The Fifth Day Within The Octave Of The Epiphany. 10 January.

Text taken from The Liturgical Year,

by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Volume 3.

Christmas - Book II.

Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) was a 12th-Century Alsatian Nun and Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges mountains, France. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopaedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Herrad of Landsberg was born about 1130 at the Castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. She became Abbess there in 1167 and continued in that Office until her death.

These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818. The original perished in the burning of the Library of Strasbourg during the siege of 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The text was copied and published by Straub and Keller, 1879-1899.

Date: 1818.

Source: Hortus Deliciarum.

Author: Made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France, 1185 by Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Magi have reached Bethlehem; the humble dwelling of the King of the Jews has been thrown open to them; there, says Saint Matthew, they found the Child with Mary His Mother. Falling down, they adore the Divine King they have so fervently sought after, and for whom the whole Earth has been longing.

Here, we have the commencement of the Christian Church. In this humble stable, we have the Son of God made Man, presiding as Head over His mystical body; Mary is present, as the Co-Operatrix in the world's salvation, as as the Mother of Divine Grace; Juda is represented by this Holy Queen and her Spouse, Saint Joseph; the Gentiles are adoring, in the person of the Magi, whose faith is perfect now that they have seen the Child.

It is not a Prophet that they are honouring, nor is it to an Earthly King that they open their treasures; He, before whom they prostrate in adoration, is their God. "See, I pray you," says Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, "and attentively consider how keen is the eye of faith. It recognises the Son of God, whether feeding at his Mother's breast, or hanging on the Cross, or dying in the midst of suffering; for the Good Thief recognises Him on the Cross, and the Magi recognise Him in the stable; he, in spite of the nails which fasten Him, and they, in spite of the clouts [clothing] which swathe Him." [Second Sermon for The Epiphany.]

So that all is consummated, Bethlehem is not merely the birthplace of Our Redeemer; it is the cradle of the Church. Well did the Prophet say of it: And, thou, Bethlehem, art not the least among the princes of Juda [St. Matt. ii 6; Micah v 2].

Mont Sainte-Odile,

Alsace, France,

also known as Hohenburg Abbey.

The previous image of The Three Magi (see, above)

was originally created in Hohenburg Abbey.

Photo: 29 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

We can understand Saint Jerome leaving all the ambitions and comforts of Rome to go and bury himself in the seclusion of this cave, where all these Mysteries were accomplished. Who would not gladly live and die in this privileged place, sanctified as it is by the presence of Our Jesus, embalmed with the fragrance of the Queen of Heaven, filled with the lingering echoes of the songs of Angels, and fresh, even yet, with the memory of those ancestors of our faith, the holy Magi !

These happy Kings are not scandalised at the sight they behold on entering the humble dwelling. They are not disappointed at finding at the end of their long journey a weak Babe, a poor Mother, and a wretched stable. On the contrary, they rightly understand the Mystery. Once believing in the promise that the Infinite God would visit His creature, Man, and show him how He loved him, they are not surprised at seeing Him humble Himself, and take upon Himself all our miseries, that He might be like us in all save sin.

Their own hearts told them that the wound, inflicted on man by pride, was too deep to be healed by anything short of an extreme remedy; so that, to them, these strange humiliations at Bethlehem bespeak the design and action of a God.

Israel, too, is in expectation of the Messias, but he must be mighty and wealthy and exalted above all other kings in Earthly glory; the Magi, on the contrary, see, in the humility and poverty of this weak Babe of Bethlehem, the indications of the true Messias.

The Grace of God has triumphed in these faithful men; they fall down before Him, and, full of admiration and love, they adore Him.

Adoration of the Magi.

Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).

Date: 1655 - 1660.

Current location: Toledo Museum of Art,

Ohio, United States.

Source/Photographer: JAFwsBSXui7rdg at Google Cultural Institute.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Who could describe the sweet conversations they held with His Blessed Mother ? For the King, Himself, of Whom they were come in search, broke not, even for their sakes, the voluntary silence He had imposed on Himself by becoming an Infant. He accepted their homage, He sweetly smiled upon them, He Blessed them; but He would not speak to them; Mary, alone, was to satisfy, by her sublime communications, the holy curiosity of the three Pilgrims, who represented the entire human race. How amply must she not have rewarded their faith and love, by announcing to them the Mystery of that Virginal Birth, which was to bring salvation to the world; by telling them of the joys of her own maternal heart; and by describing to them the sweet perfections of the Divine Child !

They, themselves, would fix their eyes on the Blessed Mother, and listen to her every word with devout attention; and, oh !, how sweetly must not Divine Grace have penetrated their hearts through the words of her whom God, Himself, has chosen as the means to lead men to the knowledge and the love of His sovereign Majesty !

The star which, but an hour ago, had brightly shone for them in the heavens, was replaced by another, of a lovelier light and stronger influence; and it prepared them for the contemplation of that God Who calls Himself the bright and Morning Star ! [Apoc. xxii 16]. The whole world seemed now a mere nothing in their eyes; the stable of Bethlehem held within it all the riches of Heaven and Earth. They had shared in that long expectation of the human race, the expectation of four thousand years — and now it seemed but as a moment, so full and perfect was their joy at having found the God who, alone, can satisfy the desires of man's heart.

They understood and entered into the merciful designs of their Emmanuel; they gratefully and humbly contracted with Him the alliance He so mercifully made, through them, with the human race; they adored the just judgements of God, Who was about to cast off an unbelieving people; they rejoiced at the glories of the Christian Church, which had thus been begun in their persons; they prayed for us, their posterity in that same Church.

English: The Magi Journeying.

Français: Les rois mages en voyage.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

We, dear Babe of Bethlehem !, — we, the Gentiles, who, by our regeneration, have become the posterity of these first Christians — we adore Thee as they did, Since their entrance into Bethlehem, long ages have passed away; but there has been an unbroken procession of people and nations tending towards Thee under the guidance of the Star of Faith.

We have been made members of Thy Church, and we adore Thee with the Magi. In one thing are we happier than these firstborn of the Church; we have heard Thy sacred words and teachings, we have contemplated Thy sufferings and Thy Cross, we have been witnesses of Thy Resurrection, we have heard the whole Universe, from the rising to the setting of the Sun, hymning Thy Blessed and Glorious Name; well may we adore and love Thee as King of the Earth !

The Sacrifice, whereby all Thy Mysteries are perpetuated and renewed, is now offered up daily in every part of the world; the voice of Thy Church is heard speaking to all men; and all this light and all these graces are ours ! The Church, the ever-enduring Bethlehem, the House of Bread of Life, gives Thee to us: and we are for ever feasting on Thy adorable beauty. Yea, sweet Jesus, we adore Thee with the Magi.

And thou, O Mary !, teach us, as thou didst teach the Magi. Unfold to us, and each year more clearly, the sweet Mystery of thy Jesus, and, at length, win us over unreservedly to His service. Thou are our Mother; watch over us, and suffer us not to lose any of the lessons He teaches us. May Bethlehem, wherein we have entered in company with the holy Magi, work in us the renovation of our whole lives.

Adoration of the Magi.

Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi.

Photo: Alexander R. Pruss.

Current location: National Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC. America.

This File: 23 November 2007.

User: User:Jan Arkesteijn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Let us close the day by reciting some of the ancient Hymns written in honour of the Mystery of our New-Born King. Let us begin with the Hymn composed by Saint Ambrose, followed by a Prayer from the Breviary of the Gothic Church in Spain.

In addition, we have a Hymn of the Magi, from the Church of Syria's admirable Poet, Saint Ephrem.

As our offering to Our Lady, we will recite a beautiful Sequence, which our own dear England used to sing in the Middle Ages:

Flos pudicitiae,

Aula munditiae,

Mater misericordiae,

Salve, Virgo serena . . .

O flower of purity !,

Sanctuary of chastity !,

Mother of mercy !,

Hail, gentle Maid !

The Magi wonder at the emergence

of the bright new Star.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

Epiphany And The Un-Ordinariness Of Liturgical Time.

Text is taken from RORATE CAELI

English: The Magi Journeying.

Français: Les rois mages en voyage.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Epiphany 

And The Un-Ordinariness 

Of Liturgical Time

One chapter of Dom Gregory Dix’s The Shape of the Liturgy is named “The Sanctification of Time”. This chapter shows how the Liturgical Calendar of the Church sanctifies time. The Liturgical Calendar does not provide merely an overlay of secular time. The Calendar is part of the recognition of the radically irruptive event of the Incarnation that changes time and space and reality forever.

Of course this includes the celebrations of the feasts of the Saints, those specific celebrations of the making real of the grace of God in the lives of those who open themselves up in a total way to this grace. But the foundation of the Liturgical Calendar is the cycles that celebrate the Mysteries of the Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Christmas cycle, which we are celebrating at this time, gives ultimate meaning to the secular, physical time when the days are becoming longer, a bit more light each day. In the Christmas cycle we celebrate the coming into the world of the Light that shines in the darkness. We celebrate the making flesh of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the birth of her child whose name is Jesus — he who comes to save.

The Magi wonder at the emergence 

of the bright new Star.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

The climax of this cycle has always been the Epiphany, a feast older than Christmas, a feast that celebrates the fact that the event and the person of the Incarnation embraces not only time and space but embraces all the peoples of the world. And the feast of the Epiphany proclaims in its three-fold way the answer to the seminal question asked in the Gospels: who is this man Jesus? 

He is the one who is worshipped as God. 

He is the one who is the Son of God in whom his Father is well pleased. 

He is the one who changes water into wine, for he is the Lord of creation itself.

One of the saddest and most deleterious effects of the changes in the structure and content of the Liturgical Calendar in the post-Conciliar reform is the lack of understanding of the sanctification of time by the feasts and fasts of the Church. The introduction, at least in English, of the term, “ordinary time”, contradicts the fact that after the Incarnation there is no "ordinary" time. There is only the extraordinary time that has been brought into being by the insertion of the dagger of the Incarnation into ordinary time. 

Now we know that the term “ordinary time” is a poor translation of the Latin term for “in course”. But even this does not take away from the fact of the impoverishment of the Liturgical Calendar that has been effected by taking away the Sundays after the Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost.

The Magi follow the bright 
new Star to Bethlehem.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

The traditional way of naming these Sundays understood that these two feasts, Epiphany and Pentecost, are the climaxes of the Christmas and Easter seasons, the seasons that celebrate the event and meaning of, respectively, the Birth, and the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and therefore these feasts become the touchstone, the source of reality of the Sundays of the Church Year.

One of the marks of the Novus Ordo form and its calendar that is striking evidence of its incapacity to bear the weight of the Catholic Tradition is its source in a committee. Something organic has nothing to do with a liturgical commission or consilium or committee. As soon as one thinks that the Liturgy can be treated as a mere text to be updated, the possibility of worship is severely lessened. 

That is what the Protestant reformers thought. They rewrote their Mass texts to suit their ideology. And, for the most part, liturgical worship died in those churches. And where it did survive, as in Anglicanism, it did so thanks to both an innate conservatism and finally to a revival in the 19th century of a more Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.

The Magi follow the bright 
new Star to Bethlehem.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

The whole question of what happened, and how it happened, with respect to the Novus Ordo rite, vis a vis the imposition of a particular ideology based on the scholarship du jour, and the personal predilections of those in charge of the post-Conciliar reforms, is a conversation that has not been allowed to happen by those “in charge” of such things in Rome. There is no doubt that such a conversation will be had and must be had, for the good of the Church. But that will come inevitably in time.

But, surely, the question of the Liturgical Calendar and the mistakes made in its Novus Ordo formulation can be discussed now. The imposition of a pre-conceived “orderliness” that demands that the Christmas season end with the feast of the Epiphany and with no time for the Octave to reflect on this seminal feast must be revisited. 

This is compounded when the feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on a Sunday. The irony here is that one of the battle cries of the reform of the Calendar was the restoration of the primacy of Sunday in the Liturgical Year. Surely we can now see the foolishness of the possibility of celebrating the Epiphany as early as on January 2, four full days before the actual feast that is celebrated in those parts of the Western Church still on January 6 and celebrated on that day by our Orthodox brethren throughout the world with the solemnity it deserves.

The Magi follow the bright 
new Star to Bethlehem . . .

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

It is foolish as well to celebrate this feast after January 6, as if it is irrelevant to the sanctification of time when any feast is celebrated, for the guiding principle in this reform is the convenience of the people: it is more convenient for the people to celebrate the Epiphany on Sunday rather than the interruption of having to go to Mass on a weekday. 

But it is precisely the interruption that is the point. The ir-ruption of the Incarnation demands such an inter-ruption, demands such an “inconvenience”, for it is a reminder of the sanctification of time itself to those of us who forget that time and space, and the world, and our lives, and our future, have been radically changed by the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.

. . . and present their gifts 

of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh 

to the Infant.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

It may be too much to hope that a real conversation about the Liturgical Calendar of the Novus Ordo form will take place soon. But surely we can hope that our Bishops will soon see the deleterious effect of moving the Epiphany and other major feasts of our Lord to Sunday and will put an end to this practice. 

For this, let us pray.

Father Richard G. Cipolla.

Dreikönigsfest. The Feast Of The Three Kings. Epiphany Water. Epiphany Chalk.

English: The Magi Journeying.

Français: Les rois mages en voyage.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)


DREIKÖNIGSFEST.

The following Text is taken from ROMAN CHRISTENDOM

By long tradition, on The Feast of The Epiphany — called Dreikönigsfest (The Feast of The Three Kings) in the lands of the old Holy Roman Empire — the Rector of the Parish (or, in his absence, the father of each family) visits each house with a Cross-Bearer, two Acolytes and three children, dressed as The Kings, one bearing a Censer with lighted Incense.

At each house, a little Ceremony takes place; the house is Blessed with Epiphany Water, and, over the door lintel of the house, the following is inscribed with Blessed Chalk:

20 + C + M + B + 15

In my house, we always perform this traditional ceremony.

This symbolises the present year (2015) and The Blessing of The Three Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar) upon each home.

The symbols remain all year, or until the weather has washed them away.

The Fourth Day Within The Octave Of The Epiphany. 9 January.

Text taken from The Liturgical Year,

by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Volume 3.

Christmas - Book II.

Adoration of the Magi.

Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).

Date: 1655 - 1660.

Current location: Toledo Museum of Art,

Ohio, United States.

Source/Photographer: JAFwsBSXui7rdg at Google Cultural Institute.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Star, foretold by Balaam, having risen in the East, the Three Magi, whose hearts were full of the expectation of the promised Redeemer, are immediately inflamed with the desire of going in search of Him. The announcement of the glad coming of the King of the Jews is made to these holy Kings in a mysterious and silent manner; and, hereby, it differs from that made to the Shepherds of Bethlehem, who were invited to Jesus's Crib by the voice of an Angel.

But the mute language of the Star was explained to them by God, Himself, for He revealed His Son to them; and this made their Vocation superior  in dignity to that of the Jewish Shepherds, who, according to the dispensation of the Old Law, could know nothing save by the ministry of Angels.

The Divine Grace which spoke, directly and by itself, to the Souls of the Magi, met with a faithful and unhesitating correspondence. Saint Luke says of the Shepherds, that they came with haste to Bethlehem; and the Magi show their simple and fervent eagerness by the words they addressed to Herod: We have seen His Star in the East, they say, and we are come to adore Him.

When Abraham received the command from God to go out of the land of Chaldea, which was the land of his fathers and kindred, and go into a strange country, he obeyed with such faithful promptitude as to merit being made the Father of all them that believe, so, likewise, the Magi, by reason of their equally docile and admirable faith, have been judged worthy to be called the Fathers of the Gentile Church.

English: The Magi Journeying.
Français: Les rois mages en voyage.
Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).
Date: Between 1886 and 1894.
Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.
Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.
Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;
Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.
(Wikimedia Commons)

They, too, or at least one or more of them, went out from Chaldea, if we are to believe Saint Justin and Tertullian. Several of the Fathers, among whom are the two just mentioned, assert that one, if not two, of these holy Kings was from Arabia. A popular tradition, now for centuries admitted into Christian Art, tells us that one of the three Magi was from Ethiopia; and, certainly, as regards this last option, we have David and other Prophets telling us that the coloured inhabitants of the banks of the Nile were to be objects of God's special mercy.

The term, Magi, implies that they gave themselves to the study of the heavenly bodies, and that, too, for the special intention of finding that glorious star whose rising had been prophesied. They were of the number of those Gentiles who, like the Centurion, Cornelius, feared God, had not been defiled by the worship of idols, and maintained, in spite of all the ignorance which surrounded them, the sacred traditions of the religion that was practised by Abraham and the Patriarchs.

The Gospel does not say that they were Kings, but the Church applies to them those verses of the Psalm, where David speaks of the Kings of Arabia and Saba, that should hereafter come to the Messias bringing their offerings of gold.

The tradition of their being Kings rests on the testimony of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, of Saint Jerome, of the poet, Juvencus, of Saint Leo, and several others; and it would be impossible to controvert it by any well-grounded arguments. Of course, we are not to suppose them to have been Monarchs, whose kingdoms were as great as those of the Roman Empire; but we know that the Scripture frequently applies this name of King to petty princes, and even to mere governors of provinces.

Adoration of the Magi.

Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi.

Photo: Alexander R. Pruss.

Current location: National Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC. America.

This File: 23 November 2007.

User: User:Jan Arkesteijn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Magi, therefore, would be called Kings if they exercised authority over a considerable number of people; and that they were persons of great importance, we have a strong proof in the consideration and attention showed them by Herod, into whose palace they enter, telling him that they are come to pay their homage to the new-born King of the Jews.

The City of Jerusalem is thrown into a state of excitement by their arrival, which would scarce have occurred had not the three strangers, who came for a purpose which few heeded, been attended by a numerous retinue, or had they not attracted attention by their imposing appearance.

These Kings, then, docile to the Divine Inspiration, suddenly leave their country, their riches, their quiet, in order to follow a star; the power of that God, who had called them, unites them in the same path, as they were already one in faith. The star goes on before them, marking out the route they were to follow; The dangers of such a journey, the fatigues of a pilgrimage which might last for weeks or months, the fear of awakening suspicions in the Roman Empire towards which they were evidently tending —all this was nothing to them; they were told to go, and they went.

Their first stay is at Jerusalem, for the star halts there. They, Gentiles, come into this Holy City, which is soon to have God's curse upon it, and they come to announce that Jesus Christ is come ! With all the simple courage and all the calm conviction of Apostles and Martyrs, they declare their firm resolution of going to Him and adoring Him.

Mont Sainte-Odile,
Alsace, France,
also known as Hohenburg Abbey.
The following image of The Three Magi (see, below)
was originally created in Hohenburg Abbey.
Photo: 29 June 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Their earnest inquiries constrain Israel, who was the guardian of the Divine Prophecies, to confess one of the chief marks of the Messias — His Birth in Bethlehem. The Jewish Priesthood fulfils, though with a sinful ignorance, its sacred ministry, and Herod sits restlessly on his throne, plotting murder.

The Magi leave the faithless City, which has turned the presence of the Magi into a mark of its own reprobation. The Star reappears in the heavens, and invites them to resume their journey. Yet a few hours, and they will be at Bethlehem, at the feet of the King of whom they are in search.

O dear Jesus ! We also are following Thee; we are walking in Thy light, for Thou hast said, in the Prophecy of Thy beloved Disciple: I am the bright and Morning Star. The meteor that guides the Magi is but Thy symbol, O Divine Star ! Thou art the Morning Star; for Thy Birth proclaims that the darkness of error and sin is at an end.

Thou art the Morning Star; for, after submitting to death and the tomb,, Thou wilt suddenly arise from that night of humiliation to the bright morning of Thy glorious Resurrection. Thou art the Morning Star; for, by Thy Birth and the Mysteries which are to follow, Thou announcest unto us the cloudless day of eternity.

Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) was a 12th-Century Alsatian Nun and Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges mountains, France. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopaedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Herrad of Landsberg was born about 1130 at the Castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. She became Abbess there in 1167 and continued in that Office until her death.
These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818. The original perished in the burning of the Library of Strasbourg during the siege of 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The text was copied and published by Straub and Keller, 1879-1899.
Date: 1818.
Source: Hortus Deliciarum.
Author: Made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France, 1185 by Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818.
(Wikimedia Commons)

May Thy light ever beam upon us ! May we, like the Magi, be obedient to its guidance, and ready to leave all things in order to follow it ! We were sitting in darkness when Thou didst call us to Thy grace, by making this Thy light shine upon us. We were fond of our darkness, and Thou gavest us a love for the Light !

Dear Jesus ! Keep up this love within us. Let not sin, which is darkness, ever approach us. Preserve us from the delusion of a false conscience. Avert from us that blindness into which fell the City of Jerusalem and her king, and which prevented them from seeing the Star. May Thy Star guide us through life, and bring us to Thee, our King, our Peace, our Love !

The Magi wonder at the emergence 

of the bright new Star.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

We salute thee, too, O Mary, thou Star of the Sea that shinest on the waters of this life, giving calm and protection to thy tempest-tossed children who invoke thee ! Thou didst pray for the Magi as they traversed the desert; guide also our steps, and bring us to Him who is thy Child and thy Light eternal.

Let us close this day with the expressions of Divine Praise offered us by the ancient Liturgies. Let us begin with the continuation of the Hymn of Prudentius, on the vocation of the Gentiles.

Then follows a beautiful Prayer from the Mozarabic Missal and, also, a Sequence from the ancient Paris Missal of 1584. Then follows a Hymn, composed by Saint Ephrem, for the Syrian Church, and a Hymn, composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, to honour the Blessed Virgin-Mother, from within the Menaea of the Greek Church.

Cluny Abbey.

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

Cluny Abbey III. 

Reconstruction.

English: Source: This image is taken from Georg Dehio/Gustav von Bezold: Kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes. Stuttgart: Verlag der Cotta'schen Buchhandlung 1887-1901, Plate No. 212. Due to its age, it is to be used with care. It may not reflect the latest knowledge or the current state of the depicted structure.

Deutsch: Quelle: Diese Abbildung stammt aus Georg Dehio/Gustav von Bezold: Kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes. Stuttgart: Verlag der Cotta'schen Buchhandlung 1887-1901, Tafel 212. Aufgrund ihres Alters ist sie mit Vorsicht zu benutzen. Sie entspricht nicht notwendigerweise dem neuesten Wissensstand oder dem aktuellen Zustand des abgebildeten Gebäudes.

This File: 21 January 2006.

User: Fb78.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Cluny Abbey (or Cluni, or Clugny) is a Benedictine Monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three Churches built in succession from the 10th- to the Early-12th-Centuries.

Cluny was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910 A.D. He nominated Berno as the first Abbot of Cluny, subject only to Pope Sergius III. The Abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to the Rule of Saint Benedict, whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of Western Monasticism. 

The establishment of the Benedictine Order was a keystone to the stability of European society that was achieved in the 11th-Century. In 1790, during the French Revolution, the Abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed. Only a small part of the original remains.

Cluny Abbey.

Virtually.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/XhZG7SjX1Lg.

The Third Day Within The Octave Of The Epiphany. 8 January.

Text taken from The Liturgical Year,

by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Volume 3.

Christmas - Book II.

English: The Magi Journeying.

Français: Les rois mages en voyage.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The great Mystery of the Alliance of the Son of God with the Universal Church, which is represented in the Epiphany by the Magi, was looked forward to by the world in every age previous to the coming of our Emmanuel.

The Patriarchs and the Prophets had propagated the tradition; and the Gentile world gave frequent proofs that the tradition prevailed even with them.

When Adam, in Eden, first beheld her whom God had formed from one of his ribs, and whom he called Eve, because she was the Mother of all the living, (Gen. iii 20.), he exclaimed: "This is the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh." (Ibid. ii 23, 24).

In uttering these words, the Soul of our first Parent was enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and, as we are told by the most profound interpreters of the Sacred Scriptures (such as Tertullian, Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, etc), he foretold the alliance of the Son of God with His Church, which issued from His Side, when opened by the spear, on the Cross; for the love of which Spouse, He left the right hand of His Father, and the heavenly Jerusalem, His mother, that He might dwell with us in this our Earthly abode.

Adoration of the Magi.

Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).

Date: 1655 - 1660.

Current location: Toledo Museum of Art,

Ohio, United States.

Source/Photographer: JAFwsBSXui7rdg at Google Cultural Institute.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The second father of the human race, Noe, after he had seen the Rainbow in the heavens, announcing that, now, God's anger was appeased, prophesied to his three Sons their own respective future, and in theirs, that of the world. Cham had drawn upon himself his father's curse; Sem seemed to be the favoured son, for from his race there should come the Saviour of the world; but, the Patriarch immediately adds: "May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem" (Gen. ix 27).

In the course of time, the ancient alliance that had been made between God and the people of Israel was broken; the Semitic race fluctuated in its religion, and finally fell into infidelity; and at length God adopts the family of Japheth, that is, the Gentiles of the West, as His own people; for ages, they had been without God, and now the very Seat of religion is established in their midst, and they are put at the head of the whole human race.

Later on, it is the great God, Himself, that speaks to Abraham, promising him that he shall be the father of a countless family. "I will Bless thee," says the Lord, "and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven" (Ibid. xxii 17). As the Apostle tells us, more numerous was to be the family of Abraham, according to the faith, than that which which should be born to him of Sara. All they that have received the faith of a Mediator to come, and all they that, being warned by the Star, have come to Jesus as their God — all are the children of Abraham.

The Mystery is again expressed in Rebecca, the wife of Isaac. She feels that there are two children struggling within her womb (Ibid. xxv 22); and this is the answer she received from God, when she consulted Him: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided out of thy womb; and one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger" (Ibid. xxv 23). Now, who is this "younger" child that overcomes the elder, but the Gentiles, who struggle with Juda for the light, and who, though but the child of the promise, supplants him who was son according to the flesh ? Such is the teaching of Saint Leo and Saint Augustine.

Adoration of the Magi.

Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi.

Photo: Alexander R. Pruss.

Current location: National Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC. America.

This File: 23 November 2007.

User: User:Jan Arkesteijn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Next, it is Jacob, who, when dying, calls his twelve sons, the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, around his bed, and prophetically assigns to each of them the career they were to run. Juda is put before the rest; he is to be the king of his brethren, and from his royal race shall come the Messias. But the prophecy concludes with the prediction of Israel's humiliation, which humiliation is to be the glory of the rest of the human race. "The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a Ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and He shall be the Expectation of the Nations" (Gen. xlix 10).

When Israel had gone out of Egypt, and was in possession of the Promised Land, Balaam cried out, setting his face towards the desert where Israel was encamped: "I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not near. A Star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel . . . Who shall live when God shall do these things ? They shall come in galleys from Italy; they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish" (Num. xxiv 17, 23, 24). And what kingdom shall succeed this ? The kingdom of Christ, who is the Star, and the King that shall rule for ever.

David has this great day continually before his mind. He is for ever celebrating, in his Psalms, the Kingship of his Son according to the flesh: He shows him to us as bearing the Sceptre, girt with the Sword, anointed by God his Father, and extending his kingdom from sea to sea: He tells us how the Kings of Tharsis and the Islands, the Kings of the Arabians and of Saba, and the Princes of Ethiopia, shall prostrate at his feet and adore him: He mentions their gifts of gold (Ps. lxxi).

In his mysterious Canticle of Canticles, Solomon describes the joy of the spiritual union between the Divine Spouse and His Church, and that Church is not the Synagogue. Christ invites her, in words of tenderest love, to come and be crowned; and she, to whom he addresses these words, is dwelling beyond the confines of the land where lives the people of God. "Come from Libanus, my Spouse, come from Libanus, come ! Thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards" (Cant. iv 8). This daughter of Pharoah confesses her unworthiness: I am black, she says; but, she immediately adds that she has been made beautiful by the grace of her Spouse (Ibid. i 4).

Mont Sainte-Odile, 

Alsace, France,

also known as Hohenburg Abbey.

The following image of The Three Magi (see, below)

was originally created in Hohenburg Abbey.

Photo: 29 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Prophet, Osee, follows with his inspired prediction: "And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, that she shall call me My Husband, and she shall call me no more Baali. And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name . . . And I will espouse thee to me for ever. . . And I will sow her unto me in the Earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou are My people: And they shall say: Thou art my God" (Osee ii 16 et seq.).

The elder Tobias, whilst captive in Babylon, prophesies the same alliance. The Jerusalem, which was to receive the Jews after their deliverance by Cyrus, is not the City of which he speaks in such glowing terms; it is a new and richer and lovelier Jerusalem. "Jerusalem ! City of God ! Bless the God Eternal, that He may rebuild His Tabernacle in thee, and may call back all the captives to thee. Thou shalt shine with a glorious light. Nations from afar shall come to thee, and shall bring gifts, and shall esteem thy land as holy. For they shall call upon the great Name in thee . . . All that fear God shall return thither. And the Gentiles shall leave their idols, and shall come into Jerusalem, and shall dwell in it. And all the kings of the Earth shall rejoice in it, adoring the King of Israel" (Tob. xiii, xiv).

It is true, the Gentiles shall be severely chastised by God on account of their crimes; but that justice is for no other end than to prepare those very Gentiles for an eternal alliance with the great Jehovah. He thus speaks by His Prophet, Sophonias: "My judgement is to assemble the Gentiles, and to gather the kingdoms: And to pour upon them My indignation, all My fierce anger: For with the fire of My jealousy shall all the Earth be devoured. Because then I will restore to the people a chosen lip, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, and may serve Him with one shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall My suppliants, the children of My dispersed people, bring Me an offering" (Soph. iii. 8, 9, 10).

He promises the same mercy by His Prophet, Ezechiel: "One King shall be over all, and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols: And I will save them out of all the places in which they have sinned. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And they shall have One Shepherd. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: And I will establish them, and will multiply them, and will set My Sanctuary in the midst of them for ever" (Ezech. xxxvii 22 et seq.).

Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) was a 12th-Century Alsatian Nun and Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges mountains, France. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopaedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Herrad of Landsberg was born about 1130 at the Castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. She became Abbess there in 1167 and continued in that Office until her death.

These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818. The original perished in the burning of the Library of Strasbourg during the siege of 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The text was copied and published by Straub and Keller, 1879-1899.

Date: 1818.

Source: Hortus Deliciarum.

Author: Made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France, 1185 by Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818.

(Wikimedia Commons)

After the Prophet, Daniel, has described the three great Kingdoms which were successively to pass away, he says there shall be a Kingdom "which is an everlasting Kingdom, and all kings shall serve Him" (the King) "and shall obey Him." He had previously said: "The power" (that was to be given to the Son of Man) "is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away; and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed" (Dan. vii 27).

Aggeus thus foretells the great events which were to happen before the coming of the One Shepherd, and the establishment of that everlasting Sanctuary which was to be set up in the very midst of the Gentiles: "Yet one little while, and I will move the Heaven and the Earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all nations, and the Desired of all nations shall come" (Agg. ii 7, 8).

But we should have to cite all the Prophets in order to describe in all its grandeur the glorious spectacle promised by God to the world, when, being mindful of the Gentiles, he should lead them to the feet of Jesus. The Church has quoted the Prophet, Isaias, in the Epistle of the Feast, and no Prophet is so explicit and so sublime as this son of Amos.

The expression of the same universal expectation and desire is found also among the Gentiles. The Sibyls kept up the hope in the heart of the people; and in Rome, itself, we find the Poet, Virgil, repeating, in one of his poems, the oracles they had pronounced. "The last age," says he, "foretold by the Cumean Sibyl, is at hand; a new and glorious era is coming: A new race is being sent down to Earth from Heaven. At the birth of this Child, the iron age will cease, and one of gold will rise upon the whole world . . . No remnants of our crimes will be left, and their removal will free the Earth from its never-ending fear" (Eclog. iv).

The Magi follow the Star to Bethlehem.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

If we are unwilling to accept, as did Saint Augustine and so many other holy Fathers, these Sibylline oracles as the expression of the ancient traditions — we have pagan philosophers and historians, such as Cicero, Tacitus, and Suetonius, testifying that in their times the world was in expectation of a Deliverer; that this Deliverer would come, not only from the East, but from Judea; and that a Kingdom was on the point of being established which would include the entire world.

O Jesus, our Emmanuel ! This universal expectation was that of the holy Magi, to whom Thou didst send the Star. No sooner did they receive the signal of Thy having come, than they set out in search of Thee, asking: "Where is He born, that is King of the Jews ?" The oracles of Thy Prophets were verified in them; but if they received the first-fruits of the great promise, we possess it in all its fullness.

The Alliance is made, and our Souls, for love of which Thou didst come down from Heaven, are Thine. The Church is come forth from Thy Divine Side, with the Blood and Water; and all that Thou dost for this, Thy chosen Spouse, Thou accomplishest in each of her faithful children.

We are the sons of Japheth, and we have supplanted the race of Sem, which refused us the entrance of its tents; the birthright which belonged to Juda has been transferred to us. Each age do our numbers increase, for we are to become numerous as the stars of heaven. We are no longer in the anxious period of expectation; the Star has risen, and the Kingdom it predicted will now for ever protect and Bless us.

The Magi follow the Star to Bethlehem.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

The Kings of Tharsis and the Islands, the Kings of Arabia and Saba, the Princes of Ethiopia, are come, bringing their gifts with them; all generations have followed them. The Spouse has received all her honours, and has long since forgotten Amana and Sanir, and Hermon, where she once dwelt in the midst of wild beasts; she is not black, she is beautiful, with neither spot nor wrinkle upon her, but in every way is worthy of her Divine Lord.

Baal is forgotten for ever, and she lovingly speaks the language given her by her God. The One Shepherd feeds the one flock. The last Kingdom, the Kingdom which is to continue for ever, is faithfully fulfilling its glorious destiny.

It is Thou, O Divine Infant !, that bringest us all these graces, and receivest all this devoted homage of Thy creatures. The time will soon come, dear Jesus !, when Thou wilt break the silence Thou hast imposed on Thyself in order that Thou mightest teach us humility — Thou wilt speak to us as our Master. Caesar Augustus has long ruled over Pagan Rome, and she thinks herself the kingdom that is to have no end; but she and her Rulers must yield to the Eternal King and his eternal City: The throne of Earthly power must now give place for the Throne of Christian Charity, and a new Rome is to spring up, grander than the first.

The Gentiles are looking for Thee, their King; but the day will come when they will have no need to seek Thee, but Thou, in Thy Mercy, wilt go in search of them, by sending them Apostles and missioners who will preach Thy Gospel to them.

The Magi wonder at the emergence 

of the bright new Star.

Image: FREE BIBLE IMAGES

Show Thyself to them as He to whom all power has been given in Heaven and on Earth; and show them also Her whom Thou hast made to be Queen of the Universe. May this august Mother of Thine be raised up from the poor Stable of Bethlehem, and from the humble dwelling of Nazareth, and be taken on the wings of Angels to that Throne of Mercy which Thou hast made for Her, and from which She will Bless all peoples and generations with Her loving protection.

We will now borrow some of those Canticles wherewith the several Churches were formerly wont to celebrate the Epiphany. Prudentius, the Prince of our Latin Poets, thus sings the Magi's journey to Bethlehem.

In addition, there is quoted a beautiful Prayer from the Sacramentary of the ancient Gallican Church. And, a Sequence taken from the ancient Roman-French Missal, plus a Hymn composed by Saint Ephrem, the sublime Poet of the Syrian Church, which thus sings the mysteries of the Birth of Jesus.

In addition, there follows a beautiful Sequence, used by some Churches in the Middle Ages, which sings in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the first Verse of which is:

Verbum bonum et suave,

Personemus illud Ave

Per quod Christi fit conclave

Virgo, mater, filia.

Let us sing that word,

so good and sweet: Ave — Hail !,

It was by that salutation

that the Virgin was made 

the Sanctuary of Christ

— the Virgin, who was both

His Mother and His Child.

The Second Day Within The Octave Of The Epiphany. 7 January.

Text taken from The Liturgical Year, 
by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Volume 3.
Christmas - Book II.

Adoration of the Magi.

Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi.

Photo: Alexander R. Pruss.

Current location: National Gallery of Art, 

Washington, DC. America.

This File: 23 November 2007.

User: User:Jan Arkesteijn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

A Solemnity of such importance as the Epiphany could not be without an Octave. The only Octaves during the year that are superior, to this one of the Epiphany, are those of Easter and Pentecost. It has a privilege which the Octave of Christmas has not; for no Feast can be kept during the Octave of the Epiphany, unless it be that of a principal Patron; whereas Feasts of Double and Semi-Double Rite are admitted during the Christmas Octave.

It would even seem, judging from the ancient Sacramentaries, that, anciently, the two days immediately following the Epiphany were Days of Obligation, as were the Monday and Tuesday of Easter and Whitsuntide. The names of the Stational Churches are given, where the Clergy and Faithful of Rome assembled on these two days.

In order that we may the more fully enter into the spirit of the Church during this glorious Octave, we will contemplate, each day, the Mystery of the Vocation of the Magi, and we will enter, together with them, into the Holy Cave of Bethlehem (Editor: Bethlehem translates as The House of Bread), there to offer our gifts to the Divine Infant, to Whom the star has led the Wise Men.

Adoration of the Magi.

Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).

Date: 1655 - 1660.

Current location: Toledo Museum of Art,

Ohio, United States.

Source/Photographer: JAFwsBSXui7rdg at Google Cultural Institute.

(Wikimedia Commons)

These Magi are the harbingers of the conversion of all nations to the Lord their God; they are the Fathers of the Gentiles in the faith of the Redeemer that is to come; they are the Patriarchs of the human race regenerated.

They arrive at Bethlehem, according to the tradition of the Church, three in number; and this tradition is handed down by Saint Leo, by Saint Maximus of Turin, by Saint Cesarius of Arles, and by the Christian paintings in the Catacombs of Rome, which paintings belong to the period of the Persecutions.

Thus is continued, in the Magi, the Mystery prefigured by the three just men at the very commencement of the world: Abel, who, by his death, was the figure of Christ; Seth, who was the father of the children of God, as distinct from the family of Cain; and Enos, who had the honour of regulating the ceremonies and solemnity to be observed in man's worship of his Creator.

English: The Magi Journeying.

Français: Les rois mages en voyage.

Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).

Date: Between 1886 and 1894.

Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.

Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.

Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;

Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Magi also continued, in their own person, that other Mystery of the three new parents of the human family, after the Deluge, and from whom all races have sprung: Sem; Cham; and Japheth, the Sons of Noe.

And, thirdly, we behold in the Magi that third Mystery of the three fathers of God's chosen people: Abraham, the Father of Believers; Isaac, another figure of  Christ immolated; and Jacob, who was strong against God (Genesis. xxxii 28.), and was the father of the twelve Patriarchs of Israel.

All these were but the receivers of the Promise, although the hope of mankind, both according to nature and grace, rested on them; they, as the Apostle says of them, saluted the accomplishment of that Promise afar off (Hebrews. xi 13). The nations did not follow them, by serving the true God; nay, the greater the light that shone on Israel, the greater seemed the blindness of the Gentile world.

Mont Sainte-Odile, Alsace, France,

otherwise known as Hohenburg Abbey.

The following image of The Three Magi (see, below)

was originally created in Hohenburg Abbey.

Photo: 29 June 2009.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The three Magi, on the contrary, come to Bethlehem, and they are followed by countless generations. In them, the figure becomes the grand reality, thanks to the mercy of Our Lord, who, having come to find what was lost, vouchsafed to stretch out His arms to the whole human race, for the whole was lost.

These happy Magi were also invested with regal power, as we shall see further on; as such, they were prefigured by those three faithful Kings who were the glory of the throne of Juda, the earnest maintainers among the chosen people of the traditions regarding the future Deliverer, and the strenuous opponents of idolatry: David, the sublime type of the Messias; Ezechias, whose courageous zeal destroyed the idols; and Josias, who re-established the Law of the Lord, which the people had forgotten.

And if we would have another type of these holy pilgrims, who come from a far distant country of the Gentiles to adore the King of Peace, and offer Him their rich presents, the sacred Scripture puts before us the Queen of Saba, also a Gentile, who, hearing of the fame of the wisdom of Solomon, whose name means the Peaceful, visits Jerusalem, taking with her the most magnificent gifts — camels laden with gold, spices, and precious stones — and venerates, under one of the sublimest of his types, the kingly character of the Messias.

Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) was a 12th-Century Alsatian Nun and Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges mountains, France. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopaedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Herrad of Landsberg was born about 1130 at the Castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. She became Abbess there in 1167 and continued in that Office until her death.

These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818. The original perished in the burning of the Library of Strasbourg during the siege of 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The text was copied and published by Straub and Keller, 1879-1899.

Date: 1818.

Source: Hortus Deliciarum.

Author: Made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France, 1185 by Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Thus, O Jesus !, during the long and dark night, in which the justice of Thy Father left this sinful world, did the gleams of grace appear in the heavens, portending the rising of that Sun of Thine own Justice, which would dissipate the shadows of death, and establish the reign of Light and Day. But now all these shadows have passed away; we no longer need the imperfect light of types; It is Thyself we now possess; and though we wear not royal crowns upon our heads, like the Magi and the Queen of Saba, yet Thou receivest us with love.

The very first to be invited to Thy Crib, there to receive Thy teachings, were simple Shepherds. Every member of the human family is called to form part of Thy Court. Having become a Child, Thou hast opened the treasures of Thine infinite wisdom to all men. What gratitude do we not owe for this gift of the Light of Faith, without which we would know nothing, even whilst flattering ourselves that we know all things ! How narrow and uncertain and deceitful is human science, compared with that which has its source in Thee !

May we ever prize this immense gift of Faith, this Light, O Jesus !, which Thou makest to shine upon us, after having softened it under the veil of Thy humble Infancy. Preserve us from Pride, which darkens the Soul's vision and dries up the heart. Confide us to the keeping of Thy Blessed Mother; and my our love attach us for ever to Thee, and her Maternal eye ever watch over us lest we should leave Thee, O Thou the God of our hearts !

Let us now listen to the Hymns and Prayers of the several Churches in praise of the Mysteries of the glorious Epiphany.