A Tuesday evening

                                                                     Psalm 113: 2

From the rising of the sun 
to it’s going down let the name of the Lord be praised.  

A Tuesday after Epiphany...

                                                           Revelation 2:4

You’re
doing 

all the 
right 
things, 
But i 
have 
this 
against
you, 
that 
you 
have abandoned 
the love you had aT first. 

Heading home

For Those Who Have Far to Travel

An Epiphany Blessing

If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.

Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.

There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;

to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.

There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel

to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.

By Jan Richardson I think

Post Epiphany

                                                       Matthew 2:12 

          

          And 

          having 

          been 

          warned 

          in a 

          dream 

          not to 

          return 

          to Herod, 

          they left 

          for their own 

          country by another road. 

This single line says so much in such a little space! It’s one of my favorites. The wise men’s quest is over, their gifts given, and it is time to return to ordinary life  And, while you might miss the meaning of the angel pointing the way in the stained glass window, you cant’s miss it in this little black and white graphic. Here we see not "wise men", but the angel alerting vulnerable, all too human sleeping men, all tucked into bed. And a good thing they listened to the dream, even though it would have put them at odds with Herod - in "bad odor" as it says so delight-fully somewhere in Scripture. Herod had told them that once they had found the child, to return and tell him exactly where he was so he too could go and worship as well. But we know that, out of fear for his own kingship, Herod's real intent was to go and kill the child.. And so, these foreign men, heeding the angel’s warning, saved the infant Savior’s life. A lot in a little line, no? 

Second Vespers of Epiphany

                                                                              One of the Epiphany 

                                                                               Antiphons on the Magnificat

From the east there came wise men to Bethlehem 

to worship the Lord; and when they opened their treasures, they presented to him precious gifts: 
gold as to a mighty King, incense as to the true God, 
and myrrh to foreshadow his burial; alleluia 

Epiphany

                        Epiphany antiphon on the Venite

The Lord has shown forth 
his glory: Come let us adore him.

Christmas is the manifestation of Jesus to his own people, the Jews, in the people of the shepherds who responded to the angel’s message and came to the creche.  Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles, to all of us, in the form of the 3 sages or wise men who had followed the star for who know how long.... One of my favorite lines in the story is “When they saw that they star has stopped, there were overjoyed.”  I guess! 

Eve of the Epiphany

                                                                              Matthew 2:8

King Herod sent 

them on say-ing, "Go and search diligently for the child and when 

you have found him, bring word to me..."