A Bundle of Myrrh

Once again we get out the Purple of another season of Repentance and Reflection. Once again I think of all the ways we can use in our home to keep this season in the front of our minds as we plod through the days. Some plans we stick with, the simpler the better. Some fall by the wayside and hopefully will return another year.

This year for Lent we will:
1. Catechesis- The Ten Commandments during our Bible Time, memorizing them and their meanings from our Catechism.
2. Memory Verses- Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8
3. Hymns – Glory Be To Jesus, On My Heart Imprint Your Image, In the Cross of Christ I Glory,  Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
4. And this one is a hard one for me, but we’ll try to attend some of the Wednesday Vesper services.
5. Praying for a few missionaries and their families.

That’s all I have for now. I love using our Jesus Tree ornaments and want to use that this season but need to get a few things together for that still. Also I might put out our spiral countdown calendar but we have a climbing grabby toddler in the house so that has yet to happen as well.

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“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Luke 2

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Blessed Epiphany!

I love this festival. This is a feast day of  such glory and exultation and for me, it’s a nice way to gently ease myself down from the celebrating the season of Christmas brings. In some cultures Epiphany is called “Little Christmas” or the “Gentile’s Christmas.” This is the day we rejoice in the Light who has come to Lighten the Gentiles:

“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
  I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
  a light for the nations,
 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
 from the prison those who sit in darkness.” Isaiah 42

And as Simeon says:

“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” Luke 2

It is the day we sing; “And may praise Thee, ever blest, God in man made manifest.”

“The feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord commemorates no event but presents an idea that assumes concrete form only through the facts of our Lord’s life. The idea of Epiphany is that the Christ who was born in Bethlehem is recognized by the world as God. At Christmas, God appears as man, and at Epiphany, this man appears before the world as God.” Treasury of Daily Prayer

So, I really like making a pretty big deal out of it.

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