The Epiphany of the Lord
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 Affirmation Baby!
Last Friday I caught up with one of my friends who is also one the parishioners from my previous assignment in Chicago. She had sent me a Christmas card and in it, she wrote how 2008 had turned her world upside down. She was diagnosed with an uteral-related cancer. The treatments of chemo and radiation had taken their toll on her. As soon as I read the letter, I called her. We spoke for some time. She was hoping for a miracle because recently they found a spot in one of her lungs. Through her tears she prayed for strength to carry this heavy cross that God had given her. She knew that this would be a long journey. I believe that her faith would sustain her through the coming months.
The story of the Epiphany, of God’s revelation to the Gentiles represented by the Magi, speaks also of a faith-journey. The Magi traveled for a long time to seek the new King of the Jews. Before them, the shepherds sought him. Both travelers found him in a manger – a humbling setting for a king! Yet they were the ones who were humbled! They searched God’s chosen, probably expecting to find him in a rich palace. When they found him, they recognized what God had done. God had chosen to be revealed in the most humbling while at the same time the most accessible setting – in the simple surrounding of parents and in the poorest of places. God would be available to them all – shepherds, magi and kings. They need not look for God in the most difficult nor loftiest of places – only in the human.
They all returned praising God. The experience of the divine in a human baby changed their lives, affirmed them, and sustained them through their long journey back. Likewise, both Mary and Joseph who may not have understood all the events surrounding the birth of their child, most likely also felt affirmed. This affirmation sustained them especially through their exile into Egypt.
Epiphanies are moments of discovery and affirmation. Most often we search for God in the spectacular that rarely happen and that we can seldom sustain. By contrast, God can often be found in the small, the simple and the ordinary that includes our despair, pain and sorrow – as much as our joys, peaks and laughter. We find God in the ordinariness of life and in so doing, can be affirmed countless times. Faith continues to grow because this endless stream of discovery and affirmation will constantly feed it. May our ordinariness lead us to wellsprings of epiphanies and affirmations – for in our ordinariness, God is found!
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Tithes & Offerings
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Regular Collection: $7,074.00
THANK YOU!
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Church Location
St Jane Frances de Chantal
13001 Victory Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA
91606
Parish Center/ Office
12930 Hamlin St.
North Hollywood, CA
91606
Office Hours
Mon. - Fri. 9:00AM 12:00 PM
1:30PM - 6:30 PM
Saturday 9:00AM - 12:00 PM
Weekday Mass Schedule
Mon. Fri. Sat. 8:00 AM Mass
Wed. 7:00 PM Mass
Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday 5:00 PM
Sunday 7:30 AM Spanish
9:00 AM English
11:00 AM English
1:00 PM Spanish
6:00 PM English
Confessions:
Saturdays @ 12:00 PM
or by appointment.
Visit our school website by selecting the link below:
www.sjfdechantalschool.org
Pastor: Rev. Ferdinand Lansang O. Carm
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