The Gifts of the Magi - The Epiphany

Greetings in Jesus and Mary....

I am posting this late in the day of this great feast! I have been ill since Dec. 27th and trying to get well. I have a tendency to get sinus infections and have been trying to keep that from happening as an aftermath of this illness. I ventured out to Mass yesterday and tried to keep my nose and mouth covered from the very frigid weather but I knew that from past experience.......it would be a bad mistake. I am very ill today and went back to my notes on how to handle a sinus infection. Steaming, nebulizers, nasal rinses, supplements. I started at the break of the day and it is now 4:30 PM and I am feeling relief. I just have to keep it all up and stay on an anti-inflammatory diet to get all of this knocked out of me.  Sorry for the introduction to this article but I felt I had to explain my delay.  Please say a little pray to Our Lady for healing...may She heal many who are ailing right now throughout the world.

Epiphany! This day has so much meaning and is filled with such mystery. The three kings followed a star by night to Bethlehem. How often God prefers to teach by night rather than by day. They hardly were able to see it at first but trusted their Divine lead. As they were led to the simple stable, their hearts were ready for the Divine. As they entered and saw the poverty, simplicity and humility of the Holy Family; they supernaturally were filled with the wonder of God! This should be a proof to all of us as to this story's authenticity. This is how God reveals Himself....always! Faith led them on and it was their Faith that helped them to believe that this little Baby was God ..... even in such humble surroundings!

They brought gold because He was a King, incense because He was a priest, but also myrrh.  This is the way He was to be buried, with a hundred pounds of spices and myrrh.  These gifts reflect the purpose of this newborn King. According to the book, City of God by Mother Mary Agreda; the Mother of God received these gifts and offered them to the Infant Jesus.  Jesus showed by signs of highest pleasure, that He accepted their gifts; they themselves became aware of the exalted and heavenly blessings with which He repaid them more than a hundredfold. The kings offered Our Lady gems and property as well but she gently refused these gifts. She did return love for love by giving them some of the clothes in which She had wrapped the Infant God; for She neither had nor could have had any greater visible pledges of esteem with which to enrich them at their departure. The three kings received these relics with such reverence and esteem that they encased them in gold and precious stones in order to keep them ever after. As a proof of their value, these relics spread about such a copious fragrance that they revealed their presence a league in circumference. However, only those who believed in the coming of God into the world were able to perceive it; while the incredulous perceived none of the fragrance emitted by the relics. In their own countries, the Magi performed great miracles with these relics.

On taking leave of Our Lady, the three kings besought Her from their inmost hearts not to forget them, which She promised and fulfilled; in the same way they spoke to St. Joseph. With the blessing of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they departed, so moved by tenderest affection that it seemed to them they had left their hearts all melted into sighs and tears in that place.

When they returned back to their land by way of the star; they converted a great number of souls to the belief in the true God and to the way of salvation. 

The holy angels, who were witnesses of these holy mysteries, congratulated their Queen, that Her Most Holy Son had been manifested and that His Majesty had been adored by men; and they sang to Him new canticles, magnifying His mercies wrought upon mankind!

In the instructions given by Our Lady to Mother Mary Agreda, She says the following...... "My daughter, great were the gifts which the kings offered to my Most Holy Son; but greater still was the affection with which they offered them and the mystery concealed beneath them. " Our Lady stated to her that voluntary poverty is the most acceptable gift and that there are very few in the world who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God and Lord with the generosity and love of these holy kings. She asked that we ceaselessly offer our love which is the gold; continual prayer, which is the incense and the patient acceptance of labors and true mortification which is the myrrh.

Holy Mother Mary, pray that we may offer these gifts daily beginning this Epiphany!

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House Blessing