THE CIRCUMCISION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST / THE BENEDICTUS

 Now it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, (Genesis 17:10-12) (Leviticus 12:3) they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. “No,” she said, “he is to be called John.” They said to her, “But no one in your family has that name,” and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” In addition, they were all astonished. At that instant, his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. His father Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke this prophecy:

 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel. (Psalm 41:13; 72:18; 106:48)

 He has visited his people; he has set them free. (Psalm 111:9)

 He has established for us a saving power in the House of his servant David. (Psalm 18:3)

 Just as he proclaimed, by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times, that he would save us from our enemies and from the hands of all those who hate us, (Psalm 106:10)  show faithful love to our ancestors, and so keep in mind his holy covenant. (Genesis 17:7; Leviticus 26:42; Psalm 105:8-9; 106:45-46)

 This was the oath he swore (Jeremiah 11:5)  to our father Abraham,  that he would grant us,  ( Genesis 22:16-17; Micah 7:20)  free from fear, to be delivered from the hands of our enemies, to serve him in holiness and uprightness in his presence, all our days. You, little child, you shall be called, Prophet of the Most High. You will go the Lord to prepare a way for him: to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us. (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1; Zechariah 3:8)

 You are to give light to those who live in darkness  and the  shadow dark as death  and guide our feet into the way of peace. (Isaiah 60:1-2; Malachi 3:20)



All their neighbors were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. “What will this child turn out to be?” they wondered. Indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. Return