The Ninth Day of Christmas
Season
Christmastide – Anglican Communion, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic
Month
Poverty Awareness Month – Catholic
Daily Readings
Revised Common Lectionary – Psalm 20; Genesis 12:1-7; Hebrews 11:1-12
Roman Catholic Lectionary – 1 John 2:22-28; Psalm 98:1-4; John 1:19-28
Daily Office Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours – Song of Songs 4:1-5:1; Two Bodies, but a Single Spirit, Gregory Nazianzen
Blessed Among Us
Basil of Caesarea and Gregory Nazianzen
In the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea, also called Basil the Great, fought the Arian heresy and developed the the monastic rules that Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox monks use to this day. Like Basil, his friend Gregory Nazianze was a monk and later a bishop. He had a significant impact on trinitarian theology. Both men are recognized by Catholics as Doctors of the Church and by Eastern Orthodox as Hierarchs. They are also venerated by Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans.
Art
Saint Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus, Wikimedia Commons
