St. John the Baptist preached about penance and urged his listeners to prepare themselves for the Lord. He encouraged them to be faithful and honest in their daily lives and to be baptized in the Jordan River to receive forgiveness for their sins. When Jesus was baptized, the Father declared him to be his beloved Son.
John had many followers whom he taught to lead a life of prayer and fasting. However, he was arrested and imprisoned in the mountain fortress of Machaerus for openly rebuking King Herod Antipas for his incestuous relationship with Herodias, his half-brother's wife. Herodias did not forgive him and eventually convinced Herod to order John's decapitation as a result of a hastily made oath on the occasion of Salome's dance at Herod's birthday celebrations. This happened about a year before Jesus' own Passion.
Prayer
O most zealous Apostle, who, without working any miracle, but solely by the example of thy life of penance and the power of the word, did draw after you the multitudes, in order to prepare them to receive the Messiah worthily; grant that it may be given unto us, by means of your example of a holy life, to bring many souls to God, but above all those souls that are enveloped in the darkness of error and ignorance and are led astray by vice.
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
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