END of the CHRISTMAS SEASON - THE BAPTISM of JESUS CHRIST

Dr. He Qi

Sunday ends the Liturgical Christmas season as celebrated in the Church. In the monastery we will take down the Christmas tree in the Chapel, thus ending another wondrous time of year, and beginning a new.

John the Baptist had devoted his life to preparing for the arrival of Jesus. He had focused all of his energy toward this moment.  Yet the very first thing Jesus asked him to do, John resisted. He felt unqualified. He felt unworthy even to unfasten the shoes of Jesus, yet Jesus said John was the greatest of all prophets (Luke 7:28).

Dr. He Qi

John preached a "baptism with water", not of forgiveness but of penance or repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3), and declared himself a forerunner to one who would baptize 'with the Holy Spirit and with fire' . In so doing he was preparing the way for Jesus. Jesus came to the Jordan River where he was baptized by John. The baptismal scene includes the Heavens opening, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and a voice from Heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased."

Lorenzo Scott- American Primitive

Why did Jesus ask to be baptized? It was obviously part of His mission in coming to earth. Jesus was also endorsing John's ministry of baptism. Jesus was identifying with those who were repenting. He was also setting an example for his followers. He was foreshadowing his death, burial and resurrection,  and He was announcing the beginning of his ministry on earth.

By baptizing Him, John was declaring to all that here was the One they had been waiting for, the Son of God, the One he had predicted would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3).

In addition, Jesus coming to John showed His approval of John's baptism, bearing witness to it, that it was from heaven and approved by God. This would be important in the future when others would begin to doubt John’s authority, particularly after his arrest by Herod (Matthew 14:3).

Korean

Sadao Watanabe-Japan

Daniel Bonnell

THREE MIRACLES

Tryptich of three Miracles

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany. The Magnificat Antiphon we sing at 2nd Vespers has always fascinated me as we are still celebrating the season of Christmas yet find ourselves with John the Baptist in the Jordan and at a wedding feast with the grown Jesus and His Mother.    

"We celebrate a festival adorned by three miracles: this day, a star led the Magi to the manger; this day, water was changed into wine at the marriage-feast; this day, Christ vouchsafed to be baptized by John in the Jordan, for our salvation. Alleluia."

And the Vesper's hymn,  written by the 5th  C. Christian poet, Cael­i­us Se­dul­i­us, echoes this theme of three miracles:

When Christ’s appearing was made known,
King Herod trembled for his throne;
But He Who offers heavenly birth
Sought not the kingdom of this earth.

The eastern sages saw from far
And followed on His guiding star;
By light their way to Light they trod,
And by their gifts confessed their God.

Within the Jordan’s sacred flood
The heavenly Lamb in meekness stood,
That He, to Whom no sin was known,
Might cleanse His people from their own.

And O what miracle divine,
When water reddened into wine!
He spake the word, and forth it flowed
In streams that nature ne’er bestowed.

Dr. He Qi

Haiti

All glory, Jesus, be to Thee
For this Thy glad epiphany:
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost forevermore.

While it is pretty certain that all three events did not happen on January 6th, what the early Church was trying to convey was EPIPHANY (from a Greek verb meaning "to reveal,") and all of the various events celebrated by the Feast of the Epiphany which are revelations of Christ to us. At the Nativity, the angels bear witness to Christ, and the shepherds, representing the people of Israel, bow down before Him; and at the visitation of the Magi, Christ's divinity is revealed to the Gentiles, the other nations of the earth. At Christ's Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends and the voice of God the Father is heard, declaring that Jesus is His Son. At the wedding in Cana, the beginning of His public ministry, the miracle reveals Christ's divinity.

10th Century

Coptic

MOVEABLE FEASTS

Resurrection- Dr. He Qi

Announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts on EPIPHANY

At the end of the Mass of the Epiphany, before the last Blessing, Mother Prioress sings in Latin, in a very haunting and lovely tone, the ancient proclamation of the date of Easter and the other moveable feasts. This tradition dates from a time when calendars were not readily available, so it was necessary to make known the date of Easter in advance, since many celebrations of the liturgical year depend on its date.The number of Sundays that follow Epiphany, the date of Ash Wednesday, and the number of Sundays that follow Pentecost are all computed in relation to Easter.

Although calendars now give the date of Easter and the other feasts in the liturgical year for many years in advance, the Epiphany proclamation still has value.It is a reminder of the centrality of the Resurrection of the Lord in the liturgical year and the importance of the great mysteries of faith which are celebrated each year.

Each year the proper dates for Ash Wednesday, Easter, Ascension,  Trinity Sunday, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Christ the King, and the First Sunday of Advent must be inserted into the text.

Resurrection- Cheryl Ward

For the year 2013 the following are the dates:

Know, dear brethren  that, as we have rejoiced at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, so by leave of God's mercy we announce to you also the joy of His Resurrection, who is our Savior.







On the thirteenth day of February will fall Ash Wednesday,
and the beginning of the fast of the most sacred Lenten season.

On the thirty-first day of March you will celebrate with joy Easter Day, the Paschal feast of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On the ninth day of May will be the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On the twelfth day of May will be the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On the nineteenth day of May, the feast of Pentecost.

On the second day of June, the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

On the first day of December, the First Sunday of the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

Epiphany- Sadao Watanabe- Japan

Again, while celebrating Christ's birth, the Holy Family, His baptism, the Epiphany, and other feasts at this time, the Church asks us to keep in mind what is to come in His Passion and death and Resurrection.

WISE MEN- YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Basilica of  St. Apollinare, Ravenna    6th C.

The coming of the Magi is celebrated at Epiphany (Jan. 6) and in many countries Epiphany is the major festival for giving gifts not Christmas as in our own country. Epiphany is celebrated twelve days after Christmas usually on January 6th. That’s where we get the twelve days of Christmas. When I lived in Europe many years ago and found myself in Rome for the month of January, I was called to the home of my good friend, Father Doctor Spellucci, who was Pope Paul's private secretary for German affairs.  There on a table filled with flowers and delicate Italian pastries, were gifts which he had set out for me and others.

Who were these wise men? In the Book of Daniel, the term magi  is used to refer to a class of wise,  non-Jewish, religious men who were astrologers and interpreters of  dreams and messages of the gods. This is probably what Matthew had in mind when he calls them Magi.

We  know that they would have been Gentiles and this is the reason why they appear in Matthew's gospel as they are a foreshadow that in the coming of Jesus Christ, salvation was for all people.

Dr. He Qi

The Magi were obviously curious and more than that seekers of the truth. They were sort of Old Testament detectives, finding pieces of a puzzle then trying to get them all put together. They knew the old prophesies and that a sign from the heavens would lead them. They didn’t know the full extent of what that heavenly sign  meant but they deduced that there was one born king of the Jews. And they came prepared!

The magi persevered in their quest for the truth and were rewarded with a chance to be among the first to worship Jesus and it did not seem to deter their faith that He was not born in a palace, nor of obvious royal trappings but in a very humble abode surrounded by animals.

Dr. He Qi

They presented their gifts without a second thought: Gold  for a king, Frankincense for a priest, and Myrrh for one who was going to die. How did they know how the life of this Child would unfold?  They were seers who had faith, perhaps hope for the future,  and certainly love. One wonders what they took back with them when they returned to their countries.  They must have been richer and probably spread these riches.

It is not too late to join in for a real celebration of this new-born King. Like the wise men, seek Him, and you will find Him, and finding Him, present your gifts, which as the child's carol says:

If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him –
Give my heart. (C. Rossetti)

  
One of our favorite poets T.S. Eliot wrote beautiful words (following his own conversion) for this feast which relates the seers foretelling the death to come for this Child. This is not so we forget the joy of the feast itself, but that we remember why this Child was born to us!


The Coming of the Magi

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet...

Jim Janknegt

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

Nalini Jayasuriya - Sri Lanka

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This:  were we led all that way for
Birth or Death?  There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Brian Whelan, 2004

NEW SAINTS FOR 2013

On December 20, 2012 Pope Benedict XVI authorized  23 decrees naming new saints and blesseds to the roster of saints for the coming year.

Now eligible for canonization is BLESSED LAURA MONTOYA (1874-1949) founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and St. Catherine of Siena; known as "Teacher of the Indians" for her work among the native peoples of her homeland, Colombia.
Like my "friend", Bl. Maria Troncatti, she too was a Madrecita to the Native peoples of South America.  (see11/23/12)

Bl. Laura Montoya Upegui was born on 26 May 1874 in Jericó, Antioquia, Colombia, the second of three children to Juan de la Crux Montoya and Dolores Upegui.

When Laura was only 2 years old, her father was killed defending his Country, and the family was left in extreme poverty after all their goods were confiscated. At such a time of deep misery and loss, Laura's mother gave an example of Christian forgiveness and fortitude that would remain impressed in her young daughter's mind and heart forever.

Following her father's death, Laura was sent to live with her grandmother. She suffered greatly from misunderstandings and the lack of affection, feeling she had been left "orphaned".
However, she accepted with love the sacrifices and loneliness she experienced and sought refuge in God. As she grew older, she was especially sustained by meditation on Sacred Scripture and the strength she received from the Eucharist.

When Laura was 16, her mother decided that her daughter needed to help the family in its financial difficulties and told her to apply to become a teacher. Although Laura was culturally and academically "ignorant", having grown up without a formal education, she asked to enter the "Normale de Institutoras" of Medellín to receive training to become an elementary school teacher. She was accepted and stood out for her high marks among the students.

Laura began teaching in different parts of Antioquia. She did not limit herself to educating the students simply in academic knowledge, but sought to diffuse Gospel teaching and values.
She also felt called to the religious life, her heart set on God alone, and dreamed of one day becoming a cloistered Carmelite nun; at the same time, though, she felt growing within her the desire to spread the Gospel to the farthest corners of the earth, to those who had never met Jesus Christ. She was ready to renounce her own "dream" of Carmel to be open to God's project, if his will was otherwise.

At one time during her teaching career, Laura felt decidedly drawn to helping the Indian population in South America and wished to insert herself into their culture, to "become an Indian with the Indians to win them all for Christ". Recognizing their dignity as human beings in an epoch when they were considered by many as "wild beasts", Laura wanted to destroy this racial discrimination and to personally sacrifice herself in order to bring them Christ's love and teaching.

Madre Laura setting off with her sisters

On 14 May 1914, she left Medellín together with four other young women and headed to Dabeiba to live among the native Indians. This new religious family, assisted by the Bishop of Santa Fe de Antioquia and known as the "Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and St Catherine of Siena", was thought by some to be nothing more than a family of "religious goats", who were heading off into the wilderness to give the "beasts" a living Gospel catechism. Laura, however, cared little for public opinion, even if some of the comments made came right from within the Christian community itself.

Madre Laura with her Natives

Mother Laura composed for her "daughters" a directory and other writings (her Autobiography among them) to help them understand better their call to serve God among the Indians, and to live a balance between apostolic and contemplative life. She taught by example the "pedagogy of love" as the only way to teach the Indians, the way which allowed access into their heart and culture to bring them Jesus Christ.

Mother Laura died on 21 October 1949 in Medellín, after a long and painful illness. The last nine years of her life were lived in a wheelchair, where she continued to teach by example, word and writing.

MOTHER OF GOD in OUR NEW YEAR

The Beautiful Pilgrim (Jasna Gora)

Madonna of the Night

Jesus Christ is Born

Just as Christmas honors Jesus as the "Prince of Peace," the SOLEMNITY of MARY MOTHER of GOD (January 1) honors Mary as the "Queen of Peace".

On this feast we are not only honoring Mary, who was chosen among all women throughout history to bear God, but we are also honoring our Lord, who is fully God and fully human.

Mary is the "perfect woman",  hand-picked and created by God to be His mother. She knows the fullness of God's love and passes this beautiful blessing onto to us. She is not only God's mother, but our mother as well. She is the gentle, concerned mother who watches over us day and night, and cares for our every need. Every pain, every worry, every joy we feel she wants us to share it all with her. The love that God manifests toward her, she shares abundantly with us. The Holy Spirit dwells within her heart, and she is the channel of love, grace, and tender mercy for us.

Today I present a wonderful Polish artist to illustrate Mary in the many mysteries of her life with her Son, from His birth to His death.

Madonna of the City of Birds

Madonna on a Deer

“Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry,” was an exhibit  in 2005 by the renowned Polish artist Wislawa Kwiatkowska. I love her work for the colors, her use of many birds in her paintings, and her sense of the wonder and joy of the Madonna.

The fifty paintings are more than isolated samples of Polish art and poetry. Wislawa Kwiatkowska’s art is a tribute to the Polish genius, marvelously gifted to bring into one the things of this world and the views of God and his saints. (Fr. Stefan Ceglowski, Director of the Diocesan Museum of Plock)

We also knew about the marvelous love story between the Polish people and the Bogarodzica, the Polish “Mother of God.” It was Bl. John Paul II, the Pope of the “Totus tuus,” who gave us an inkling of this enduring relationship of mutual affection.



 This pietà reflects on tragic Polish history when, during the occupation of Poland by the Nazis, many people starved; most wondered where they would find a bit of food to sustain them for another day. The artist shows that all around Mary, the birds find nourishment in the thistle seeds, while she finds nothing to feed her Son. The Polish people know that Mary understands their pain, for her life, like theirs, was full of suffering. (Fr. Stefan Ceglowski)

Surrounded by the flowers of the linden tree, the Holy Mother, with tears in her eyes, rocks her Son.  She has no place to lay her Child to sleep. Golden birds draw near to soothe the Babe with their song and the moon offers itself as a cradle. 

The royalty of Mary and the Child is emphasized by the use of rich blues and purples in this night scene. Mary wears a tall crown and holds her doll-like Son for all to see. The Child spreads His hands, blessing all of nature. Even the most beautiful birds, the proud peacocks, humbly fold their fine tail feathers in the presence of the Madonna and her Son.

THE HOLY FAMILY

Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS

Scripture tells us practically nothing about the first years and the boyhood of the Child Jesus. All we know are the facts of the sojourn in Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the incidents that occurred when the twelve-year-old boy accompanied his parents to Jerusalem. In her Liturgy the Church hurries over this period of Christ's life with equal brevity.

The general breakdown of the family, however, at the end of the past century and at the beginning of our own, prompted the popes, especially the far-sighted Leo XIII, to promote the observance of this feast with the hope that it might instill into Christian families something of the faithful love and the devoted attachment that characterize the family of Nazareth. The primary purpose of the Church in instituting and promoting this feast is to present the Holy Family as the model and exemplar of all Christian families.
                                        -Excerpted from With Christ Through the Year, Rev. Bernard Strasser, O.S.B.


In a beautiful address on December 28, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth.  "The house of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

Br.McGrath again

The Holy Family is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth".





My personal Christmas card this year was taken when I went over the mountains to the  funeral of my friend Les in October.  Fortunately, I had the camera in hand just as the Steller's jay landed on St. Joseph's head.  I love the statue, as Joseph, who is so often portrayed as an old man (maybe he was a few years older than Mary but....) is here shown as a virile protector of Mother and Child, of Wife and Son.  The jay, true to aloof form almost seems to be watching out for this Family.

A few weeks before my trip, the Shaw Birding club, which this year studied crows and won Best of Show at the county fair for their project (see 8/27/12), decided to study the Steller's jay for their 2013 project (more on this later). Coincidence?  I think not!

Our Lady of the Snows- Leavenworth, WA