Happy new year of grace! The Octave is ended, but the Christmas season lasts until the Baptism of the Lord. So if you want to leave the tree and decorations up a little longer, it’s OK.

How did the proverbial “wise men” become wise? How have you acquired wisdom in your life?

Why are so many of us reluctant to ask for directions? I don’t have a macho bone in my body and yet I hesitate—till I am good and lost—before I’ll stop someone for help. Maybe it’s because we don’t like to appear weak or fallible, though we are surely both.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory—this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East.

It was a small Baptism in early January a quarter a century ago. Present were only the 10-week-old baby, his parents who recently both turned 21, and the godparents, mutual friends of the couple.

GPS (global positioning system) technology is handy, powering maps on our phones that help us find our destinations. GPS guides you there—just like Magi following a star. You don’t even have to tell it where you are—it knows!

"Star light, star bright; first star I see tonight.” Remember that nursery rhyme about wishing on a star? Our heart’s desire can be a pretty powerful force when we pay attention to it.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, the revealing of Jesus' divinity to the world. We pray for the grace to seek him, as the Magi did.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms / But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation / With an alien people clutching their gods.