{"id":5734,"date":"2006-01-06T11:19:47","date_gmt":"2006-01-06T11:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/epiphany-at-the-vatican.html"},"modified":"2006-01-06T11:19:47","modified_gmt":"2006-01-06T11:19:47","slug":"epiphany-at-the-vatican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/01\/epiphany-at-the-vatican.html","title":{"rendered":"Epiphany at the Vatican"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope’s homily at Mass:<\/a><\/p>\n

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A great silence, permeated by attentive reflection and prayer, greeted the words of Benedict XVI as he finished his profound homily during Mass in the Basilica of St Peter to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. This is one of the novel aspects introduced by this pope, that the liturgy is an encounter with the mystery of Jesus, not a show to be watched. <\/p>\n

In effect, the pope\u2019s words are a composition of doctrine and of beauty which leave one breathless, provoking an awed silence. The Epiphany (a Greek word which means \u2018manifestation\u2019) recalls the arrival of the Magi from the east to the hut in Bethlehem to adore Jesus, manifested as the King of Kings. <\/p>\n

Benedict XVI defined the Epiphany as \u201ca mystery of light\u201d that of Christ, which \u201cradiates on earth, spreading as though in concentric circles\u201d: to the Virgin Mary and to Joseph; to the \u201cshepherds of Bethlehem\u201d, representative of the \u201crest of Israel, the poor, the anawim<\/em>\u201d; and \u201cfinally reaching the Magi, who constitute the first fruits of the pagan people\u201d. \u201cThe palaces of power of Jerusalem remain in the shadows,\u201d continues the pope. \u201cParadoxically, the news of the Messiah\u2019s birth is delivered there by the very Magi, provoking not joy but fear and hostile reactions. A mysterious divine plan: \u201cThe light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil\u201d (Jn 3:19)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And at the Angelus:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The pope \u201ccounts on\u201d children\u2019s prayers and their mission to help other children and to draw them to the Christian faith. Benedict XVI revealed this before the Angelus prayer this morning, addressing a crowd of around 50,000 people gathered to mark the feast of the Epiphany, when the Church celebrates the manifestation of Jesus to the pagan peoples, represented by the Magi Kings. <\/p>\n

Benedict XVI recalled that today is \u201cChildren\u2019s Mission Day\u201d, promoted by the Pontifical Missionary Works which hold thousands of activities \u201cwith the motto \u2018children helping children\u2019\u201d, educating children and youth \u201cto openness to the world\u201d and to the plight of so many of their peers in \u201cdisadvantaged situations\u201d. And he added: \u201cI too count on the prayers of children and on their active participation in the mission of the Church\u201d. <\/p>\n

Benedict XVI also recalled the World Youth Day which took place in Cologne in August 2005; its theme was based precisely on the quote from the Magi, \u201cWe have come to worship him."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The CWNews account:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Vested in gold for the feast of the Epiphany, Pope Benedict was surrounded by other prelates who concelebrated the Mass in the Vatican basilica. The Mass stressed the missionary work of the Church through international participation. The prayers of the faithful were read in Portuguese, Greek, German, and French; the offerings were brought forward by families from Korea, Italy, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Peru. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}