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Saint Paul the Apostle
On January 25 the Church celebrates the Conversion of St .Paul to Christianity. Born Saul, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, he was brought up as a Pharisee. Originally a persecutor of the followers of Jesus, he was on his way to arrest converts in Damascus when he himself underwent a conversion (around 33 A.D.). During Sunday Mass, the second lesson is often a reading from one of S1. Paul's epistles (letter) to a Christian community or individual. He maintained his Jewish beliefs about God and the revelation of God in the Law and the Prophets, but he also accepted was God was doing now. He believed God was rescuing both Jew and Gentiles from the present evil age through the resurrection of the crucified Messiah. He understood Jesus' death as a sacrifice and His resurrection as the beginning of the new creation. Believers are incorporated in Christ by Baptism and receive the Holy Spirit which "both sheds God's love in the believer's heart and bears fruit in love, joy, peace, etc." 81. Paul insisted the 'truth of the gospel' required only faith in Christ, not observance of the Torah. His ideas were seminal to the establishment of Christianity as a new religion which worships the God of Israel 'through Jesus Christ our Lord'.
Epiphany
On Sunday the 6th of January the Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany.
Scholars speculate this day was a Christianization of what originally had been pagan worship of a local deity. As early as the 3rd century this feast (often 8 days, the 'octave') was a celebration
spiritually uniting the faithful to God through Christ's birth. Since the 3rd century the Eastern Church has observed the feast in honor of the Baptism of Christ. This day celebrates the church being washed with water and the "Word" made flesh. A main feature of this day in the E. Church is the solemn blessing of water.
This feast day was introduced to the Western Church by the 4th century, but it character had changed and it became associated with the visitation of the Magi. Tradition has made the visiting wise men (mentioned only in Matthew's Gospel) into kings and by the 6th century they were ascribed the names Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar.
However they are viewed, they represent the extending of Christ's manifestation to the Gentiles (non-Jews).
In 1955 the Sunday after Epiphany was made a separate feast of the Baptism. So on January 13 of this year we will celebrate Jesus' Baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. On this day we will celebrate Jesus' willingness to receive baptism at John's hands not to wash away his own sins, but the sins of the whole world. On this day Jesus' public ministry began. In England Queen Elizabeth will make offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the Chapel Royal. Gold represents Jesus' royalty, frankincense his sacrifice on the cross, and myrrh his death, burial, and Resurrection.
A New Year Prayer Holy Father, we leave the irreparable past in your hands and step out into the unknown new year, rejoicing in the future knowing you will be with us. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Ordo Kalendar
We have all received an Ordo Kalendar as a Christmas gift from Father Glen. When properly used this calendar can deepen our understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus, of our liturgical rituals, and of special people who are an important part of our Christian and Anglican history. The main value of this calendar is theological rather than chronological. It provides us with an annual cycle that retraces the biblical chronology of Christ's birth, His ministry, His Passion and death, His Ascension, His bestowal of the Holy Spirit, and His expected return. The feast and fast days invite us to recollect past events and make them contemporaneous through our active remembering (anamnesis) The greatest use of an ordo kalendar has always been found among the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox.
After the reformation the majority of the "protesting churches" (Protestants) objected to such a kalendar because of perceived superstitions and abuse which were associated with the cult of saints.
Nevertheless, Lutherans and Anglicans kept such a calendar which was at first limited to biblical figures but gradually came to include post-biblical figures.
Ecumenical cooperation has recently yielded calendars and lectionaries which can be shared by varied Christian churches despite their different religious understandings and practices.
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