Our Lady of Guadalupe

Date: June, 24

Only three birthdays are celebrated on the Church’s liturgical calendar, the Nativity of Our Lord (December 25), the Nativity of His Mother (September 8), and the Nativity of His forerunner, John the Baptist, on June 24.

St. John the Baptist was set apart from the womb to prepare the way of the Lord and was a significant figure connected to the Incarnation and the Redemption.

The Church honors him because of his role in preparing the way for Christ.

• “A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.” (John 1:6-8)
• It was him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:  “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” (Matthew 3: 3)