Epiphany Blessings: Waters and Doors (MId-week Message)

 

 

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

January 1, 2014

Epiphany Blessings: Waters and Doors  

 

A Happy New Year, rich in blessings, joy, health, and prosperity, to us all!

 

The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 (next Monday) celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the world. The word Epiphany comes from the Greek word for manifestation or to show forth.  Epiphany eve concludes the twelfth day of Christmas and thus ends Christmastide.  Epiphany begins a period before Lent where the Church focuses on who Jesus really is.  The theme of the readings and hymns in church start with light (the star at Jesus’ birth), move on to the descent of the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, and then focus on the wondrous deeds of Jesus in his ministry.

The January 6^th celebration, called Theophany (“Manifestation of God”) in the Eastern tradition, commemorates the arrival of the Magi told in Matthew 2:  strange Persian religious figures follow a star to find the baby Jesus and come to pay him homage and to bring him gifts.  In the Eastern tradition, the day, beginning the evening before, is celebrated an outdoor procession and “Great Blessing of the Waters.” 

 

 

 

Our Sunday, January 5, morning services will be celebrating “Three Kings Sunday,” in line with the Revised Common Lectionary adopted by the Episcopal Church in 2006.   At the 10 a.m. service, there will be very light incense to remind us of the frankincense brought as a gift to the newborn Jesus.   At 4 p.m., we will meet with members from the Ashland Youth Collective at the lower bridge in Lithia Park (across from Pioneer Hall) and process up to the upper bridge (near the playground, about 100 meters away), where we will have a short and affirming Great Blessing of the Waters.   If you want to know about it and discover this beautiful tradition from the East, meet us there at 4 p.m.  At 5 p.m. back at Trinity, Fr. Tom will lead the monthly Contemplative Eucharist. 

 

For those who want to celebrate in a small way the actual Feast of the Epiphany this year, there is something you may wish to do on Monday January 6.

For centuries, Western Christians (those stemming from the Latin-speaking Church) have had a special tradition of celebrating the end of the Christmas season and praying for blessings in the New Year.  It is a practice of simple January 6 door decoration.   Since the Middle Ages, some Christians have marked the doors to their homes with the year, the letters C, M and B, and four crosses.  They generally mark these in chalk above the main entrance to their homes.  This year’s marking is this:

                                             20+C+M+B+14

The letters C, M, and B stand for the names ascribed to the wise men in medieval poetry (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar).  They also stand for the Latin phrase of blessing:  Christus mansionem benedicat, translated as “May Christ bless this house.”

If you would like to bless your home for the New Year and mark it with chalk on January 6, the following words can be said while writing each part of the sequence:

“Lord Jesus, around two thousand (20) and fourteen years (14) ago, by the light of a great star you showed the way for the three Wise Men,
(C) Caspar,
(M) Melchior,
(B) and Balthasar to find you as a newborn baby.  Christ (++) fill our home with Your light, and bless us (++), and remain with us throughout this New Year.  You are the Son of God made flesh, and showed yourself to the whole world.  Help us now to show forth Your light to all through our acts of love incarnate.  Amen.”

 

At the Sunday Forum at 9 a.m. on January 5, we will bless chalk, demonstrate how to do the door blessing, and give chalk to those who want to perform the blessing at their own homes.

Grace and Peace, 

 

–Fr. Tony+