On this day, in 1 B. C., the three wise men found the Child Jesus, heir of King David, at Bethlehem and adored him. May this Savior of Jews and Gentiles shine His light upon us today and save us from the cult of death to which all our national and regional and local leaders, nearly, world over, have embraced, seeking the destruction of all Jew and Gentile, old and babe.
Amen
Happy Feast Day Brother !
How significant were the gifts presented to Baby Jesus in St. Matthew’s Infancy Narrative.
Gold because He is King.
Frankincense because He is Priest.
Myrrh because He came to give His Life and Death in order to be our Savior.
🙏
A most Blessed feast of the Epiphany with all its graces. May God bring us a new year of peace in the truth, with justice and freedom from war, pestilence, and the loss of our immortal souls. Our Queen of peace bless us with these Grace’s in the coming year.
We come again to the end of “the twelve days of Christmas” as we celebrate the holy feast of Epiphany. What a beautiful 14th Century masterpiece, “The Adoration of the Maji,” part of the “Life of Christ” frescoes in Padua’s famous Scrovegni Chapel. Giotto, the artist, was inspired by the 1301 apparition of Halley’s Comet and thus chose to represent a ‘shooting star’ as that which led the kings to Bethlehem. How fitting, as comets since ancient times were thought to usher in a new era, yet also symbolize an omen of warning.
This is a good time to remember that the voices of angels, who brought “tidings of great joy” at the first Noel, also forewarned the Maji not to trust the Herodian princes of this world. Prototypes of “wise men” everywhere, they understood and accepted the holy message that the journey home (to heaven), however long and arduous, must be “by another route” (as far away as possible from treason, faithlessness, fraud, and grift).
Led by a star to the promised Messiah; they came to give worship and praise. May all remember these Kings also returned via an alternate route to avoid Harod the Great who ordered infanticide throughout the region of Bethlehem. May we also remember and pray for these first innocent martyrs protecting our Lord Jesus Christ.