also be the Sanctifier of Water; and it was in this sacred element that he would divinely bear testimony to his being his Son, and manifest him to the world a second time.

Jesus, therefore, being now thirty years of age, comes to the Jordan, a river already celebrated for the prophetic miracles which had been wrought in its waters. The Jewish people, roused by the preaching of John the Baptist, were nocking thither in order to receive a Baptism, which could, indeed, excite a sorrow for sin, but could not effect its forgiveness. Our divine King approaches the river, not, of course, to receive sanctification, for he himself is the author of all justice — but to impart to Water the power of bringing forth, as the Church expresses the mystery, a new and heavenly progeny. (The Blessing of the Font.) He goes down into the stream, not, like Josue, to walk dry-shod through its bed, but to let its waters encompass him, and receive from him, both for itself and for the Waters of the whole earth, the sanctifying power which they would retain for ever. The saintly Baptist places hit: trembling hand upon the sacred head of the Redeemer, and bends it beneath the water; the Sun of Justice vivifies this his creature; he imparts to it the glow of life-giving fruitfulness ; and Water thus becomes the prolific source of supernatural life.

But, in this the commencement of a new creation, we look for the intervention of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. All Three are there. The heavens open; the Dove descends, not, as a mere symbol, prophetic of some future grace, but as the sign of the actual presence of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love, who gives peace to men and changes their hearts. The Dove hovers above the head of Jesus, overshadowing, at one and the same time, the Humanity of the Incarnate Word and the water which bathed his sacred Body.

The manifestation is not complete; the Father’s voice is still to be heard speaking over the Water, and moving by its power the entire element through- out the earth. Then was fulfilled the prophecy of David: The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of majesty hath thundered. The Voice of the Lord breaketh cedars, (that is, the pride of the devils). The Voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire, (that is, the anger of God). The Voice of the Lord shaketh the desert, and maketh the flood to swell, (that is, announces a new Deluge, the Deluge of divine Mercy). (Ps. cxxviii. 3, 5, 7, 8, 10.) And what says this Voice of the Father? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (St. Matth. iii. 17)

Thus was the Holiness of the Emmanuel manifested by the presence of the Dove and by the voice of the Father, as his Kingly character had been previously manifested by the mute testimony of the Star. The mystery is accomplished, the Waters are invested with a spiritual purifying power, and Jesus comes from the Jordan and ascends the bank, raising up with himself the world, regenerated and sanctified, with all its crimes and defilements drowned in the stream. Such is the interpretation and language of the Holy Fathers of the Church regarding this great event of our Lord’s Life.

The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates this wonderful mystery of Jesus’ Baptism; and we cannot wonder at the Eastern Church having selected this Day for one of the solemn administrations of the sacrament of Baptism. The same custom was observed, as we learn from ancient documents, in certain Churches in the West. John Mosch tells us, that, as regards the Oriental Church, the Font was more than once miraculously filled with water on the Feast of the Epiphany, and that immediately after having administered the Sacrament, the people saw the water disappear. The Roman Church, even so early as the time of St. Leo, decreed that Easter and Pentecost should be the only two days for the solemn administration of Baptism; but the custom of blessing the baptismal water with great solemnity on the Epiphany was still retained, and is observed even now in some parts of the West.

The Eastern Church has always religiously observed it. Amidst all the pomp of sacred rites, accompanied by his Priests and Ministers, who are clothed in the richest vestments, and followed by the whole people, the Bishop repairs to the banks of a river. After reciting certain beautiful prayers, which we regret not being able to offer to our readers, the Bishop plunges into the water a Cross richly adorned with precious stones; it represents our Lord being baptised by St. John. At St. Petersburg, the ceremony takes place on the river Neva, and it is through a hole made on the ice that the Metropolitan dips the Cross into the water. This same ceremony is observed by those Churches in the West, which have retained the custom of blessing the baptismal water on this Feast.

The faithful are very anxious to carry home with them the water of the stream thus sanctified; and St. John Chrysostom, in his twenty-fourth Homily, on the Baptism of Christ, speaks to his audience of the circumstance, which was well known by all of them, of this water never turning corrupt. The same has been often seen in the Western Church.

Let us honour our Lord in this second Manifestation of his divinity, and thank him, with the Church, for his having given us both the Star of Faith which enlightens us, and the Water of Baptism which cleanses us from our iniquities. Let us lovingly appreciate the humility of our Jesus, who permits himself to be weighed down by the hand of a mortal man, in order, as he says himself, that he might fulfill all justice, (1 St. Matth. iii. 15.) for having taken on himself the likeness of sin, it was requisite that he should bear its humiliation, that so he might raise us from our debasement. Let us thank him for this grace of Baptism, which has opened to us the gates of the Church both of heaven and earth; and let us renew the engagements we made at the holy Font, for they were the terms on which we were regenerated to our new life in God.

O Lamb of God! thou didst enter into the steam to purify it, the Dove came down from heaven, for thy sweet meekness attracted the Spirit of love; and having sanctified the Waters, the mystery of thy Baptism was over. But what tongue can express the prodigy of mercy effected by it! Men have gone down after thee into the stream made sacred by contact with thee; they return regenerated; they were wolves, and Baptism has transformed them into lambs. We were defiled by sin, and were unworthy to stand near thee, the spotless Lamb; but the waters of the holy Font have been poured upon us, and we are made as the sheep of the Canticle, which came up from the washing fruitful, and none is barren among them; or, as doves upon the brooks of water, white and spotless as though they had been washed with milk, sitting near the plentiful streams! Preserve us, O Jesus, in this white robe which thou hast put upon us. If, alas! we have tarnished its purity, cleanse us by that second Baptism, the Baptism of Penance. Permit us too, dear Lord, to intercede for those countries to whom thy Gospel has not yet been preached; let this river of peace, the waters of Baptism, flow out upon them, and inundate the whole earth. We beseech thee, by the glory of thy manifestation at thy Baptism, forget the crimes of men, which have hitherto caused the Gospel to be kept from those unhappy countries. Thy heavenly Father bids every creature hear thee; speak, dear Jesus! to every creature. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)

The Baptism of Our Lord is the second of His three epiphanies—the first to the Magi and the third at the wedding feast in Cana, the Gospel of account will be read at Holy Mass on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 18, 2026, which is the Commemoration of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome and the Commemorations of Saint Paul and Saint Prisca. This day marks the beginning of Our Lord’s Public Ministry and thus His three years of preaching, teaching, and performing miracles prior to the events of Holy Week.

Saint John the Baptist’s ministry was drawing to end after He baptized his Divine Cousin, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who increased as he, Saint John the Baptist, decreased to the point of his arrest by King Herod’s soldiers because he preached that the king was living in bigamous and adulterous relationship with Herodias, who was the wife of his own brother, Philip, who was still alive at the time.

In like manner, we must pray to Saint John the Baptist every day so that Our Lord will increase within our souls and thus in how we conduct ourselves with others as we, so filled of faults and disordered self-love, decrease to do only and always God’s ineffable will in our daily lives.

We need Our Lady's help to make her Divine Son manifest to others in a world filled with fear, unbelief and every kind of falsehood, supernatural and natural, imaginable. It is to this end that we must make use of her Most Holy Rosary faithfully and to take seriously the promises associated with being clothed with her Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel while using her Miraculous Medal as pledge of our love to her and our reliance upon her for the graces that we need to save our souls and to make reparation for our sins so that we might be deemed worthy to have God the Father say to us what He said of His Divine Son this very day:

And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3: 17.)

A blessed Feast of the Octave of the Epiphany of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [Feast of the His Baptism] to you all.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.  

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.  

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.

Appendix

The New English Edition of The Mystical City of God on The Baptism of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by His Cousin, Saint John the Baptist

263. Leaving his beloved Mother in the poor dwelling at Nazareth, our Redeemer, without accompaniment of any human creature, but altogether taken up with the exercise of his most ardent charity, pursued his journey to the Jordan, where in the neighborhood of a town called Bethany, otherwise called Betharaba, on the farther side of the river, his Precursor was preaching and baptizing (Mt. 3:1ff.). At the first steps our divine Redeemer took from his house He raised his eyes to the eternal Father, and by his most ardent charity offered to Him anew all the work He was about to begin for men, namely his labors, sorrows, Passion and Death of the cross which He desired to suffer for them, obeying the eternal will of the Father himself, as well as the natural sorrow of a true and loving Son at parting from his Mother, leaving her sweet company which He had for twenty-nine years. The Lord of all creation walked alone, without show and ostentation of human retinue. The supreme King of kings and Lord of lords (Apoc. 19:16) was unknown and despised by his own vassals, vassals so much his own that they owed their life and preservation entirely to Him (Ib. 4:11). His royal outfit was nothing but the utmost poverty and destitution.

264. Since the sacred Evangelists passed over in silence such works of the Savior as these, and their circumstances so worthy of our attention, and since our gross forgetfulness customarily passes over unnoticed what has not been written, therefore we examine and consider so little the immensity of his blessings and measureless love by which He has enriched us so much and has sought us to bind us to Him with so many bonds of charity (Osee 11:4). O eternal love of the Onlybegotten of the Father! O delight and life of my soul! How little known, and much less acknowledged, is thy most burning love! Why, O Lord and sweet love of my soul, why dost Thou exhibit so many artifices of love, so many watchings and sufferings, for those whom Thou dost not need and who will neither correspond nor attend to thy favors any more than if they had been offered but deceit and a hoax? O hearts of men, more rude and fierce than those of wild beasts! What has hardened you so? What detains you? What oppresses you and makes you so sluggish that you will not gratefully follow in the ways of your Benefactor? O lamentable illusion and aberration of human understanding! What mortal lethargy has come over it? Who has blotted out from thy memory such infallible truths and such memorable benefits, and even thy own true happiness? If we are of flesh, and have our senses, who has made us more hard and insensible than the rocks and stony mountain heights? Why do we not wake up and recover some of our sensibility at the sight of the benefits of our Redemption? At the words of a Prophet the dead bones came to life and moved about (Ez. 37:10), but we resist the words and exertions of Him who gives life and being to all. So defective is our earthly love, so great our forgetfulness!

265. Accept me then, O my Lord and light of my soul, accept this vile wormlet of the earth, which creeps along in order to meet thy beautiful footsteps now begun in search of me! By them thou dost raise me to the certain hope of finding in Thee the truth, the way, and the delights of eternal life. I possess nothing wherewith to repay Thee, my Beloved, except thy own goodness and love, and the being which through them Thou hast given me. Less than thy own Self cannot be paid for the infinite good Thou hast worked for me. Thirsting after thy charity I go to meet Thee on the way. I do not desire, my Lord and Master, to turn away nor depart from the sight of thy royal clemency for the poor one whom Thou seekest with diligent and loving solicitude. Life of my soul and soul of my life, since I have not been so fortunate as to merit to see Thee bodily in this life and in that blessed age of thy earthly life, let me at least be a daughter of thy holy Church, for I am part of this Mystical Body and holy congregation of the faithful. In this life, so full of dangers, in this frail flesh, in these times of calamity and tribulations, do I live; yet I cry out from its profound depths, I sigh from the bottom of my heart for thy infinite merits. That I shall share them I have the assurance of faith, the encouragement of hope, and the claims of holy charity. Look down then upon thy humble slave in order to make me grateful for such great benefits, meek of heart, constant in love, and entirely according to thy greater pleasure and approval.

266. While proceeding on his way to the Jordan our Savior dispensed his ancient mercies by relieving the necessities of body and soul for many of those whom He encountered at different places; yet this was always done in secret, for before his Baptism He gave no public token of his divine power and exalted office. Before appearing at the Jordan He filled the heart of St. John with new light and joy which changed and elevated his soul. Perceiving these new workings of grace within himself he reflected upon them full of wonder, saying: “What mystery is this, and what portents of my good? From the moment I recognized the presence of my Lord in the womb of my mother I have not felt such effects as now. Has this come for my joy, or is the Savior of the world near me?” Upon this enlightenment of the Baptist followed an intellectual vision wherein he perceived with greater clearness the mystery of the hypostatic union of the Person of the Word with his humanity, and other mysteries of human Redemption. In the fullness of this intellectual light he gave the testimonies which are recorded by St. John in his Gospel and which occurred while the Lord was in the desert and afterwards when He returned to the banks of the Jordan. The Evangelist mentions one of these public testimonies as happening at the question of the Jews, and the other when the Precursor exclaimed behold the Lamb of God (Jn. 1:36), as I shall narrate further on (299, 306). Although the Baptist had been instructed in great mysteries when he was commanded to go forth to preach and baptize, yet all of them were manifested to him anew and with greater clearness and abundance on this occasion, and he was then notified that the Savior of the world was coming to be baptized.

267. His Majesty then joined the multitude and asked St. John for baptism as one of the rest. The Baptist knew Him, and kneeling at his feet he hesitated, saying what is recorded by the Evangelist St. Matthew (3:14): “I have need of being baptized, and Thou, Lord, dost come to ask baptism from me?” The Savior responded: Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all justice (Ib. 15). By thus hesitating to baptize Christ our Lord, and asking Him for Baptism instead, he gave evidence that he knew Him as the true Messiah. And there is no contradiction between this and what St. John records of the Baptist as saying to the Jews (Jn. 1:33-4): And I knew Him not; but He who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon Him, He it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God. The reason there is no contradiction between these words of St. John and those of St. Matthew is because the testimony of heaven and the voice of the Father which came upon Christ at the Jordan† happened after the Precursor had the vision and enlightenment of which I have spoken (266). Hence he had not seen Christ with his own eyes until then and could therefore deny having known Christ, at least in the same way as he then knew Him, for precisely because he then knew Christ both by sight and by intellectual vision he prostrated himself at the feet of the Savior.

268. When St. John had finished baptizing our Lord the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descended visibly in the form of a dove upon his head, and the voice of the eternal Father was heard, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mt. 3:16, 17). Many of the bystanders heard this voice, namely those who were not unworthy of such a wonderful favor; they also saw the Holy Ghost descending upon the Savior. This was the most convincing proof which could ever be given of the divinity of our Redeemer, both on the part of the Father, who acknowledged Him as his Son, as also in regard to the testimony itself, for without any reserve Christ was manifested as the true God, equal to his eternal Father in substance and perfection. The Father himself desired to be the first to testify to the divinity of Christ so in virtue of his testimony all the other witnesses would be ratified. There was also another mystery in this voice of the eternal Father: It was as it were a restoration of the honor of his Son before the world, recompensing Him for humiliating Himself by receiving baptism, which served as a remedy for sins, from which the incarnate Word was entirely free (Heb. 7:26) since He was impeccable.

269. This act of humbling Himself to the form of a sinner, receiving baptism with the rest of those present, Christ our Redeemer offered to the eternal Father along with his obedience, in order to recognize by this act the inferiority of his human nature He had just like all the rest of the children of Adam, and in order to institute in this manner the Sacrament of Baptism, which in virtue of his merits was to wash away the sins of the world. By humiliating Himself in first receiving baptism for sins the Lord sought and obtained from the eternal Father a general pardon for all those who were to receive it (I Peter 3:21); He freed them from the jurisdiction of the demon and of sin, and regenerated them to a new existence, spiritual and supernatural, as adopted sons of the Most High and brethren of their Redeemer and Lord. And because the past, present and future sins of men, which the eternal Father always saw in the presence of his wisdom, impeded this so sweet and easy remedy, Christ our Lord merited it in justice so the eternal Father would accept it in justice as a complete satisfaction according to all the requirements of his equity. Christ was also not deterred from thus securing this remedy by his foreknowledge of the abuse of holy Baptism by so many mortals in all ages, and of its neglect by innumerable others. All these impediments and hindrances Christ our Lord removed by satisfying for their offenses, humbling Himself and assuming the form of a sinner in his baptism (Rom. 8:3). This is the meaning of the words suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all justice. Then in order to honor the incarnate Word and in recompense for his humiliation, and in order to approve of Baptism and establish its wonderful efficacy, the eternal Father gave forth his voice and the Holy Ghost descended. Thus was Christ proclaimed and manifested as the true Son of God, and known as such by all three Persons of the Holy Trinity, in whose name Baptism was to be administered.

270. The great Baptist John was the one who reaped the greatest fruit from 16:15-16). As I shall relate later on (319) it was also the Lord who baptized his most holy Mother before this promulgation in which He declared the form He established. These facts were made known to me, and also that St. John was the first fruit of Baptism instituted by Christ our Lord, and of the new Church which He founded under this great Sacrament. Through it the Baptist received the character of a Christian together with a great plenitude of graces, though he did not have original sin to be pardoned since he had already been justified by the Redeemer before he was born as was declared in its place (Inc. 218). By the answer of the Savior to him, suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all justice, He did not refuse but delayed the baptism of St. John until He himself had first been baptized and fulfilled justice as described; He then baptized St. John, gave him his blessing, and His Divine Majesty departed for the desert.

271. Let us now return to the main subject of this History, namely the occupations of our great Queen and Lady. Although She had divine light regarding the actions of His Majesty, as soon as her most holy Son was baptized the holy Angels who had attended upon their Lord gave Her notice of all that had happened at the Jordan; they were those who carried the ensigns or shields of the Passion of the Savior, as described in the first Part (Con. 372). To celebrate all these mysteries of the Baptism of Christ and the public proclamation of his divinity, the most prudent Mother composed new hymns and canticles of praise and incomparable thanksgiving to the Most High and to the incarnate Word. She imitated all the acts of humility and the petitions of the divine Master, adding many others, accompanying Him and following Him in all things. With ardent charity She interceded for men so they might profit by the Sacrament of Baptism, and so it might be administered all over the world. In addition to these prayers and hymns of thanksgiving She asked the heavenly courtiers to help Her in magnifying her most holy Son for having thus humbled Himself in receiving Baptism at the hands of one of his creatures

INSTRUCTION GIVEN ME BY THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST HOLY MARY.

272. My daughter, on the many and repeated occasions I have manifested to thee the works which my most holy Son accomplished for men, and how much I was grateful for them and appreciative of them, thou shalt understand how pleasing to the Most High is the most faithful care and correspondence on thy part, and the hidden and great goods enclosed within it. Thou art poor in the house of the Lord, a sinner, insignificant and helpless as dust; nevertheless, I desire thee to take it upon thyself to render unceasing gratitude to the incarnate Word for the love He has for the children of Adam, and for the holy and immaculate, efficacious and perfect law He gave for their remedy, and especially for the institution of holy Baptism, by whose efficacy they are freed from the devil and regenerated as children of the Lord himself (Jn. 3:5), and by grace justified and helped not to sin. This gratitude is an obligation common to all, yet since creatures forget it almost entirely, I intimate it to thee so thou mayest seek to render gratitude for all, or as if thou alone art a debtor in this regard; for at least in other works of the same Lord thou art more indebted, since with no other nation has He shown Himself more generous than He is with thee, not only because in the foundation of his evangelical law and Sacraments thou wert present in his memory, but also due to the love with which He called and chose thee to be a daughter of his Church in order to nourish thee in it with the fruit of his blood.

273. And if the Author of grace, my most holy Son, as a prudent and wise Architect, in order to build his evangelical Church and lay the first foundation of this edifice with the sacrament of Baptism, humbled Himself, prayed, petitioned, and fulfilled all justice, acknowledging the inferiority of his human nature, and being God by his divinity did not disdain abasing Himself insofar as He was man to the nothingness from which was created his most pure soul and his human nature formed: How must thou humble thyself, thou who hast committed sins, and art less than the dust and despicable ashes? Confess that in justice thou dost merit only punishment and the anger and wrath of all creatures, and that none of the mortals who has offended their Creator and Redeemer can say in truth that any offence or injustice is done to them, though all the tribulations and afflictions of the world from its beginning to its end happened to them. Since all sinned in Adam (I Cor. 15:22), how deeply must they humble themselves when the hand of the Lord touches them (Job 19:21)? If thou wouldst suffer all the afflictions of the living with humility of heart, and above this execute with plenitude all that admonish, teach and command thee, thou must judge thyself as a useless and unprofitable servant (Lk. 17:10). Hence how much must thou humble thyself with all thy heart when thou dost fail in fulfilling thy duty, and remain so tardy in giving this return? And if I desire thee to give this return for thyself and for others, consider well thy obligation, and prepare thy soul by humbling thyself to the dust in order not to resist or be satisfied until the Most High receives thee as his daughter, and declares thee as such in his divine presence and eternal vision in the triumphant celestial Jerusalem. (New English Edition of The Mystical City of God, Book 5: The Transfixion, Chapter 24.)