First Sunday after the Circumcision
THE Introit of the Mass, the Prayer, and Epistle are the same as on the Sunday after Christmas.
GOSPEL. Matt. ii. 19-23.
At that time: When Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt. Saying: Arise, and take the child and His Mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead that sought the life of the child. "Who arose, and took the child and His Mother, and came into the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee. And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets: That He shall be called a Nazarite.
Prayer.
O my Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth, Who didst subject Thyself to travel as a fugitive upon earth, with no resting-place in which to remain in safety, yet hast now Thy throne at the right hand of Thy Father in the majesty of God, teach me to consider this world a foreign land, and my life that of a pilgrim, that in Thee and Thy Father I may find my home. Strengthen me by Thy grace to prepare myself worthily for the land of eternal happiness, and receive me, when I leave this world, into Thy glory, where Thou livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, for all eternity. Amen.
Epiphany.
WHAT mystery does the Church celebrate to-day?
She celebrates to-day a threefold mystery: 1. The arrival in Bethlehem of the Wise Men from the East to adore the new-born Saviour; 2. The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan; 3. The first miracle of Jesus at the wedding in Cana.
Why is this festival called Epiphany, or the manifestation? Because in the three events just mentioned Jesus manifested Himself not only to the Jews, but also to the gentiles, as
