‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ (Isaiah 9:6)
The new year celebrations might be underway with great gusto, but here in the Church, the calendar moves quietly on. Our new year reflections began on 1st January with Christopher Jobson telling us about Basil the Great.
The key marker of January is of course the Feast of the Epiphany. Thankfully, we have been able to include a variety of reflections for you to ponder on, including one about the Magi themselves.
By the middle of the month, we are thinking about St. Hilary; if you are in academia, you may well be familiar with references to Hilary Term and the implications of what that means – the return to studies after the Christmas celebrations! But who was this man and why did he become a Saint? Christopher Jobson reveals all.
On 25th January, we are focusing on the conversion of St. Paul and as the long and cold (and very wet!) Winter continues, we will be telling the true story of a husband and wife, separated during the Nazi occupation of Austria, and re-united many years later by a tablecloth. It is truly remarkable!
We will also be reporting on the various Christmas activities across the Benefice; we hope you enjoy reading them and looking at the photographs as much as we have!
There is much, much more. Each month we update our Family Fun section – have you tried our crosswords? Have your youngsters visited the journeys through the Bible by Mouse Makes? Older children might like to look at the Picture Parable or Bible Bites.
You may have noticed that there have been some subtle (and not so subtle!) alterations to the Messenger. Our Webmaster will explain these to you in a later post.
Finally, we thought we might finish with a Prayer for Epiphany:
Creator of the heavens, who led the Magi by a star to worship the Christ-child: guide and sustain us, that we may find our journey’s end in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Wishing you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year,
The Editor,
Meres and Meadows Messenger
Feature Image: Adoration of the Magi, c. 1508, Luca Signorelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons