Feast of Epiphany Jan. 6
Join us Monday, January 6, 2025 at 12:00pm as we recognize the "Feast of Epiphany". This celebrates the manifestation of Jesus to the world and is a custom of family and friends gathering to ask God’s blessing on their homes and those who live in or visit the home. It is an invitation for Jesus to be a daily guest in our home, our comings and goings, our conversations, our work and play, our joys and sorrows.
A traditional way of doing this is to use chalk blessed during the liturgy for the Feast of Epiphany and write the following above the home’s entryway:
20 + C + M + B + 24
The letters C, M, B have two meanings. They are the initials of the traditional names of the three magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. They also abbreviate the Latin words Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.” The “+” signs represent the cross and 2024 is the year.
About Epiphany
The feast of the Epiphany is January 6th, twelve days after Christmas. It officially ends the “twelve days of Christmas” from which we get that carol “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…”. In the Western churches (including the Episcopal Church), Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the Wise Men from the East to the Christ child in Bethlehem. Epiphany means "manifestation" or "revelation" or "appearing". It makes sense that Epiphany season comes right after Christmas. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus; Epiphany is about the spread of the good news to the wider world. For the Eastern Churches, this celebration mixes together both the visitation of the Wise Men and the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Both of these are events that manifest the divinity of Christ to the wider world. In the Eastern Churches, Epiphany is called “Theophany”, which means basically the “shining-forth” of God.
The Magi
The Feast of the Epiphany centers on the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem. In the Christmas story that St. Matthew tells us, wise men from the East study the stars and the prophecies, and detect the birth of the Savior. They travel to Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus Christ, and they bring with them gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. The Gospel account doesn't say that there are three magi, nor that they are kings. Over the years, our Christian ancestors described them as three kings named Balthesar, Melchior, and Caspar (although in different cultures they have different names!) Read the story of the Magi in the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12.
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