Time has flown and the last week of the 40 Days of Seeking Him meme for Advent / Christmas is coming to a close. While I recognize many Christian faiths consider today (Epiphany) to be the end of the Christmas season, Catholics are not quite done. Our parish leaves up the creche and Christmas trees until the 15th this year as next weekend is the Baptism of the Lord. So, I am going to leave the linky up for the whole week and do a final post next Sunday sharing which posts were most visited during the week. I have been truly blessed by many of the posts shared throughout this year’s link up and hope that my readers have been as well.
In last year’s Seeking Christ on Epiphany post, I shared the one statement from the homily at our parish which stuck out at me for Epiphany:
Epiphany means to manifest Christ.
I set the lofty goal of trying to manifest Christ to all those I met and wish I could share that I feel it was a roaring success. But, as with my post yesterday about Obedience to God, I find that it can be all to easy to NOT be part of the body of Christ as our spirits might desire.
Two years ago, I shared several ways to Celebrating Epiphany as a Family. I wanted to highlight a few things here which are tugging at my heart again. We might start the process of taking down the Christmas tree as in year’s past OR I might wait until next Sunday to remove this source of light from the room. Like last year, the ‘upside’ to taking it down would be clearing out space where the different boxes are living and getting back on track for purging from our excess.
Bless Your Home on Epiphany
Using a piece of chalk, mark the frame of your door as follows:
20 + C + M + B + 15
You can find a prayer service to be used for the house blessing on Catholic Culture. The letters “C+M+B” are for the Latin Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ bless this house). At the same time the letters are the first letters of the names of the wise men: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Regardless of the initial symbolism, the marking should remind us to come and go with Christ in all we do.
Sing (or Listen) to Songs for Epiphany
Pull out those cassettes and CDs of Christmas music and play just the tunes that fit with Epiphany. Or, if you are musically inclined, gather around the piano to sing those tunes. We Three Kings is definitely the best known, but there are other options available too.
Bake a King’s Cake
Epiphany is a great time to bake your own king’s cake with the kids and have it for dessert after a nice family dinner.
photo credit: PetitPlat – Stephanie Kilgast via photopin cc
Mardi Gras King Cake at Allrecipes
Emeril Lagasse’s King Cake at Food Network * I love the use of a pecan half instead of a plastic baby in his!
Select a Patron Saint for the Year
I am behind the game on this, but find having someone who’s walked before me as inspiration can be very beneficial towards my own spiritual journey. One of my friends used to do a drawing for others while praying for them, but I haven’t seen her make the offer in a while. So, I am going to visit the online Patron Saint Generator for mine.
This year I’ve decided to share a few posts from the previous week’s link up. I’m going to share the most visited post and a personal favorite (or two.)
The most visited post spot this week was 7QT- Our Christmas at Children of the Church. 
I tried doing the 7 Quick Takes posts regularly, but fell out of the habit. I love reading them, though, and seeing what other people are doing. Nicole shared a lot surrounding Christmas in this one and I was especially moved when she mentioned her little Oratory. I purchased the book (affiliate link),The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home, but haven’t really taken time to read through it. Guess this can be God’s prodding that I should MAKE the time now.
My favorite from the list was Christmas 2014: Some Festivities (fun!) and Some Fever (not fun!) at A Slice of Smith Life.
I love their traveling Wise Men and that’s something I want to do next year. J gets so much enjoyment from seeing the large wise men travel through our church (and we found that they’d not reached the creche yet at Mass last night.) She also has other ideas for celebrating the 12 days of Christmas.
How will YOU be celebrating Epiphany as a family this year? Or, do you have a family tradition to share?
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