Sunday, January 6, 2019

The Epiphany of the Lord

Readings of the Day
RB: Prologue 39-44
Mass: Is 60:1-6; Resp Ps 72; Ep 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12


All from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.

We recall the Holy Father's invitation in Evangelii Gaudium The Joy of the Gospel: 'I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day' (EG 3). Each day then, and possibly several times throughout each day, we have a choice. Will it be darkness or light?;  'greatly troubled' with King Herod and all Jerusalem, or, joining the Magi be 'overjoyed at seeing the star', prostrate and pay Jesus homage?

Go before us with heavenly light, O Lord,
always and everywhere,
that we may perceive with clear sight
and revere with true affection
the mystery in which you have willed us to participate.
Through Christ our Lord.
(Prayer after Communion, Mass)

Arise, you who sit in darkness; look at the light which has risen in the darkness but is not mastered by the darkness.
(Guerric of Igny)

Let us not allow fear to close our hearts, but let us have the courage to open ourselves up to this gentle and discreet light. 
(Pope Francis, Angelus Address, January 6, 2019)

Today the Magi find, crying in the manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky.
Today the Magi see clearly, in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars.
Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see; heaven on earth, earth in heaven, humanity in God, God in humanity, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.
As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.
(St Peter Chrysologus)

While there is still time, while we are in this body and have time to accomplish all these things by the light of life-we must run and do now what will profit us forever.
(RB Prologue 43-44)

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, MARY EVER-VIRGIN, INTERCEDE FOR US WITH THE LORD OUR GOD.
(Commemoration of the Holy Mother of God, Redwoods, Divine Office)

NB. Today's photo of a card, The Three Kings, by Sr Benedicta Cavegn, OCSO.

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