Thursday, January 3, 2013

7 Quick Takes - Epiphany Edition

1. First off, your prayers are requested for Jen, who hosts 7 Quick Takes over at her blog, Conversion Diary. She's been hospitalized pulmonary embolisms, and is expecting, and can use our prayers.

2. This Sunday is the feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates, in the West, the revelation of the gospel to the nations (particularly with the coming of the wise men to visit the infant Jesus), and, in the East, the revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity (particularly as seen at Jesus' baptism).

3. One of the best ways to celebrate Epiphany is to light lots and lots of candles. It's a feast of light, in many ways, being a feast of revelation. Jesus is the light that lightens every nation, and in the home, lighting lots of candles is a good way to remember this.

4. But right now it's still Christmas! We celebrated that this week by making gingerbread houses. I actually found a kit that came with the parts for four little cabins, which delighted my four little children to no end:

5. It's also not a bad time to read "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare. Which has nothing to do with the actual holiday other than the name, but it's a great play, so why not? (And if you want to watch it, this version is very good.)

6. More seriously, if you want some great ideas on celebrating Epiphany, this post by Kerry is one of my favorites. She has instructions on the traditional house blessing, as well as links to appropriate coloring pages for children and for a recipe for Three Kings Cake.

(And just wait till you see all the good ideas in the upcoming book about celebrating the church year in the home! Coming soon. :)  )

7. And . . . Epiphany is our new church's patronal feast day! So we'll have lots to celebrate this Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. (And Lent comes quickly this year - so enjoy the feast while you can!)

More quick takes can be found over here, at Hallie's place. (She's hosting for Jen.)

4 comments:

jen said...

Yay for your church!

Prof. Hannah said...

Blessings on a wonderful new church!

Jessica Snell said...

Thank you, Jen! Thank you, Hannah!

Amber said...

Ooh, the candles would be fun! I hosted a 12 Days of Christmas party and we talked a little about Epiphany too. I served a Galette des Rois which was very yummy. I'm considering making another one for Epiphany too, as we only got to have a little slice since we were sharing it so many different ways. There's a great story about the galette which you might have come across already - that the bakers and pastry chefs in a city in France (can't remember which one) argued about who would make the Mardi Gras dessert, and when the bakers won that argument, the pastry chefs created the Galette des Rois for Epiphany. Probably not true, but a good story none the less. And a tasty dessert too! I made the King Arthur Flour one (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/king-arthurs-almond-galette-recipe), using their fast and easy puff pastry recipe. (I even made my own almond paste too, because I'm cheap) Pretty easy to put together, especially since I made things on different days.