1.
O God, the Holy Innocents were your silent witnesses: may we proclaim you to others by word and deed. #feastday pic.twitter.com/kWxcOr2D8z
— Archdiocese of TO (@archtoronto) December 28, 2015
2.
Medieval window from Chartres Cathedral of the Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents & Flight into Egypt
https://t.co/E9FwVxFkcs
— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) December 28, 2015
3.
God became man. Now every man, woman, & child all the more targets of Satan, just like infant boys were the targets of Herod. #HolyInnocents
— Fr. Thomas Petri, OP (@petriop) December 28, 2015
4.
Friends, #KingHerod is a symbol for all those rulers and forces in our world that are afraid and jealous of God. #HolyInnocents
— Archbishop Gomez (@ArchbishopGomez) December 28, 2015
5.
Arabic #Christmas carol: Byzantine Hymn of the #nativity sung at #Melkite church in #Ottawa https://t.co/JAKGFClOE8 pic.twitter.com/9ssyouKL5h
— Barb Fraze (@bfraze) December 28, 2015
6.
Herod's misuse of power can't thwart God's loving plan.Jesus' resurrection ensures that love always wins in the end! pic.twitter.com/yWGUMN799e
— Franciscan Friars (@CFR_Franciscans) December 28, 2015
7. From a sermon by Saint Quodvultdeus in the Liturgy of the Hours today:
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.
You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.
Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace – so small, yet so great – who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God’s adopted children.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation.
But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.
How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.
8. The story of Herod is meant as a warning to us …
9.
God is more powerful than evil rulers&oppression. Keep your faith in God, who is good. Donot be afraid. Be bold. #homilytweet #HolyInnocents
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) December 28, 2015
10.
The #HolyInnocents were the first martyrs for Christ. We ask for their prayers today. #homilytweet pic.twitter.com/PoAWdL57BT
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) December 28, 2015