On the third day of the Christmas Octave, Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of John (20: 2-8) in which Mary of Magdala runs to tell Simon Peter and the disciple Jesus loved that the body of Jesus is no longer in the tomb. After reading the Gospel, Fr Paul shares a little about the life of St John, whose feast day we celebrate today.

Fr Paul says it seems funny to read a Gospel of Jesus in the tomb when we have just celebrated his birth but today, we celebrate the life of St John, the apostle.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and they were nicknamed by Jesus ‘the sons of thunder’. John is involved in many of the central events of Jesus’ life, including the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, and the discovery of the Resurrection, which we hear in today’s Gospel. He is also said to be ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ and the one he asked to take care of his mother Mary as he hung on the cross.

John is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles; later he was exiled to the island of Patmos. He is said to have died at Ephesus.

John wrote a Gospel, three Epistles, and the book of the Apocalypse.

On this day, Fr Paul invites us to ask ‘St John…Pray for us!’