06/01/07 Feast of the Epiphany
06/01/07 Feast of the Epiphany
Collect:
O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Readings:
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14; Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
From Forward Day by Day
Psalm 72. The kings of Arabia and Saba [shall] offer gifts.
I do not know whether the author of Revelation knew the story in Matthew about the three kings from the East visiting the Christ Child, but he knew a lot about the light of Christ: "The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it" (Rev. 21:24). Revelation doesn't usually get associated with the Epiphany story--it's hard to reconcile the sublime and sometimes violent visions of John of Patmos with the story Matthew tells.
But then, you realize that Matthew's story too has its edge of violence, as Herod tries to deceive the Wise Men and slaughters the innocents. At the heart of both stories, in spite of all this violence, is a vision of deep and peaceful innocence--the child lying in the manger, the Lamb at the center of the heavenly city, the light of revelation to which all kingly power must bend and bow the knee.
As this Christmas season now draws to its close, in a world still torn by violence and hypocrisy, may that divine child, that Lamb of God, find a fitting temple in your own heart and in mine.
O living Christ, touch our eyes that we may see you; open our ears that we may hear you; enter our hearts that we may know you. --Prayers New and Old
Anglican Cycle of Prayer: Liverpool - (York, England)
Advent calendar: Ways to Move Systems -- like businesses and governments -- Toward Sustainability:
11. Pray for those who are in positions of power, who control systems, such as public and business officials.
12. My own way to move systems toward sustainability is....
We celebrate, on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. “Epiphany” means “showing forth,” and the feast commemorates the first showing forth of Christ to the world, when His presence was revealed to the three Magi.
In the season of Epiphany we also:
* remember the revelation of Christ to John the Baptist, to the disciples, and to all Christians.
*remember Christ’s baptism and our own, together with the ways in which Christ was revealed to humankind, especially in the healing miracles.
*ponder the ways in which we ourselves are called to bring Christ to the world.
The predominant symbol of the season is Light—the light from the Star of Bethlehem and the Light of Christ spreading throughout the world. The liturgical color of Epiphany is green.
Remember, from this point on, please feel free to pick and choose. Don;t feel obligated to read everything. Thanks.
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen)
Spiritual Choices
Choices. Choices make the difference. Two people are in the same accident and severely wounded. They did not choose to be in the accident. It happened to them. But one of them chose to live the experience in bitterness, the other in gratitude. These choices radically influenced their lives and the lives of their families and friends. We have very little control over what happens in our lives, but we have a lot of control over how we integrate and remember what happens. It is precisely these spiritual choices that determine whether we live our lives with dignity.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
The star still leads us
Christ our God is born. He who created all things from nothing takes flesh endowed with a human soul and becomes a man. A star from the east, visible by day, guides the wise men to the place where lies the incarnate Word, to show in a mystical way that the word contained in the law and the prophets is superior to the evidence of the senses, and to lead the Gentiles to the full light of knowledge. For clearly, the word of the law and the prophets, rightly understood, is like a star leading those divinely chosen and called by the power of grace to recognize the incarnate Word.
The great mystery of the divine incarnation for ever remains a mystery. How can the person of the Word truly exist in the flesh while at the same time being wholly with the Father? How could he who is wholly divine by nature have become completely human without in any way repudiating either his divine nature in which he subsists as God, or ours in which he was made man? Only faith can grasp these mysteries. Faith is the ground of our confidence concerning things we can neither perceive nor understand.
Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor (580 - 662), Greek theologian and ascetic, was a monk of the monastery of Chrysopolis and also a prolific writer who possessed an outstanding synthesizing faculty.
read more about him:
www.newadvent.org/cathen/10078b.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_the_Confessor
The Season of Epiphany
Dennis Bratcher
In western Christian tradition, January 6 is celebrated as Epiphany. It goes by other names in various church traditions. In Hispanic and Latin culture, as well as some places in Europe, it is known as Three Kings’ Day (Span: el Dia de los Tres Reyes, la Fiesta de Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Because of differences in church calendars, mainly between the Eastern Orthodox and the western Catholic and Protestant traditions, both Christmas and Epiphany have been observed at different times in the past. Today, most of the Eastern Orthodox traditions follow the western church calendar. The exceptions are some Greek Orthodox Churches and related traditions (e.g., Russian and Serbian Orthodox) that still follow the older calendar and celebrate Epiphany as the Theophany on January 19th.
Epiphany is the climax of the Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from December 25th until January 5th. In most traditions, the day before Epiphany is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the evening of which is called Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the Eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening is still counted as the Twelfth Night, the beginning of the Twelfth day of Christmas the following day. In these traditions the Twelfth Day of Christmas is January 6th, the Epiphany.
In traditional Christian churches Christmas, as well as Easter, is celebrated as a period of time, a season of the church year, rather than just a day. The Season of Christmas begins with the First Sunday of Advent, marked by expectation and anticipation, and concludes with Epiphany, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity. The one or two Sundays between Christmas Day and Epiphany are sometimes called Christmastide. For many Protestant church traditions, the season of Epiphany extends from January 6th until Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent leading to Easter. Depending on the timing of Easter, this includes from four to nine Sundays. Other traditions, especially the Roman Catholic tradition, observe Epiphany as a single day, with the Sundays following Epiphany counted as Ordinary Time. In some western traditions, the last Sunday of Epiphany is celebrated as Transfiguration Sunday.
babyjesus.jpg (30908 bytes)The term epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some Central and South American countries influenced by Catholic tradition, Three Kings’ Day, or the night before, is the time for opening Christmas presents. In some eastern churches, Epiphany or the Theophany commemorates Jesus’ baptism, with the visit of the Magi linked to Christmas. In some churches the day is celebrated as Christmas, with Epiphany/Theophany occurring on January 19th.
The colors of Epiphany are usually the colors of Christmas, white and gold, the colors of celebration, newness, and hope that mark the most sacred days of the church year. In traditions that only observe a single day for Epiphany, the colors are often changed after Epiphany to the colors of Ordinary Time, usually green or thematic sanctuary colors, until Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. The colors for Transfiguration Sunday are usually the colors of Holy Days, white and gold.
As with most aspects of the Christian liturgical calendar, Epiphany has theological significance as a teaching tool in the church. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.
The day is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by "showing" Jesus as the Savior of all people. It is also a time of focusing on Christian brotherhood and fellowship, especially in healing the divisions of prejudice and bigotry that we all too often create between God’s children.
An Epiphany Prayer
Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus the Christ, we who once were not your people but whom you chose to adopt as your people. As ancient Israel confessed long ago, we realize that it was not because of our own righteousness, or our own superior wisdom, or strength, or power, or numbers. It was simply because you loved us, and chose to show us that love in Jesus.
As you have accepted us when we did not deserve your love, will you help us to accept those whom we find it hard to love? Forgive us, O Lord, for any attitude that we harbor that on any level sees ourselves as better or more righteous than others. Will you help us to remove the barriers of prejudice and to tear down the walls of bigotry, religious or social? O Lord, help us realize that the walls that we erect for others only form our own prisons!
Will you fill us so full of your love that there is no more room for intolerance. As you have forgiven us much, will you enable us with your strength to forgive others even more? Will you enable us through your abiding Presence among us, communally and individually, to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Name we bear?
May we, through your guidance and our faithful obedience, find new avenues in ways that we have not imagined of holding the Light of your love so that it may be a Light of revelation for all people.
We thank you for your love, praise you for your Gift, ask for your continued Presence with us, and bring these petitions in the name of your Son, who has truly revealed your heart. Amen
Read An Epiphany Devotional
-Dennis Bratcher, Copyright © 2006, Dennis Bratcher, All Rights Reserved
Rule of St. Benedict
Prologue
So we have asked the Lord
who is to dwell in His tent,
and we have heard His commands
to anyone who would dwell there;
it remains for us to fulfill those duties.
Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies
to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands;
and let us ask God
that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace
for anything which our nature finds hardly possible.
And if we want to escape the pains of hell
and attain life everlasting,
then, while there is still time,
while we are still in the body
and are able to fulfill all these things
by the light of this life,
we must hasten to do now
what will profit us for eternity.
commentary from http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
There is a poignancy in this paragraph that is little associated with great spiritual documents. First, Benedict stresses again that we are not alone in our undertaking to live above the dregs of life. What is "not possible to us by nature," we must "beg for by grace," he says. This is an enterprise between two spirits, in other words, God's and our own. We will fail often, but God will not fail us and we must not stop.
"God," the elder said, "is closer to sinners than to saints." "But how can that be," the eager disciple asked.
And the elder explained: "God in heaven holds each person by a string. When we sin, we cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot--bringing the sinner a little closer. Again and again sins cut the string--and with each knot God keeps drawing the sinner closer and closer."
Even our weaknesses take us to God if we let them.
It is a very liberating thought: We are not capable of what we are about to do but we are not doing it alone and we are not doing it without purpose. God is with us, holding us up so that the reign of God may be made plain in us and become hope to others. If we can become peacemakers, if we can control our need to control, if we can distinguish between our wants and our needs, then anybody can.
Collect:
O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Readings:
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14; Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
From Forward Day by Day
Psalm 72. The kings of Arabia and Saba [shall] offer gifts.
I do not know whether the author of Revelation knew the story in Matthew about the three kings from the East visiting the Christ Child, but he knew a lot about the light of Christ: "The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it" (Rev. 21:24). Revelation doesn't usually get associated with the Epiphany story--it's hard to reconcile the sublime and sometimes violent visions of John of Patmos with the story Matthew tells.
But then, you realize that Matthew's story too has its edge of violence, as Herod tries to deceive the Wise Men and slaughters the innocents. At the heart of both stories, in spite of all this violence, is a vision of deep and peaceful innocence--the child lying in the manger, the Lamb at the center of the heavenly city, the light of revelation to which all kingly power must bend and bow the knee.
As this Christmas season now draws to its close, in a world still torn by violence and hypocrisy, may that divine child, that Lamb of God, find a fitting temple in your own heart and in mine.
O living Christ, touch our eyes that we may see you; open our ears that we may hear you; enter our hearts that we may know you. --Prayers New and Old
Anglican Cycle of Prayer: Liverpool - (York, England)
Advent calendar: Ways to Move Systems -- like businesses and governments -- Toward Sustainability:
11. Pray for those who are in positions of power, who control systems, such as public and business officials.
12. My own way to move systems toward sustainability is....
We celebrate, on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. “Epiphany” means “showing forth,” and the feast commemorates the first showing forth of Christ to the world, when His presence was revealed to the three Magi.
In the season of Epiphany we also:
* remember the revelation of Christ to John the Baptist, to the disciples, and to all Christians.
*remember Christ’s baptism and our own, together with the ways in which Christ was revealed to humankind, especially in the healing miracles.
*ponder the ways in which we ourselves are called to bring Christ to the world.
The predominant symbol of the season is Light—the light from the Star of Bethlehem and the Light of Christ spreading throughout the world. The liturgical color of Epiphany is green.
Remember, from this point on, please feel free to pick and choose. Don;t feel obligated to read everything. Thanks.
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen)
Spiritual Choices
Choices. Choices make the difference. Two people are in the same accident and severely wounded. They did not choose to be in the accident. It happened to them. But one of them chose to live the experience in bitterness, the other in gratitude. These choices radically influenced their lives and the lives of their families and friends. We have very little control over what happens in our lives, but we have a lot of control over how we integrate and remember what happens. It is precisely these spiritual choices that determine whether we live our lives with dignity.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
The star still leads us
Christ our God is born. He who created all things from nothing takes flesh endowed with a human soul and becomes a man. A star from the east, visible by day, guides the wise men to the place where lies the incarnate Word, to show in a mystical way that the word contained in the law and the prophets is superior to the evidence of the senses, and to lead the Gentiles to the full light of knowledge. For clearly, the word of the law and the prophets, rightly understood, is like a star leading those divinely chosen and called by the power of grace to recognize the incarnate Word.
The great mystery of the divine incarnation for ever remains a mystery. How can the person of the Word truly exist in the flesh while at the same time being wholly with the Father? How could he who is wholly divine by nature have become completely human without in any way repudiating either his divine nature in which he subsists as God, or ours in which he was made man? Only faith can grasp these mysteries. Faith is the ground of our confidence concerning things we can neither perceive nor understand.
Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor (580 - 662), Greek theologian and ascetic, was a monk of the monastery of Chrysopolis and also a prolific writer who possessed an outstanding synthesizing faculty.
read more about him:
www.newadvent.org/cathen/10078b.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximus_the_Confessor
The Season of Epiphany
Dennis Bratcher
In western Christian tradition, January 6 is celebrated as Epiphany. It goes by other names in various church traditions. In Hispanic and Latin culture, as well as some places in Europe, it is known as Three Kings’ Day (Span: el Dia de los Tres Reyes, la Fiesta de Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Because of differences in church calendars, mainly between the Eastern Orthodox and the western Catholic and Protestant traditions, both Christmas and Epiphany have been observed at different times in the past. Today, most of the Eastern Orthodox traditions follow the western church calendar. The exceptions are some Greek Orthodox Churches and related traditions (e.g., Russian and Serbian Orthodox) that still follow the older calendar and celebrate Epiphany as the Theophany on January 19th.
Epiphany is the climax of the Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from December 25th until January 5th. In most traditions, the day before Epiphany is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the evening of which is called Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the Eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening is still counted as the Twelfth Night, the beginning of the Twelfth day of Christmas the following day. In these traditions the Twelfth Day of Christmas is January 6th, the Epiphany.
In traditional Christian churches Christmas, as well as Easter, is celebrated as a period of time, a season of the church year, rather than just a day. The Season of Christmas begins with the First Sunday of Advent, marked by expectation and anticipation, and concludes with Epiphany, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity. The one or two Sundays between Christmas Day and Epiphany are sometimes called Christmastide. For many Protestant church traditions, the season of Epiphany extends from January 6th until Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent leading to Easter. Depending on the timing of Easter, this includes from four to nine Sundays. Other traditions, especially the Roman Catholic tradition, observe Epiphany as a single day, with the Sundays following Epiphany counted as Ordinary Time. In some western traditions, the last Sunday of Epiphany is celebrated as Transfiguration Sunday.
babyjesus.jpg (30908 bytes)The term epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some Central and South American countries influenced by Catholic tradition, Three Kings’ Day, or the night before, is the time for opening Christmas presents. In some eastern churches, Epiphany or the Theophany commemorates Jesus’ baptism, with the visit of the Magi linked to Christmas. In some churches the day is celebrated as Christmas, with Epiphany/Theophany occurring on January 19th.
The colors of Epiphany are usually the colors of Christmas, white and gold, the colors of celebration, newness, and hope that mark the most sacred days of the church year. In traditions that only observe a single day for Epiphany, the colors are often changed after Epiphany to the colors of Ordinary Time, usually green or thematic sanctuary colors, until Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. The colors for Transfiguration Sunday are usually the colors of Holy Days, white and gold.
As with most aspects of the Christian liturgical calendar, Epiphany has theological significance as a teaching tool in the church. The Wise Men or Magi who brought gifts to the infant Jesus were the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as "King" and so were the first to "show" or "reveal" Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ. This act of worship by the Magi, which corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this child Jesus would be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32), was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.
The day is now observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church in reaching others by "showing" Jesus as the Savior of all people. It is also a time of focusing on Christian brotherhood and fellowship, especially in healing the divisions of prejudice and bigotry that we all too often create between God’s children.
An Epiphany Prayer
Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus the Christ, we who once were not your people but whom you chose to adopt as your people. As ancient Israel confessed long ago, we realize that it was not because of our own righteousness, or our own superior wisdom, or strength, or power, or numbers. It was simply because you loved us, and chose to show us that love in Jesus.
As you have accepted us when we did not deserve your love, will you help us to accept those whom we find it hard to love? Forgive us, O Lord, for any attitude that we harbor that on any level sees ourselves as better or more righteous than others. Will you help us to remove the barriers of prejudice and to tear down the walls of bigotry, religious or social? O Lord, help us realize that the walls that we erect for others only form our own prisons!
Will you fill us so full of your love that there is no more room for intolerance. As you have forgiven us much, will you enable us with your strength to forgive others even more? Will you enable us through your abiding Presence among us, communally and individually, to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Name we bear?
May we, through your guidance and our faithful obedience, find new avenues in ways that we have not imagined of holding the Light of your love so that it may be a Light of revelation for all people.
We thank you for your love, praise you for your Gift, ask for your continued Presence with us, and bring these petitions in the name of your Son, who has truly revealed your heart. Amen
Read An Epiphany Devotional
-Dennis Bratcher, Copyright © 2006, Dennis Bratcher, All Rights Reserved
Rule of St. Benedict
Prologue
So we have asked the Lord
who is to dwell in His tent,
and we have heard His commands
to anyone who would dwell there;
it remains for us to fulfill those duties.
Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies
to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands;
and let us ask God
that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace
for anything which our nature finds hardly possible.
And if we want to escape the pains of hell
and attain life everlasting,
then, while there is still time,
while we are still in the body
and are able to fulfill all these things
by the light of this life,
we must hasten to do now
what will profit us for eternity.
commentary from http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
There is a poignancy in this paragraph that is little associated with great spiritual documents. First, Benedict stresses again that we are not alone in our undertaking to live above the dregs of life. What is "not possible to us by nature," we must "beg for by grace," he says. This is an enterprise between two spirits, in other words, God's and our own. We will fail often, but God will not fail us and we must not stop.
"God," the elder said, "is closer to sinners than to saints." "But how can that be," the eager disciple asked.
And the elder explained: "God in heaven holds each person by a string. When we sin, we cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot--bringing the sinner a little closer. Again and again sins cut the string--and with each knot God keeps drawing the sinner closer and closer."
Even our weaknesses take us to God if we let them.
It is a very liberating thought: We are not capable of what we are about to do but we are not doing it alone and we are not doing it without purpose. God is with us, holding us up so that the reign of God may be made plain in us and become hope to others. If we can become peacemakers, if we can control our need to control, if we can distinguish between our wants and our needs, then anybody can.
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 9:29 AM
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