הִנֵּֽנִי׃ in Hebrew (pronounced Hin-NEIGH-nee), one of the most impactful responses in scripture. Here I am. The root appears 318 times in the bible, this compound response about 30 times. In variant forms Abraham, Moses, Samuel (today’s Old Testament reading), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Amos and perhaps Elijah are just a
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Once again I am enjoying daily readings from Robert Wright’s excellent Daily Office Readings from the Early Church. I especially appreciate how different, and how erudite, the early church mothers and fathers were in explicating Christian faith to the world. Without them our faith would not have translated across centuries,
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A second beloved Epiphany hymn once again hails from 19th century England…boy were they busy composing hymns then!! Anglican priest and bishop Reginald Heber composed Brightest and Best Are the Sons of the Morning in 1811 for his parish in Shropshire, England. The familiar tune did not come around until
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A more personal reflection today dear readers….since I have been living in an extended household situation, I have more flexibility to decorate your parish rectory more seasonally. Empty nesting seems to mean I notice more and smaller things more readily than I did previously! To my mind church seasons give
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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
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Like Advent and Christmas, Epiphany enjoys some customary hymnody. I am pleased to share this first significant American contribution to the classic holiday hymnody of the Episcopal Church. Yep, We Three Kings of Orient (the hymn’s technical name) is thoroughly domestic! Lyrics, ‘Merican! Tune, ‘Merican! Composer of both (quite rare
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Dangit, dangit, dangit! Why O Lord, why?! Of all the sections of Egeria’s Journal, our almost sole, priceless 4th century AD/CE eyewitness to the creative Christian worship arising straight out of the ground in Jerusalem under the great bishop Cyril of Jerusalem, her excursus on Jerusalemite and Bethlehemite Epiphany worship
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The First Sunday of Epiphany is anchored by the final Incarnation cycle theophany, a shockingly intimate and surprising appearance of God at the Baptism of our Lord. This day always saddens me a bit. Liturgical time is so compressed, squeezing the entire salvific drama into 52 Sundays and a few
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Hard to fit all this consequential Epiphany material into just one day! Magic’s just like that! So, our Matthean magi dressed up by Christian legendariums then…(and legendariums are blocks of narrative material of unsure, mythical or non-evidentiary attribution!). The three Mag…no, wait, oops, Matthew never enumerated three. Legendary. Trinitarian overlay?
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“The Magi were not kings, but kings of kings!” I still remember that impressive claim of the Reverend Mark Link, S.J. (Society of Jesus, or Jesuit) from my 9th grade theology textbook These Stones Will Shout. From Tampa Jesuit High School’s drab Gulf Coast concrete block walls all those years
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