Last night we hosted our annual Epiphany party. It was lower key affair than in the past, with a lot of children, which makes it all the better. Fourteen children and seven adults does make a house full. Anyway, it is always a joyful way to bring the full-up holiday celebrations to an end and move into the final week of the Christmas season, the week when get back to the world full-tilt.
So, today is Epiphany, which traditionally marked the end of the Christmas season, falling as it did on 6 January, the twelfth night, and not necessarily on a Sunday. I don't mean to sound too disparaging about the liturgical reforms of Vatican II. On the whole, they were needed and beyond necessary, but some of the calendar changes, like extending Christmas beyond Epiphany and moving Epiphany to a Sunday, don't make a lot of sense and are highly disruptive of many well-established cultural traditions, which people hold on to nonetheless. It has the effect of divorcing observances from their religious roots, which is the last thing we need at present.
Nonetheless, it has been a joyful New Year thus far and for that I am grateful.
Father of light, unchanging God,
today you reveal to men of faith
the resplendent fact of the Word made flesh.
Your light is strong,
your love is near;
draw us beyond the limits which this world imposes,
to the life where your Spirit makes all life complete.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen (Alternate Prayer for Epiphany).
