An unending Epiphany

I love that word ‘Epiphany’.  The feast that brings the Christmas season to an end.  But so much more than that.   One can think of it as the sign post to the ‘extraordinary’ in ordinary things.  Each year bringing with it a new and sudden ‘realisation or revelation’ as the New Year opens out into an ‘unending Epiphany’.

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them,
went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped
over the place where the child was.
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother;
and they knelt down and paid him homage.
Then opening their treasure chests,
they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

~ Matthew 2: 1-12

The feast of the Epiphany offers  the opportunity to celebrate and recognise again the manifestation of God to all peoples of the Earth.  God as an ordinary child allowing Himself to be led by the events and circumstances that surrounded Him.  God present in human form.  It is also apt to think of the  Epiphany as the feast day for all who have set out on that search to ‘see’ for ourselves the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy One of God.  To follow that inner stirring, and  ‘calling’ enkindled within our hearts, to set out into new and unknown places, following that bright shining inner ‘Star’ that is guiding us with hope and expectancy.  The Magi did not make this journey alone,  but together found their ‘stopping place’ where Jesus was.

Creator of the Stars, God of Epiphanies
You are the Great Star
You have marked my path with light
You have filled my sky with stars
naming each star
guiding it
until it shines into my heart
awakening me to deeper seeing
new revelations
and brighter epiphanies.

O Infinite Star Giver
I now ask for your wisdom and courage
to follow these stars
for their names are many
and my heart is fearful.

They shine on me wherever I go:
The Star of Hope
The Star of Mercy and Compassion
The Star of Justice and Peace
The Star of Tenderness and Love
The Star of Suffering
The Star of Joy
and every time I feel the shine
I am called to follow it, to sing it, to live it,
all the way to the cross and beyond.

O Creator of the Stars you have become within me
an unending Epiphany.

~ Sr. Joyce Rupp

May your New Year be all of this and more.