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The Church celebrates many saints’ feast days throughout the liturgical year and you can follow them on St. James’ church calendar that our local mortuaries give as a gift to us every year during Advent. A saint’s feast day generally, though not always, marks the day the saint died and entered into eternity, their birthday into life everlasting. The Church’s universal calendar celebrates only three birthdays and two conception days.

This Saturday, June 24 was the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. John, also known as “the forerunner of Jesus” was conceived 6 months before Jesus. (see Luke 1:24-27), and his birth date is placed on the longest day of the year. You may know the actual summer solstice is now observed on June 21, though the 24th is liturgically close enough. Thus when John the Baptist said, “he must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30) every day now gets shorter and shorter. The amount of daylight decreases like the forerunner John prophesied about himself until the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, observed December 25, the shortest day of the year. (Modern calendars tell us the winter solstice is actually December 21). Every day from then on gets longer and increases like the light of Christ in the world.

Do you know the other two birthdays and two conception days? Who they are and when they occur? The church calendar also follows biological growth dates for these two most significant people. With John the Baptist may our lives fulfill the prophesy: “he must increase and I must decrease!”

I am Joseph your brother, a baptized baptizer and“after-runner” disciple of Jesus the Christ.    Fr. Joe Hannappel