The Bishop and Canons will offer a reflection each week during Advent and Christmas, through the Feast of the Epiphany. This year, the reflections are based on the themes found in the weekly collects.
The Collect of the Day
O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Lessons
The Collect for The Baptism of our Lord
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
The Lessons
Meditation
| Bishop Terry White
"Studying the earliest biographers and interpreters of Jesus, we find that it was neither His moral transcendence nor His special doctrine that struck them the most. It was rather the growing certitude that something was here genuinely present in and with humanity, which was yet 'other' than humanity. From the beginning, the Christian claim that Christ is 'fully human and fully Divine' meant and means the effort to formulate the deeply-felt conviction that His person and life do not simply manifest the fullest possibilities of human nature evolving from within. In Him, we feel, we see beyond the world...In the bold language of St. Catherine of Siena, Jesus is [the] 'Bridge' between God and man, whereby 'the earth of humanity is joined to the greatness of the Deity.' *1
This year two great feasts are celebrated on successive days. The Epiphany, the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles on January 6, and The Baptism of our Lord on January 7, invite us to enter more deeply into the great mystery of the Incarnation. In times of darkness, it is rarely blinding light which delivers us, but more often following a glimmer, a spark, a single candle dispelling and lifting just enough darkness, that we again find our way.
The Presiding Bishop and Mrs. Curry chose the words of Verna Dozier for their Christmas greeting this year:
"That God revealed in Jesus, whom I call the Christ, is a God whose forgiveness goes ahead of me, and whose love sustains me and the whole created world." *3
"That God bursts all the definitions of our small minds, all of the limitations of our timid efforts, all the boundaries of our institutions." *2
Come, God Incarnate, Redeemer, Lord Jesus. Deliver me from the unwillingness to forgive and for relying on life-defeating ways too often, and break open my heart to your love for all people. By the glory that led the Magi, dispel my darkness of confusion, selfishness, and apathy, that I may offer you myself. May the renewal of my own baptism inspire me to listen, truly listen to you, God's Beloved, and manifest in my life the burning love of the Holy Spirit given me in those saving waters. Use me, gracious God, and use your Church: burst our small minds, the limitations of our timid efforts, and the boundaries of our institutions, to claim fiercely the only true liberty and life which flow from you alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Our Father ...
Blessing
May Almighty God, who led the Wise Men by the shining of a star to find the Christ, the Light from Light, lead you also, in your pilgrimage, to find the Lord. Amen.
May God, who sent the Holy Spirit to rest upon the Only-begotten at his baptism in the Jordan River, pour out that Spirit on you who have come to the waters of new birth. Amen.
May God, by the power that turned water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, transform your lives and make glad your hearts. Amen.
And the blessing, mercy, and grace of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.
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