Advent & Christmas

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Without the quest, there can be no epiphany. ― Constantine E. Scaros
A great epiphany: I found out that I’m totally confused and I’m good with that. I’m consistently inconsistent. I’m all of the above. I’m OK. I’m a work in progress.— Ronnie Dunn
Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. — John MiltonIn retrospect, I would have to recommend against epiphanies. They are difficult on an emotional level, and they also sometimes move you to foolish and inopportune acts … ― Peter David

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SONGS about EPIPHANY:

• Epiphany by Taylor Swift (pop): https://youtu.be/DUnDkI7l9LQ
• Dancing in the Light by Entrain (world music): https://youtu.be/ZGR_5CQNwj4
• Love’s Dance by Earth, Wind & Fire (rock): https://youtu.be/1UUn7evCXDY
• Illumination by Anuna (celtic): https://youtu.be/Fs2sSf_rsGI
• Aha Moment from Tangled (Disney musical): https://youtu.be/I2Big6V1_eY
• Shining Light by Annie Lennox (rock): https://youtu.be/OfJeQDkz4JU
• Epiphany (Love Yourself) by BTS (Korean pop):
  https://youtu.be/fIkZOLsnoqY
• Carol of the Epiphany by John Bell / Iona Community (Christian): https://youtu.be/mZsrQzYCXqg
• As With Gladness Men of Old by Metropolitan Tabernacle, London (Christian): https://youtu.be/6UzYlhF4ffw
• Epiphany by Staind (hard ock): https://youtu.be/5bobskjQwWI

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BLESSING — Pastor Dawn
Fear not, dear ones.
For you are children of God.
The treasure you seek to give
lies not in the heavens,
but here, deep inside.
Open yourselves up
and give the world
the treasures creation needs.
You are the light of the world.
Shine!  Shine! Shine!
Let the Light of Christ
the Love of God,
and the power of the Holy Spirit
shine forth in you!
Amen.

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POEM — Marianne Williamson
What holds us back in our lives is our fear.
And sometimes when you take a very close look
you find out that your fears
aren’t exactly what you thought they were.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that other people
won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of
 God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
So it’s holy work to move past your own fear.
It doesn’t just help you.
It helps the world.

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WISE WOMAN ALSO CAME — Jan Richardson

Wise women also came.
The fire burned in their wombs long before
they saw the flaming star in the sky.
They walked in shadows, trusting the path
would open under the light of the moon.

Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission from any king.
They came by their own authority,
their own desire, their own longing.

They came in quiet,
spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations.

Wise women also came,
and they brought useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.

Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings into her ear.

Wise women also came, and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.

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HREE WISE ONES — attributed to Paul Curtis

The three wise men
Travelled for days before reaching Bethlehem
And arrived after the birth
They stood and viewed the scene in awe
And knelt reverently in the lords presence
Then gave their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

The three wise women
Would have stopped to ask directions
And arrived before the birth
They would have delivered the baby
Then they would have cleaned the stable and cooked a meal
Before giving the baby really useful gifts

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BC:AD — UA Fanthorpe

This was the moment when Before
turned into After, and the future’s
uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

This was the moment when nothing
happened. Only dull peace
sprawled boringly over the earth.

This was the moment when even energetic Romans
could find nothing better to do
than counting heads in remote provinces.

And this was the moment
when a few farm workers and three
members of an obscure Persian sect
walked haphazard by starlight straight
into the kingdom of heaven.

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JOURNEY of the MAGI — T. S. Eliot

“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

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Three Kings Cake (Rosca de Reyes) – Recipe by Susan Reid

 

Three Kings Cake (or bread), also known as Rosca de Reyes, is closely allied with the traditions around the Epiphany (January 6th). The tender, enriched dough is shaped like a wreath and filled with cinnamon, nuts, dried fruit, and citrus zest, evoking classic holiday aromas and flavors. Tradition states this bread be served, garnished with “jewels” (candied fruits and more nuts). Usually, a small clay or porcelain doll is baked inside — whoever finds the doll must give a party on Candlemas (February 2nd).

Ingredients

Dough

• 2/3 cup (152g) milk
• 6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, cold
• 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 1/4 cups (390g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (substitute their 1-to-1 gluten free flour for gluten free variation)

Filling

• 2 tablespoons (28g) butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (57g) chopped nuts
• 3/4 cup (90g) King Arthur Fruitcake Fruit Blend, or dried mixed fruits
• 1 tablespoon (14g) lemon zest (grated rind), orange zest (grated rind), or lime zest (grated rind)*

*Substitute with 1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia.

Garnish

• candied red cherries and/or candied orange peel
• almonds, pecans, cashews, or walnuts, toasted and sliced

Instructions

1. To make the dough: Heat the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan or at medium power in your microwave. Pour the hot milk over the butter, sugar, and salt, and stir occasionally until the butter melts. Cool the mixture to lukewarm.
2. In a mixing bowl combine the milk mixture, eggs, and yeast. Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Add the flour 1 cup at a time, mixing and kneading — by hand, bread machine, or stand mixer — until a soft, smooth dough forms. You can also use your bread machine, set on the dough cycle, for this step
3. Place the dough in a greased container, cover it, and set it in a draft-free place to rise until doubled (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Or let your bread machine complete the dough cycle.
4. After the first rise, deflate the dough, cover, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; roll into a 20″ x 12″ rectangle.
5. For the filling: Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter, leaving a 1/2″ border bare along one of the long edges. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the nuts, mixed fruits and zest, and stir to coat. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the buttered section dough.
6. To assemble: Roll up the dough cinnamon-roll-style, working toward the edge with no filling on it. Pinch the seam together to seal it firmly, then bring the ends together to form a ring. Grease the outside of a small bowl or ramekin and put it on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the ring, seam-side down, around the bowl. Pinch together the seam again where the two ends meet to ensure the ring is sealed.
7. Flatten the ring slightly, and using a pair of scissors, make cuts in the dough at 1 1/2″ intervals around the outside edge. Hide a doll, candy, or blanched almond inside the bread. (Whoever finds it is the winner!) You can place strips of candied orange peel in the cuts to create the look in the photo at the top of the recipe. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled (about 30 to 40 minutes).
8. To bake: Once the dough is shaped and is rising for the second time, preheat the oven to 350°F. When the dough is risen, remove the plastic wrap, and brush the top with the egg wash. Place the candied cherries (cut in half) in the spaces between the slits in the dough, and decorate with nuts as desired.
9. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, covering the loaf loosely with foil after the first 15 minutes, as it will brown quickly. Remove the bread from the oven when the inner parts of the slits look cooked and the interior measures 190°F when measured with an instant-read thermometer. Cool the bread on a rack before slicing and serving.

Tips from Bakers

• If you don’t have a little doll to hide inside the bread, put a whole blanched almond inside with the filling, before you roll the bread up.
• If you want to use the glaze pictured in the accompanying blog post, combine 1 tablespoon of sugar with 2 teaspoons of water and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir to combine, then drizzle over the bread for the last 20 minutes of the baking time.

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THREE KINGS DAY

Epiphany, also known as “Theophany” in Eastern Christian tradition, is a Christian feast day commemorating the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the wedding at Cana. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus Jesus Christ’s physical manifestation to the Gentiles. It is sometimes called Three Kings’ Day, and in some traditions celebrated as Little Christmas. — wikipedia.com

There’s also a wonderful tradition, rooted in Ireland, of celebrating Epiphany as Women’s Christmas. — Jan Richardson

At the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas comes a day called the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. This holiday is celebrated as the day the three wise men first saw baby Jesus and brought him gifts. On this day in Spain, many children get their Christmas presents. In Puerto Rico, before children go to sleep on January 5, they leave a box with hay under their beds so the kings will leave good presents. In France, a delicious “kings’ cake” known as la galette des rois is baked. Bakers hide a coin, jewel, or little toy inside it. — National Geographic Kids

Most Americans or people from English-speaking countries might be familiar with Three Kings’ Day, also known as the Epiphany. This is especially true if you were raised Christian (and doubly true if you were raised Catholic). … [in other countries] that day is known as Día de Los Reyes and is celebrated on January 6. Just like Three Kings’ Day, Día de Los Reyes is meant to honor the Three Wise Men or Magi who came to bring baby Jesus  gifts after his birth.
The holiday coincides with the feast day of the Epiphany and both represent the day the Three Wise Men—Los Tres Reyes Magos— gave gifts to Jesus Christ. Día de Los Reyes closes out the Christmas festivities … January 6th is 12 days after Christmas. With that said, Día de Los Reyes also includes more gift giving … Before Santa Claus became such a massive figure in the Westernized version of Christmas, the Three Wise Men were actually the ones who brought gifts during Christmas … Now, because of how pervasive American traditions are, particularly with Christmas, that’s not entirely the case in more modern or urban parts of Mexico …
Christmas might be over, but it doesn’t mean the gift-giving (and receiving) is. As stated above, children in Latin America and Spain receive the majority of their gifts from the Three Kings rather than from Santa Claus at Christmastime.
Because this holiday revolves around Jesus and his birth (you know: how there was no room at the inn for Mary and she had to deliver him in a stable), Nativity scenes are everywhere for Día de los Reyes. There also might be parades on Día de Los Reyes, depending where you are. Reyes festivities are celebrated in a variety of ways across the globe a …
How to celebrate Three Kings’ Day … Since the foundational aspect of this holiday is a very religious one, people often attend church on Día de Los Reyes. But outside of that, here are a few other traditions … partake in on this special feast day.
Kids can leave their shoes out for more gifts the night before Just like how kids leave out their shoes for St. Nicholas Day in December, kids in Mexico often leave out their shoes for goodies on January 5. Remember: kids in [some countries] think of their gifts coming from the Three Magi as opposed to Santa, so this makes a ton of sense. Before going to bed, the children place their old shoes with a wish list on top for the Three Kings. In the morning, the shoes are filled with toys, candy and gifts from the Three Kings ..
Eat Rosca de Reyes. … Rosca de Reyes is the … equivalent of a Three Kings’ cake and has a similar tradition of finding a tiny baby in it too. … And remember: The custom is that whoever finds the doll [or almond] must host a party on Dia de la Candelaria (also known as Candlemas Day in English-speaking countries) on February 2nd.
Give gifts. Again, Día de Los Reyes is the big gift-giving day during Christmastime for Mexicans. Just like how the Three Wise Men brought baby Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh, Los Tres Reyes are thought to bring children their gifts on Día de Los Reyes, too.
Have a traditional Día de los Reyes dinner. And what better way to end a holiday than with a traditional family dinner together? Just like how many people have a Christmas Day dinner or Christmas roast… So there you have it. A look at the traditions in Mexico and Mexican households for Día de Los Reyes. Everyone has their own way of celebrating, though, and it’s fun to see the different variations. — https://parade.com/248853/yvettemarquez/what-is-dia-de-los-reyes-three-kings-day-and-how-do-you-celebrate-it/

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EPIPHANY GIFTS & REFLECTIONS

Today is Epiphany, the day which commemorates the event described by the carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are” when gentile wisemen visited the child Jesus. Yet they weren’t kings, they weren’t from the Far East (as Orient formerly meant), and it’s unlikely there were three of them.
There were, however, three gifts… The gifts symbolize Jesus’ mission. Gold represents His role as King. Frankincense, mixed with the incense burned in the sanctuary, speaks of His deity. Myrrh, used to embalm dead bodies, gives us pause… We wouldn’t write such a scene into the story, but God did. Jesus’ death is central to our salvation. Herod even attempted to kill Jesus while He was yet a child.— Our Daily Bread, shared by Ginger Perkins

… The Epiphany story is a collage of all the sources of revelation that the Church has scorned in its long history, all the things that we have come to fear, or see as heretical: non-Christians, leading the way to Christ, aided by divination and astrology. Interpretation of natural phenomena. Dream analysis! And yet God shamelessly uses all of these suspicious strategies to point toward this extraordinary thing she’s doing: joining heaven and earth, coming to live among us in a human body.
     Despite our best efforts to describe and contain the divine, our God cannot and will not be put in a box. The story of Epiphany is a beautiful testament to the ways in which God transcends all human categories and constantly disrupts our expectations of where, how, and to whom God will appear. God is an opportunist, who will use any tools at her disposal to draw us back to her love, from tiny humans in mismatched pageant costumes to stargazing Persian magicians. So what unexpected means is God using to speak grace to you? What unexpected road might you take to reach the Christ Child? This Epiphany, may the God who spoke through strangers, stars, and dreams open our eyes and our hearts to the wildness of God’s love. — Kristin Saylor (full article)

This is the homely heart of Incarnation, this meeting of God in man with men and women, this simple face of divine graciousness in ordinary life rather than in the hymns of church fathers or in the dry elaborations of theologians. ― Eugene Kennedy

They were Magi, as in magicians, and not the cute kind you hire for your kid’s birthday party. More likely, they were opportunistic, pagan, soothsaying, tarot-card-reading astrologers. Yet history made them out to be kings, maybe because the reality that they were magicians is too distasteful, since no one really wants the weird fortune-teller lady from the circus with her scarves and crystal balls to be the first to discover the birth of our Lord. — Nadia Bolz-Weber

To call the Magi ‘kings’ was to recognise in the Epiphany a fulfilment of Isaiah’s vision: And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising… they shall bring gold and incense. [Isaiah 60:3, 6] This recognises that the Magi represented the culture, prestige, and power of a pagan kingdom.  Their act of adoration, therefore, represented the homage of kings to Israel’s King. — laudable practuce blo

There is no figure more common in scripture, and none more beautiful, than that by which Christ is likened unto light. Incomprehensible in its nature, itself the first visible, and that by which all things are seen, light represents to us Christ. Whose generation none can declare, but Who must shine upon us ere we can know aught aright, whether of things Divine or human. — Herman Melville

The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. And as even his birth is his death, so every action and passage that manifests Christ to us is his birth, for Epiphany is manifestation. — John Donne

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EPIPHANY as “AH-HAH!” MOMENT: COMMENTARY

I cannot be awake, for nothing looks to me as it did before, or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep. ― Walt Whitman

An epiphany enables you to sense creation not as something completed, but as constantly becoming, evolving, ascending. This transports you from a place where there is nothing new to a place where there is nothing old, where everything renews itself, where heaven and earth rejoice as at the moment of creation. — Abraham Isaac Kook

Small things start us in new ways of thinking. ― V.S. Naipaul

Every life led to a series of quiet epiphanies – or at least to opportunities for epiphanies … The kindnesses … done for others. The love … given. The things they … come to understand in their hearts. ― Dean Koontz

All art is a gift. It is first of all a gift that the maker can do it. It is then a gift to someone else, whether they pay for it or not. The wonder of it is that we cannot get the production of these gifts stopped. Art is life seeking itself. It is our intractable expressions of love for the beauties, ideas and epiphanies we regularly find. I framed the painting. It’s now hanging in our den. “I have walked this earth for 30 years, and, out of gratitude, want to leave some souvenir. — Vincent Van Gogh

It had come to me not in a sudden epiphany but with a gradual sureness, a sense of meaning like a sense of place. When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back; the more one comes to know them, the more one seeds them with the invisible crop of memories and associations that will be waiting for you when you come back, while new places offer up new thoughts, new possibilities. Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains. — Rebecca Solnit

Impossible; for how many people did you know who reflected your own light to you? People were more often–he searched for a simile, found one in his work–torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought? ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Those times in life when a mask falls away and everything makes sense, even if just for a moment, you pay attention. ― Heather Durham

One way is just to think, for instance, of biodiversity. The extraordinary thing we now know, thanks to Crick and Watson’s discovery of DNA and the decoding of the human and other genomes, is that all life, everything, all the three million species of life and plant life—all have the same source. We all come from a single source. Everything that lives has its genetic code written in the same alphabet. Unity creates diversity. So don’t think of one God, one truth, one way. Think of one God creating this extraordinary number of ways, the 6,800 languages that are actually spoken. Don’t think there’s only one language within which we can speak to God. The Bible is saying to us the whole time: Don’t think that God is as simple as you are. He’s in places you would never expect him to be. And you know, we lose a bit of that in English translation. When Moses at the burning bush says to God, “Who are you?” God says to him three words: “Hayah asher hayah.” Those words are mistranslated in English as “I am that which I am.” But in Hebrew, it means “I will be who or how or where I will be,” meaning, Don’t think you can predict me. I am a God who is going to surprise you. One of the ways God surprises us is by letting a Jew or a Christian discover the trace of God’s presence in a Buddhist monk or a Sikh tradition of hospitality or the graciousness of Hindu life. Don’t think we can confine God into our categories. God is bigger than religion. — Jonathan Sacks

If you look throughout human history … the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness. — John F. Kennedy

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For Those Who Have Far to Travel
An Epiphany Blessing — Jan Richardson

If you could see
the journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.

Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping,
step by
single step.

There is nothing
for it
but to go,
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;

to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.

There are vows
that only you
will know:
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,
make them again;
each promise becomes
part of the path,
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel

to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.