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White Semidouble (Privilege of the Second Class) THE FEAST OF CHRISTMAS is over; the five Octaves are closed; and we are on the Eve of the Solemnity of our Lord’s Epiphany. We must spend this fifth of January in preparing ourselves for the Manifestation which Jesus, the Angel of the Great Counsel, is about to make to us of his glory. A few more hours, and the Star will stand still in the heavens, and the Magi will be seeking for admission into the stable at Bethlehem. This Vigil is not like that of Christmas, a day of penance....

Who Were the Magi? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 28, 2017 • The Gospel of Matthew says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem (Mat 2:1). Matthew uses the Greek term μάγοι, (magoi) and notes simply that they came from the east.Exactly what “Magi” are is debated. The Greeks of antiquity (ca. 450 B.C.) used the term to refer to a priestly class of men among the Medes and later the Persians, but in later centuries it was used in a wider sense; it came...

Was the Star that Guided the Magi a Natural or Supernatural Occurrence? Msgr. Charles Pope • December 27, 2017 • As we continue our survey of teachings on the birth of our Lord from St. Thomas Aquinas, today we consider the mysterious star that led the Magi to Christ. In recent decades there has been a strong tendency to seek a natural explanation for this phenomenon. Some speculate that it was in fact a comet or the appearance of several planets close together in the night sky. While not necessarily incorrect, these explanations are largely set aside by St....

Read/print the novena here.

While the national media narrative of abortion focuses on the women, babies, protestors, and the vast political tangential impacts of defunding Planned Parenthood, contraception mandates, and the Supreme Court, one group of individuals consistently is left completely out of the conversation: the abortion workers themselves.Sometimes abortionists will snatch the spotlight, often not in positive stories, like late-term abortionists Kermit Gosnell or LeRoy Carhart. But what about the unseen nurses, counselors, secretaries, managers, and janitors, all of whom make their living at abortion clinics around the nation? What of their stories?There are an estimated 3,200 abortion workers currently in this country....

This lady used to be a real hardcore Leftist, but she suddenly switched and voted Republican in 2012. What made her change? Read on to find out.Dr. Danusha V. Goska has abandoned the Leftist philosophy for good. She wrote a long article that explains each point in detail at American Thinker. It also includes a bio of Dr. Goska that shows her Leftist ‘street cred’.To sum up, here are her Top 10 Reasons for Dumping Leftist Ideology:10. Huffiness We rushed to cast everyone in one of three roles: victim, victimizer, or champion of the oppressed. We lived our lives in...

I was born a liberal, in the mid ‘50s, in Southern California. Everyone was. We weren’t political, we were righteous. We weren’t informed, we were pliable. Craving fan-boys gorging flowery rhetoric. Low-caloric in substance, refute free. Facts are mean. And there is nothing new under the sun. Planted my grubstake in the South after the ’94 earthquake. I like these people, they’re real. Most seemed to go hog wild on honesty. And one boasting they’re basking in high cotton is as scarce as hen’s teeth. Hypocrisy is answered with, “well bless your heart”. And then you’re out. I came from...

How far left was I? So far left my beloved uncle was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party in a Communist country. When I returned to his Slovak village to buy him a mass card, the priest refused to sell me one. So far left that a self-identified terrorist proposed marriage to me. So far left I was a two-time Peace Corps volunteer and I have a degree from UC Berkeley. So far left that my Teamster mother used to tell anyone who would listen that she voted for Gus Hall, Communist Party chairman, for president. I wore a...

“Best Picture: The Transfiguration of Our Lord” (Matthew 17:1-9) Tonight will be the Academy Awards ceremony coming from Los Angeles. Tonight they’ll give out the award for, among other things, Best Picture of the year. I don’t know which one will win, but I want to tell you, this morning here in the church, we get to see a far better “Best Picture,” and it is none other than “The Transfiguration of Our Lord.” The picture we see at the Transfiguration had its share of special effects--lighting, sound, and so on. And there were a couple of guest stars making...

“Be Who You Are, Children of Your Heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:38-48) The Holy Gospel for today can be a hard one to understand, much less a hard one to actually do. In it Jesus says things like “Turn the other cheek,” “Give somebody the shirt off your back,” and “Go the extra mile.” Oh, Jesus, really? Those things sound hard! Maybe you don’t really mean that. Is there a way we can explain those things away? But then Jesus goes further. He not only says we should love our neighbor--that can be hard enough--he even says we are to love...

“Salt of the Earth, Light of the World” (Matthew 5:13-16)Our text today is a portion of the Holy Gospel, reading again from verses 13-16 of Matthew 5: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light...

“Your Blest Life Now” (Matthew 5:1-12) You’ve probably heard of a TV preacher by the name of Joel Osteen. He’s got a huge megachurch down in Houston, and he’s got a massive audience on television. He’s also written a number of best-selling books, the most famous of which is called “Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential.” What Mr. Osteen does that has made him so successful is to dish out some warmed-over self-help pabulum, and people are lapping it up. He says things like this: “Your best days are not behind you, they’re still...

[Note: The Divine Service at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Bonne Terre, Missouri, for January 15, 2017, has been iced out. So I am posting the sermon for the equivalent Sunday, the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Series A, from January 20, 2008. CH]“Three Evangelism Pointers: Point, Invite, and Find” (John 1:29-42a) The Epiphany season traditionally is a time for emphasizing the church’s work of evangelism and missions. Why is that? Well, think of the event celebrated on the Epiphany festival: Wise men from the east, being led by a star to find the Christ child--in other words, the spread...

A passage from the Koran that denies one of the central tenets of the Christian faith was sung aloud at a cathedral service in Scotland. The passage from Surah 19, which specifically denies that Jesus was the Son of God and says He should not be worshipped, was sung during a Eucharist service at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow to mark the feast of the Epiphany. A video of the recital was posted on YouTube showing a girl singing the passage in a typical Islamic style. It narrates the Islamic account of the birth of Jesus, which includes the...

The Journey of Faith – A Homily for the Feast of Epiphany Msgr. Charles Pope • January 7, 2017 • There are so many wonderful details in the Epiphany story: the call of the Gentiles, their enthusiastic response, the significance of the star they seek, the gifts they bring, the dramatic interaction with Herod, and their ultimate rejection of Herod in favor of Christ.In this meditation, I would like to follow these Magi in their journey of faith to become “Wise Men.” As magi, they followed the faint stars, distant points of light; as wise men, they follow Jesus,...

“Behold My Servant” (Isaiah 42:1-9)“Behold my servant,” the Lord says to us today. Who is this servant, you ask? It’s Jesus, of course. The Christ, the Anointed One, baptized as the Lord’s servant, to do the will of the one who sent him. Jesus, the Christ, anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. And Isaiah is here to tell us about him. Through the prophet Isaiah now, the Lord invites us to look upon Christ, saying, “Behold My Servant.” “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him;...

“Arise, Shine, for Your Light Has Come” (Isaiah 60:1-6) “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” “Arise and shine”? Are you kidding me? On a Friday night? In January? On a dark and cold night, with snow on the ground? “Arise and shine”? Heck, it was hard enough to arrive on time, much less “arise and shine”! “Arise and shine.” After the week I’ve had? Yeah, Pastor, why are you dragging us out here on a Friday night in January anyway? I don’t know of many other churches that are...

"The Transfiguration--and Exodus--of Our Lord" (Luke 9:28-36) Today is the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This is the festival we celebrate every year on the last Sunday after the Epiphany. We have seen Christ's glory as the incarnate Son of God being manifested throughout the Epiphany season, beginning with the visit of the wise men on Epiphany itself. At the Baptism of Our Lord, Christ's messiahship was attested and affirmed by the Holy Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father coming from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am...

"Life and Love in the Body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:1 - 13:13) I don't know if you noticed it, but today and for the last two weeks our Epistle reading has come from 1 Corinthians. That's One Corinthians, by the way, not Two Corinthians. I haven't preached on these texts, having preached instead on the Holy Gospel readings from John and Luke, respectively. But today I think I will preach on these 1 Corinthians readings, taking all three of them together. I've been saving them up for today, because today we have our annual voters' meeting to elect new...

"Jesus' Inaugural Address" (Luke 4:16-30) In just about one year from now, the new President of the United States of America will give his (or her) inaugural address. Having just been inaugurated into office, the new president will give a speech outlining the plans and priorities of the new administration. Often these are stated in lofty terms, trying to capture the hopes and aspirations of the people, which the new president will seek to accomplish. The inaugural address is intended to set the tone for the administration, right from the outset, to be conveyed in memorable terms and phrases. The...