In preparing to preach and preside at this celebration of the “manifestation” of the Lord, think of the ways you reveal the mystery of Jesus’ presence and the power of his message in your ministry, especially your preaching.

The royal head count in the familiar Christmas carol is a little off. Epiphany is the story of five kings at the very least. Of course, we have to begin by admitting we don’t know that the Magi were kings in any technical sense.

While I am Catholic, I have family members who are Jewish, including my 13-year-old nephew Elijah. He recently celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah (meaning “son of commandment”).

A guy I knew had drifted away from his faith. He had gone to Catholic school and had even been an altar boy. But when he became a teenager, religion seemed too limiting: “It cramps my style,” he said.

In grammar school I dreaded composition class. I just couldn’t understand the concept of a thesis statement and outline. My problem was I couldn’t think ahead. How do you know what you’re going to say until you say it, I’d wonder.

Every few years I like to take a long car trip somewhere all by myself. It accomplishes a lot of different things for me. Mostly, it gives me time to think. Traveling the same distance in an airplane does not afford me the same sense of distancing myself from all that I am leaving behind.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

One true king knew when to step aside and give up the reins of power—to remove his crown and relinquish his kingdom—all for the sake of glimpsing, just once in a lifetime, the face of a holy child.