Sunday, January 1, 2016

Today in the Catholic Church we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany.  When I was a kid we celebrated it on January 6th - the Twelfth Night of Christmas.  That was when La Befana came and left gifts in our shoes.  Many things have changed since then.

Many things have changed just in the last month.  As I wrote previously I left a ministry at a church where I had been for 38 years. It was hard to leave, but I was getting increasing signs that now was the time.  This morning I attended church in Shepherd where I used to play on Saturday nights.  Things have changed there too.  But not the people.  I saw so many familiar faces.  It felt strange to sing from the pew but it was nice.  For the first time in a long time I listened to the words of the prayers. The homily, in particular, spoke to me.  Because it is the Feast of the Epiphany, the Gospel was from Matthew recounting the story of the Magi who came to visit Jesus. Fr. Fred homed in on the closing verse:   "they departed for their country by another way.  In a way, that is what I am doing.  I am going home by a different way.