Epiphany Proclamation 2018

While a day like Christmas is fixed in our minds and on the calendars on December 25th, many of the important feasts of the Church year move, based    upon the date that Easter is set. Easter changes each year moving to the Sunday after the "Paschal Full Moon," and can fall between March 22 and April 25.

In ancient times before calendars were common, most people did not know the dates for the upcoming Liturgical year. On Epiphany Sunday, the upcoming dates were "proclaimed" after the gospel or after communion in this way:

Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of our God has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of  the return of the Anointed One.

Through the rhythms of times and seasons let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us recall the year's liturgical culmination, the Easter Triduum of Jesus the Christ: his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising, Pascal Mystery celebrated between the evening of the Twenty-Ninth day of March and the evening of the Thirty-First day of March, Easter Sunday being on the First day of April.

Each Easter -- as on each Sunday -- the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Jesus has forever conquered sin and death. From Easter then are reckoned all the days we keep holy.

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the Fourteens day of February.

The Ascension of Jesus the Christ will be commemorated on Sunday, the Tenth day of May.

Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the Twentieth day of May.

Gay Pride Sunday will be celebrated on Saturday, the Twenty-Third of June.

Commemoration of the Stonewall Riots  will be celebrated on Sunday, the Twenty-Fourth of June. 

And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the Second of December.

Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of the Anointed One in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints, and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

And our community will celebrate its own Anniversary on Sunday, the Twenty-First of October for the Forty-Sixth time.

To Jesus Christ the Anointed One, who was, who is, and who is to come, God of time and history, be endless praise, for ever and ever.

Amen.