>The Feast of Theophany

>The Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of Theophany on January 6. Theophany means “manifestation of God.”

Sometimes it’s called Epiphany, which means “manifestation from above.” We celebrate Christ’s baptism, which sanctified water, making it available to us for sustenance and healing.

We’ll have a Liturgy and the “Second Blessing of the Water” this morning at St. John Orthodox Church here in Memphis.

I’ve been out of all town all weekend and don’t have time to write much, so I’ll invite you to read my blog post from one year ago, here. It’s got photos and links to other sources if you’re interested in reading more about this beautiful feast.

KONTAKION (hymn) OF THEOPHANY

“You have revealed Yourself to the world today, and Your light, O Lord, has shined upon us. We recognize You and exclaim to You: “You have come and revealed Yourself, O Inaccessible Light.”

So, how will I celebrate this feast? On this, the twelfth day of Christmas, I will clean out and reorganize my closet! (After the church service and lunch with a friend visiting from out of town.) No, it’s not an Orthodox Theophany tradition–just part of my New Year’s schedule, my plan to bring order out of chaos. I’ll be humming “twelve drummers drumming” to keep my energy up. I usually take down our Christmas decorations on this day, but my daughter (yes, the one who cleaned out the attic just before Christmas) took them down for me. She’s returning to grad school at UTK today… I’m going to miss her so much!

I’ll complete this short post with these words from St. Gregory the Theologian:

Christ is illumined; let us shine forth with Him. Christ is baptized, let us descend with Him that we may also ascend with Him.

Blessed Feast!