Christmas is never long enough for me…. these 12 days go so fast. Filled with liturgy and family gatherings. Sure, we celebrate Christmas until the Feast of the Purification on February 2nd, but most years this is truncated by encroaching Septuagesima. Or, like this year, the world has experienced the death of Pope Benedict this week.

But I wish to highlight even the antiphon for the Magnificat for the Feast of the Epiphany – we commemorate three mysteries:

“This day we keep a holiday in honor of three wonders, this day a star led the wise men to the manger; this day at the marriage, water was made wine; this day was Christ, for our salvation, pleased to be baptized of John in Jordan. Alleluia.”

This is why mental prayer is so important in the spiritual life — to contemplate, to turn over in our hearts and in our minds, these sacred mysteries.

And today, I encourage you to spend 5 minutes on each one of these epiphanies, these manifestations of Christ, which we celebrate – and do so while thinking on the Sacred Heart, see the mysteries within the depth of His Heart.

The wise men arriving and falling in adoration — offering gold, frankincense and myrrh — and offer your whole self, the very best of you (gold), fall down in adoration recognizing and professing anew that Christ is Lord (frankincense), and see the Sacred Heart of the Infant Jesus beating with love for you ready to die upon the Cross (myrrh).

And further, the solicitous care of Jesus, seeing there was no wine, offers a revelation of His Deity by changing water into wine. Already we see a glimpse of the sweetness of being called to participate through His Incarnation, taking on our flesh, to participate in the Divinity, the Divine Life of the Triune God.

And lastly, the sanctification of the waters in His Baptism, wherein we hear the voice of God say: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Announcing to us, the filial relationship, in which we are adopted, of Jesus to God the Father. The beating of the Sacred Heart almost seems to double in the contemplation of this mystery. This communication of love.

All this, think on all this, today.

First Friday Devotions can be found HERE.