Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

This week we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. In some countries, January 6 is the date of giving gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ, as it is the traditional date marking the arrival of the Wise Men to Bethlehem, offering their gifts to the baby Jesus. The word “epiphany” means a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure. This is when we celebrate Jesus made manifest as the Son of God to the world. There are various traditions tied to this feast, including a Three Kings Parade in some places, a King’s Cake, and marking a door with the blessing of the magi.

My daughters were in the marching band in high school. One traveled to Spain for the Three Kings parade in Madrid. It was a great adventure in learning about another culture and their ways of celebrating the birth of Christ. When we have the opportunity to experience an encounter with people of a culture other than our own, we can grow in our understanding of the beauty of all of God’s people.

A King’s Cake is a tradition, often found in Mexico, Spain, France, Portugal, and in Louisiana, in which a wreath-shaped cake is baked, representing the circuitous route of the Magi, especially in avoiding returning to Herod to reveal where Jesus could be found. In the cake is a small baby Jesus or a bean representing Him. The search for the baby is part of the celebration. The one who finds the baby has some kind of special reward. The epiphany feast completes the season of Christmas by inviting us to discern the identity of the christ child. Just as the Magi made a careful search for the child king upon his birth, so we should acknowledge that an important component of our faith involves seeking and searching for the Lord in unlikely places.

The blessing of the magi on the lintels of doorways includes markings with letters, numbers, and crosses in a pattern like this: 20 † C † M † B † 26. The numbers correspond to the calendar year (20 and 26, for instance, for the year 2026); the crosses stand for Christ; and the letters have a two-part significance: C, M, and B are the initials for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar), but they are also an abbreviation of the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, which means, “May Christ bless this house.”

We join the Magi in seeking and adoring the Christ child. May all our homes share the peace and hospitality of Christ which is revealed in the fragile flesh of an infant.

Blessed Angela: “Look at everything with the eyes of faith and accept everything as coming from God.”