January Taizé: Epiphany sends us home ‘a new way’

As we continue the celebration of the Christmas Season, on this night we remember the Feast of Epiphany, when a star led the Magi to honor the Christ Child with treasures.

The Magi then went home a different way than they had come to Bethlehem.

Are we leaving the Christmas Season different than we were a month ago? What are your goals to make sure you become a different person in this new year?

Download a program for the service here: Taizé Service Worship Aid for January 5, 2023.

For home reflection:

We will celebrate the Feast of Epiphany in our churches the weekend of Jan. 7-8. An ancient Epiphany practice is the blessing of homes by marking the entrance to the house with chalk. To bless your home, offer this prayer:

“Let us bless our home and pray that all will be welcome here. Let this door be an entry for the blessings of God. Let this door be a gateway of God’s blessings to the world.”

With chalk, write above the door of your main entrance the year, crosses and the first initial of the traditional names of the Three Kings (Gaspar, Melchior, Balthazar): 20 + G + M + B + 23

Photo 50805128 © Rawpixelimages | Dreamstime.com

What is Taizé?

Taizé prayer is practiced throughout the world. It is a meditative candle-lit form of community prayer that includes simple chants sung repeatedly, silence and prayers of praise and intercession. In prayer, we enter the silence, stilling the mind, opening the heart, surrendering to the action of the Spirit ever molding us into the image of Christ. The candles used in the service symbolize the presence of the risen Christ, who conquered darkness and sin and offers new life to all humankind.

Taizé Prayer comes from an ecumenical, monastic community in France and has spread to numerous spots around the world.

From the depths of the human condition, a secret aspiration rises up. Today many are thirsting for the essential reality: an inner life, signs of the Invisible. Nothing is more conducive to communion with the living God than meditative common prayer. When the mystery of God becomes tangible through the simple beauty of symbols, when it is not smothered by too many words, then a common prayer awakens us to heaven’s joy on earth.

All the videos of our Taizé prayer services are available here.

Photo Credit: The presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Painting. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark

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