Br. Thaddeus Pistrang
In a true search for Christ, we cannot but find ourselves with Mary at our side. To be with her is to be at Nazareth as every hope is made true at the angel’s message, to be in Bethlehem as the Lord is manifested to the world, to be at Cana as his miracles pour forth, and to be on Calvary, with our eyes on the Lord and his Cross, as salvation is won.
Lectio Divina: A Meditation on the Gospel
With the Gospel reading from the upcoming Sunday Mass as its principal source-text, each Lectio Divina (“Sacred Reading”) essay offers a prayerful meditation of the Sacred Scriptures—one which draws from the wealth of biblical literature, as well as the prayer life of the individual author.
For the entirety of the Advent season, the Church has been invoking God as the Creator of the stars in her evening Vespers hymn. With tomorrow’s feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, this prayer finds its glorious resolution. God’s faithful people have always looked to the stars. Indeed, God asked Abraham to look to the heavens and do the impossible: count the stars—“so shall your descendants be” (Gen 15:5). Abraham could neither see nor count them all, but there is a blessing for “those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29).
The Gospel for the Feast of the Epiphany turns us back to the night sky. We hear about a star that Abraham never saw with his own eyes, a star whose first appearance in the Bible is shrouded in prophecy, revealed by the Holy Spirit to one of the unlikeliest of sources, the erring prophet Balaam, who says, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Num 24:17). » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/01/star-all-hope-epiphany-thaddeus-pistrang.html