Hi everyone. Welcome back to Logical Bible Study. This is the Catholic podcast where we take a look at the readings from today's Mass, and we try to give you the tools

to really dig into the text. So we're not just reading the text. We want to really understand

the text of Scripture. And so today's gospel reading at Mass is from Luke chapter 1,

verses 57 to 66, and then verse 80.

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child and she gave birth to a son and when her neighbors and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.

Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child.

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. And they were all astonished. At that instant, his power of speech returned,

and he spoke and praised God.

All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the whole hill country of Judea.

And those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts.

What will this child turn out to be? They wondered.

And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. Meanwhile, the child grew up and his spirit matured.

And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared only to Israel.

So in Luke chapter one, and Luke chapter one is a long chapter and it basically forms one big unit. So earlier in Luke chapter one we were introduced to Elizabeth and

Zechariah and this is essentially a continuation of that's of that story. Just prior to this in Luke chapter one, the visitation has occurred.

So Mary comes to visit Elizabeth, and she proclaims the Magnificat in that visit as well.

Now, those readings are read on December 21st and 22nd.

That's when they're read in sequence, although there's also other times in the

...