Epiphany

 

It's the Feast of the Epiphany today and here's Austin Farrer:

THE Magi took the lids from their urns and unfastened their caskets, when they presented the symbols of universal homage to our infant prince.  But when a woman came to anoint the king in his royal city, she shattered her alabaster jar, that she might pour the precious spikenard on his head.  There was a sympathy between her action and the approaching Passion: the perfume of man’s homage could not be offered to God, without breaking the veined alabaster, the body of the Son of Man.  Our incense may rise, like that of the Magi, from unbroken vessels, if we present our bodies a living sacrifice.  Yet a living sacrifice is also a sacrifice, and is made so by some participation in the shattering of the vase.  Christ, sacrificing himself, joins us with him in sacrificing him; Christ, sacrificing himself, sacrifices us, for he has made us parts of him.  We come to offer our homage to Christ, but his star has brought us, and the breaking of his mortal vase has furnished all the perfume of our offering.

 

God Bless,

LSP

Epiphany

Listen up, heathen. Today's the great Feast of the Epiphany so here's a prayer.

O GOD, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy 

only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, 

who know thee now by faith, may after this life have the 

fruition of thy glorious Godhead; through the same thy 

Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And for all you trads out there who are shamelessly trying to unleash the power of the Western Rite, here it is in Latin:

DEUS, qui hodiérna die Unigénitum tuum géntibus stella duce revelásti: concéde propítius; ut, qui jam te ex fide cognóvimus, usque ad contemplándam spéciem tuæ celsitúdinis perducámur. Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia 

sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

God bless,

LSP

Happy Epiphany

A blessed Feast of the Epiphany to all; I like this, from the Old Rite (translation by Rorate Caeli):

Accept, O holy Father, from me, thine unworthy servant, these gifts which I offer in humility to the honour of thy holy name and to thy peerless majesty; as thou didst accept the sacrifice of the just Abel and the same gifts from the hands of the Magi.

Creatures of gold, incense, and myrrh, I exorcise you by the Father + almighty, by Jesus + Christ, His Only-Begotten Son, and by the Holy+ Spirit, the Paraclete, that freed from all deceit, evil, and cunning of the devil, you may be a saving remedy to men against the snares of the enemy. May trustful souls who use you in their homes or about their persons be delivered from danger to soul and body, rejoicing in the possession of every good; through our Lord and Saviour's power and merits, through the intercession of Mary, most holy Virgin Mother of God, of all Saints and of them who on this day venerated Christ, the Lord with similar gifts. R. Amen.

O God, thou the invisible and unending One, in the holy and awesome name of thy Son graciously bestow blessing + and power upon these creatures, gold, incense, and myrrh. Protect them who will have them in their possession from illness, injury, and danger to body and soul, so they can joyously and securely serve thee with zeal in thy Church. Who in perfect Trinity livest and reignest, God, for ever and ever. R Amen.

God bless,

LSP

PS. Check out the All Seeing Eye's comments on 'climate refugees', an, er, epiphany - for me, anyway.