Ancient prophecies from biblical patriarchs foretold Christ’s coming and alliance with the Church on Earth. At the Epiphany the Magi recognized the fulfillment of God’s promises to humanity.
His magnificence is manifested to us so brightly on this Feast! Our mother, the Church, is going to initiate us into the mysteries we are to celebrate.
On the feast of the Epiphany the Magi offer gold to the Kingship of Christ, frankincense to His Divinity, and myrrh to Christ the sacrificial victim, as a figure of Our Lord Himself, who offers all of us to the Eternal Father.
The twelve days of Christmas do not come before Christmas Day as the retail stores would like you to think. Sprinkled from now until Epiphany, these twelve days you will find some very special feast days that are well worth your attention.
Considering Gentile de Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi (1423), discover the coherent portrayal of God’s loving condescension into human history, the call of pilgrimage and conversion for humanity, and the exalted humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
He held the Apostolic Chair under the reign of Antoninus, and closed his four year Pontificate by martyrdom. We have no history of his life, but we venerate in him one of the links of that grand chain of Pontiffs which unites us, by St. Peter, to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout the whole Septuagesima season, the Church returns again and again to eternal life, considering it as a prize, or as a gift, or as a wage given as a reward for labor.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, but also that of St. André Bessette who, in imitation of the Wise Men, offered a precious gift to Christ and the world.
'The Church uses the liturgy of this Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle to form us into a force worthy of our King, standing ready for him at his final coming.'