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See also the page
"Twelfthnight"
Also known as Feast
of the Epiphany, Three Kings Day, or Theophany, this Feast is a great and
very important Feast in memory of Jesus showing His glory in 3 ways: as an
infant to the Magi, at His baptism, and at His first miracle at the wedding
in Cana. So important is this Feast, that it is a Holy Day of Obligation
in many parts of the Catholic world, though not presently in the United States.
The symbols of the day are the same as those mentioned on the page describing
Twelfthnight.
On the morning of the Feast of the Epiphany, children in some households
will wake to see what gifts had been left by the Magi (or La Befana) during
the night.
At today's Mass, there will be a blessing of gold, frankincense, myrrh, Epiphany
Water, and, after Communion, a blessing of chalk. Bring small special items
of gold to have with you during the Mass, and they will be blessed if they
are exposed as you sit in your pew with them (wedding rings, rosaries, an
heirloom piece of gold jewelry, for example).
When Mass is over, you will take some of the blessed chalk, frankincense,
myrrh, and Epiphany Water home with you, so it's good to bring a container
to transport Holy Water and one to put some grains of incense and a piece
of chalk into. (Note: if you can, take and keep 5 pieces of blessed incense
for your Paschal Candle this Easter),
When you get home, sprinkle some Epiphany water (otherwise and afterwards
used as regular Holy Water) in the rooms of your house to protect it and
bring blessings. This Holy Water recalls the waters of the Jordan, and is
a visible reminder of Christ's Divinity, of Jesus's revealing Himself as
God at His Baptism, when were heard the words from the Father: "This is My
beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." This rite of blessing the home --
led by a priest, if possible, or the father of the house if no priest is
available -- goes like this:
Upon entering the
house: |
Priest/Father: |
Peace be to
this house. |
All: |
And to all
who dwell herein. |
Priest: |
From the east
came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures
they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true
God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial. |
During the Magnificat,
the room is sprinkled with holy water and incensed. |
All: |
My soul doth
magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath
regarded the humility of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done great
things to me, and holy is His Name. And His Mercy is from generation unto
generations upon them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm, He
hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down
the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the
hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received
Israel, His servant, being mindful of His mercy. As He spoke to our Fathers,
Abraham and His seed forever. |
After this is
completed: |
All: |
From the east
came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures
they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true
God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial. |
Priest: |
Our Father
Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead and
lead us not into temptation, |
All: |
But deliver
us from evil. |
Priest: |
All they from
Saba shall come |
All: |
Bringing gold
and frankincense. |
Priest: |
O Lord, hear
my prayer. |
All: |
And let my
cry come unto Thee. |
Priest: |
Let us pray.
O God, who by the guidance of a star didst on this day manifest Thine
only-begotten Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we who know Thee
by faith may also attain the vision of Thy glorious majesty. Through Christ
our Lord. |
All: |
Amen. |
Priest: |
Be enlightened,
be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee-- Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary. |
All: |
And the Gentiles
shall walk in thy light and kings in the splendor of thy rising, and the
glory of the Lord has risen upon thee. |
Priest: |
Let us pray.
Bless, O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity,
the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfillment of
Thy law, the thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell
herein. Through Christ our Lord. |
All: |
Amen. |
After the prayers
of the blessing are recited, walk through the house and bless each room by
sprinkling with Epiphany water and incensing it.
Take the blessed chalk and first write the initials of the three Wise Men,
connected with Crosses, over the inside of your front door (on the lintel,
if possible). Then write the year, breaking up the numbers and the year so
that they fall on both sides of the initials. It should look like this, for
ex.:
20 C+M+B
05
with the "20 "being
the millennium and century, the "C" standing for the first Wise Man, Caspar,
the "M" standing for Melchior, the "B" standing for Balthasar, and the "05"
standing for the decade and year. It is also popularly believed that the
Kings' initials also stand for "Christus mansionem benedicat" ("Christ bless
this house"). |
Note that some write the first Wise Man's name as "Gaspar" or "Kasper," so
the initials would be "G+M+B" or "K+M+B". In any case, these initials over
our doorway serve to remind us of Who the Magi saw in that manger and how
they saw Him. They remind us to adore Him as they did. The chalk markings
remain over the door 'til Pentecost.
It is a popular custom among some people that all who enter or re-enter their
home for the first time after the blessing should step with their right foot
across the threshold so as to start things off "on the right foot."
You can download the above blessing in Microsoft Word .doc format here:
Blessing of the Home on the Feast of the
Epiphany (1 page).
When Epiphany is over, the feeling of Christmastide begins to wane a bit.
Though the Season of Christmas liturgically ends on 13 January (the
Octave of the Epiphany), the celebration of Christ's entry into the world
and His childhood doesn't truly end until Candlemas (The Feast of the
Presentation and Purification) on 2 February, when we celebrate Christ's
being presented in the Temple and Mary's Purification. Then the remembering
of Christ's infancy and Divine Childhood gives way to preparation for Lent.
A Reading for the Day
Excerpts from sermons
XXXI, XXXIII, XXXIV, and XXXVI on the Epiphany, by Pope Leo the Great (ca.
A.D. 395-461). You can download this reading in Microsoft Word .doc format
here (3 pages):
The Epiphany a
necessary sequel to the Nativity. After celebrating but lately the day on
which immaculate virginity brought forth the Saviour of mankind, the venerable
feast of the Epiphany, dearly beloved, gives us continuance of joy, that
the force of our exultation and the fervour of our faith may not grow cool,
in the midst of neighbouring and kindred mysteries. For it concerns all men's
salvation, that the infancy of the Mediator between God and men was already
manifested to the whole world, while He was still detained in the tiny town.
For although He had chosen the Israelitish nation, and one family out of
that nation, from whom to assume the nature of all mankind, yet He was unwilling
that the early days of His birth should be concealed within the narrow limits
of His mother's home: but desired to be soon recognized by all, seeing that
He deigned to be born for all...
...The wise men from the East are typical fulfilments of God's promise to
Abraham. Now the manifestation of this unspeakable mercy, dearly-beloved,
came to pass when Herod held the royal power in Judea, where the legitimate
succession of Kings having failed and the power of the High-priests having
been overthrown, an alien-born had gained the sovereignty: that the rising
of the true King might be attested by the voice of prophecy, which had said:
"a prince shall not fail from Juda, nor a leader from his loins, until He
come for whom it is reserved, and He shall be the expectation of the nations."
Concerning which an innumerable succession was once promised to the most
blessed patriarch Abraham to be begotten not by fleshly seed but by fertile
faith; and therefore it was compared to the stars in multitude that as father
of all the nations he might hope not for an earthly but for a heavenly progeny.
And therefore, for the creating of the promised posterity, the heirs designated
under the figure of the stars are awakened by the rising of a new star, that
the ministrations of the heaven might do service in that wherein the witness
of the heaven had been adduced. A star more brilliant than the other stars
arouses wise men that dwell in the far East, and from the brightness of the
wondrous light these men, not unskilled in observing such things, appreciate
the importance of the sign: this doubtless being brought about in their hearts
by Divine inspiration, in order that the mystery of so great a sight might
not be hid from them, and, what was an unusual appearance to their eyes,
might not be obscure to their minds. In a word they scrupulously set about
their duty and provide themselves with such gifts that in worshipping the
One they may at the same time show their belief in His threefold function:
with gold they honour the Person of a King, with myrrh that of Man, with
incense that of God...
...The perseverance of the Magi has led to the most important results. Led
then, dearly beloved, into Bethlehem by obeying the guidance of the star,
the wise men "rejoiced with very great joy," as the evangelist has told us:
"and entering the house, found the child with Mary, His mother; and falling
down they worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him
gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh." What wondrous faith of perfect knowledge,
which was taught them not by earthly wisdom, but by the instruction of the
Holy Spirit! Whence came it that these men, who had quitted their country
without having seen Jesus, and had not noticed anything in His looks to enforce
such systematic adoration, observed this method in offering their gifts unless
it were that besides the appearance of the star, which attracted their bodily
eyes, the more refulgent rays of truth taught their hearts that before they
started on their toilsome road, they must understand that He was signified
to Whom was owed in gold royal honour, in incense Divine adoration, in myrrh
the acknowledgment of mortality.
Such a belief and understanding no doubt, as far as the enlightenment of
their faith went, might have been sufficient in themselves and have prevented
their using their bodily eyes in inquiring into that which they had beheld
with their mind's fullest gaze. But their sagacious diligence, persevering
till they found the child, did good service for future peoples and for the
men of our own time: so that, as it profited us all that the apostle Thomas,
after the Lord's resurrection, handled the traces of the wounds in His flesh,
so it was of advantage to us that His infancy should be attested by the visit
of the wise men. And so the wise men saw and adored the Child of the tribe
of Judah, "of the seed of David according to the flesh," "made from a woman,
made under the law," which He had come "not to destroy but to fulfil." They
saw and adored the Child, small in size, powerless to help others, incapable
of speech, and in nought different to the generality of human children. Because,
as the testimonies were trustworthy which asserted in Him the majesty of
invisible Godhead, so it ought to be impossible to doubt that "the Word became
flesh," and the eternal essence of the Son of God took man's true nature:
lest either the inexpressible marvels of his acts which were to follow or
the infliction of sufferings which He had to bear should overthrow the mystery
of our Faith by their inconsistency: seeing that no one at all can be justified
save those who believe the Lord Jesus to be both true God and true Man...
...The story of the magi is not only a bygone fact in history, but of everyday
application to ourselves. The day, dearly-beloved, on which Christ the Saviour
of the world first appeared to the nations must be venerated by us with holy
worship: and today those joys must be entertained in our hearts which existed
in the breasts of the three magi, when, aroused by the sign and leading of
a new star, which they believed to have been promised, they fell down in
presence of the King of heaven and earth. For that day has not so passed
away that the mighty work, which was then revealed, has passed away with
it, and that nothing but the report of the thing has come down to us for
faith to receive and memory to celebrate; seeing that, by the oft-repeated
gift of God, our times daily enjoy the fruit of what the first age possessed.
And therefore, although the narrative which is read to us from the Gospel
properly records those days on which the three men, who had neither been
taught by the prophets' predictions nor instructed by the testimony of the
law, came to acknowledge God from the furthest parts of the East, yet we
behold this same thing more clearly and abundantly carried on now in the
enlightenment of all those who are called, since the prophecy of Isaiah is
fulfilled when he says, "the Lord has laid bare His holy arm in the sight
of all the nations, and all the nations upon earth have seen the salvation
which is from the Lord our God" and again, "and those to whom it has not
been announced about Him shall see, and they who have not heard, shall
understand."
Hence when we see men devoted to worldly wisdom and far from belief in Jesus
Christ brought out of the depth of their error and called to an acknowledgment
of the true Light, it is undoubtedly the brightness of the Divine grace that
is at work: and whatever of new light illumines the darkness of their hearts,
comes from the rays of the same star: so that it should both move with wonder,
and going before lead to the adoration of God the minds which it visited
with its splendour. But if with careful thought we wish to see how their
threefold kind of gift is also offered by all who come to Christ with the
foot of faith, is not the same offering repeated in the hearts of true believers?
For he that acknowledges Christ the King of the universe brings gold from
the treasure of his heart: he that believes the Only-begotten of God to have
united man's true nature to Himself, offers myrrh; and he that confesses
Him in no wise inferior to the Father's majesty, worships Him in a manner
with incense.
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