Posted on January 8, 2017 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
I would first of all like to personally thank everyone who helped to prepare the Church for this Christmas Season. A lot of work goes into preparing for the great feasts of the Church, from decorating and server practices to homily and music preparations. This doesn’t just happen and we do our best to give our best to the Lord. So thank you to everyone who assisted in anyway. Our church looked beautiful, attendance was good, and our Masses fruitful. Thank you!
I would also like to thank, on behalf of the other priests and brothers, all of those who sent gifts and treats to the house. This is very much appreciated and enjoyed. Your care and generosity with us is a great consolation and blessing. Please know that we are grateful and that you are all kept on our prayers during this holy season.
January 6 is the traditional Feast of the Epiphany, and in the United States it is also celebrated today. St. Leo the Great, Pope in the fifth century, had many wonderful sermons on the mystery of the Incarnation. Please find a sermon concerning the Lord’s manifestation to His people. I hope that you 
find it spiritually beneficial as we celebrate these great feasts. Have a blessed week ahead!
“Dearly beloved brethren, rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice. But a few days are past since the solemnity of Christ’s Birth, and now the glorious light of His Manifestation is breaking upon us. On that day the Virgin brought Him forth, and on this the world knew Him. The Word made Flesh was pleased to reveal Himself by degrees to those for whom He had come. When Jesus was born He was manifested indeed to the believing, but hidden from His enemies. Already indeed the heavens declared the glory of God, and their sound went out into all lands, when the Herald Angels appeared to tell to the shepherds the glad tidings of a Saviour’s Birth; and now the guiding star leadeth the wise men to worship Him, that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, the Birth of the true King may be known abroad; that through those wise men the kingdoms of the east might learn the great truth, and the Roman empire remain no more in darkness.
Dearly beloved brethren, we recognize in the wise men who came to worship Christ, the first-fruits of that dispensation to the Gentiles wherein we also are called and enlightened. Let us then keep this Feast with grateful hearts, in thanksgiving for our blessed hope, whereof it doth commemorate the dawn. From that worship paid to the new-born Christ is to be dated the entry of us Gentiles upon our heirship of God and co-heirship with Christ. Since that joyful day the Scriptures which testify of Christ have lain open for us as well as for the Jews. Let all observance, then, be paid to this most sacred day, whereon the Author of our salvation was made manifest, and as the wise men fell down and worshipped Him in the manger, so let us fall down and worship Him enthroned Almighty in heaven. As they also opened their treasures and presented unto Him mystic and symbolic gifts, so let us strive to open our hearts to Him, and offer Him from thence some worthy offering.” – St. Leo the Great