Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
The wife of one of the friends who helped guide me into the Catholic Church hails from Puerto Rico, and today is the day his family exchanges Christmas gifts. Meanwhile, 90% of the outdoor decorations in my suburban neighborhood have been gone since the weekend. Even my Calvinist parents and grandparents left theirs up until today. And then we have the absurdity of the Modernist Church moving the celebration of the Epiphany to a nearby Sunday. It’s sad enough when the secular marketing calendar has replaced the liturgical calendar for nearly every purpose. One might have hoped the Church would hold out and stick with the seasonal calendar that was observed for many centuries, especially with respect to the Christmas season, but making Catholicism less demanding (by eliminating a weekday Holy Day) was apparently more important. SMH.
A blessed Feast of the Epiphany to all!
What bothers me even more is that the feast of the Epiphany isn’t a holy day of obligation. Those who want to celebrate it on Thursday should do so. And if you don’t care to do so you haven’t committed a mortal sin. Of course, the truth is the Magi visited the Holy Family at least 41 days after the birth of Christ. The had to have been in Bethlehem to go to the Presentation in the Temple at Jerusalem–forty days after the birth. They couldn’t have escaped to Egypt and then returned in that short time period. Still, January 6th means a lot to many folks and there was no serious reason to move the date.