As Epiphany approaches, I offer this prayer:
May this holy season be for each of us
A time of moving beyond what is “reasonable”
And toward the star of wonder;
Moving beyond grasping tight to what we have
To unclenching our hands and letting go,
Following the Light where it leads;
Moving beyond competition toward cooperation,
Seeing that all humans are sisters and brothers.
Moving beyond the anxiety of small concerns
Towards the joys of justice and peace.
May the transforming acceptance of Mary and Joseph,
The imagination of the shepherds,
And the persistence of the wise men
Guide us as we seek the Truth,
Always moving toward the Divine promise.
Always aware God can be hidden in the frailest among us,
Always open to the unexpected flash of Grace,
To the showing forth of that Love that embraces us all.– W.L. Wallace in “Shine On, Star of Bethlehem”, adapted


A new time stands on my doorstep
ready to enter my life’s journey.
Something in me welcomes this visitor:
the hope of bountiful blessings
the joy of a new beginning
the freshness of unclaimed surprises.
Something in me rebuffs this visitor:
the swiftness of the coming
the boldness of the entrance
the challenge of the good-bye.
Something in me fears this visitor:
the unnamed events of future days
the wisdom needed to walk love well
the demands of giving away and growing.
A new time stands on my doorstep.
with fragile caution I move
to open the door for its entrance.
My heart leaps with surprise, joy jumps in my eyes
for there beside this brand new time
stands my God with outstretched hand.
God smiles and gently asks of me:
Can we walk this time together?
And I, so overwhelmed with goodness
can barely whisper my reply:
Welcome in!
-Violet Grennan, (Director, Religious Formation Conference)

Dear God, this past year has been filled with great challenges. Fear and insecurity are our companions day and night. We pray that you shelter us beneath the shadow of your wings and protect us from all harm. Remove the evil forces that surround us and spread over us your shelter of peace.
In this past year we have been reminded that prejudice still thrives beneath the surface of our society. Grant us that vision to see that we are all your children, that Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i and so many others are all threads to one magnificent tapestry of life. Nurture our hearts to recognize the good in all people
and plant within us the courage to fight against even the most subtle forms of prejudice wherever they are found.In this past year we have been shaken by the moral failures of our political, business and religious leaders. Give us the honesty to do a personal accounting and to seek to improve ourselves, and to shape a society built on a solid foundation of ethics.
May it be your will to renew our lives in the coming year. Grant us a life with goodness and vitality, a life informed by purity and piety, a life free from shame and reproach, a life of abundance and honor, a life in which our heat’s desire for goodness will be fulfilled.
Amen.
– Rabbi Stephen Weiss

Let us bring Christ into this world as Mary did.
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God.
– Meister Eckhart
Long after the angels disappear into the heavens, the shepherds return to their flocks, the magi journey home and the great star sets, Jesus remains.
The Child in whom we rediscover God’s great love for humanity becomes the Adult Redeemer who challenges us to imitate his selflessness and compassion in order that we might transform our world in love.
May we allow the miracle of Christmas to continue long after the holiday trappings have been packed away;
May we welcome the adult Messiah and his challenging Gospel to recreate our lives, making the peace, justice and hope of this holy season a reality in every season of the new year.
-Source Unknown
There is no rose of such vertu
As is the rose that bare Jesu.
Alleluia.For in this rose conteined was
Heaven and earth in litel space,
Res miranda.(1)By that rose we may well see
There be on God in persons three,
Pares forma.(2)The angels sungen the shepherds to:
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gaudeamus.(3)Leave we all this werldly mirth,
And follow we this joyful birth.
Transeamus.(4)(1) Marvelous thing!
(2) Of equal form
(3) Let us rejoice!
(4) Let us go across (from worldly to heavenly things)!– Anonymous, Fifteenth Century
Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
as prophets long have sung,
It came a flow’ret bright
Amid the cold of winter
When half spent was the night.Isaiah ’twas foretold it
The rose I have in mind.
With Mary we behold it
The Virgin Mother kind.
To show God’s love aright
She bore to us a savior
When half spent was the night.– Sixteenth Century Carol