"As we celebrate with our festive gatherings the birthday of this great man, the Lord's forerunner, the blessed John, let us ask for the help of his prayers. Because he is the friend of the bridegroom you see, he can also obtain for us that we can belong to the bridegroom, that we may be thought worthy to obtain his grace." – St. Augustine.[1]
^On the Birthday of Saint John the Baptist, Sermon 293B:5:1. "Against superstitious midsummer rituals." Augustine's Works, Sermons on the Saints, (1994), Sermons 273–305, John E. Rotelle, ed., Edmund Hill, Trans., ISBN1-56548-060-0ISBN978-1-56548-060-5 p. 165. [1] Editor's comment (ibid., note 16, p. 167): "So does ‘his grace' mean John's grace? Clearly not in the ordinary understanding of such a phrase, as though John were the source of the grace. But in the sense that John's grace is the grace of being the friend of the bridegroom, and that that is the grace we are asking him to obtain for us too, yes, it does mean John's grace."[2]