This week is not officially called the Octave of the Epiphany, but the liturgy certainly makes it feel like one. Every this week the antiphons have us relive the revelation of Christ to the nations, and anticipate those two other great theophanies : the Lord's baptism and in a lesser way, the miracle at Cana.
I'm reading lots of interesting things about this on the internet. For example, that legends say that Jesus was baptized on the same day (thirty some year later) that the magi had come. Interesting, although we don't really need a calendar coincidence to tie these two events together in our minds.
This is just about the single most difficult time of year to find your place in the breviary. If you go to ibreviary.com (or just hop on the widget to the right and click on morning or evening prayer) you can receive a confusing explanation of the problem. It has to do with the way the editors of the American breviary did things back in the 70s, apparently departing from the official Roman breviary just enough to make an already confusing book even more so. It's really too bad, because all the eager beavers who received their first breviary as a Christmas gift will hit this train wreck and get badly discouraged. If anyone asks me, I just tell them to stick with a digital breviary until ordinary time starts up again next week. Then they'll get a few nice, uncomplicated weeks of plain old psalter, with only a once-a-week excursion to the proper for Sundays. This way, they will have established basic familiarity with the hours, and won't feel too stressed by turning to the proper every day once lent begins.
Welcome new blog followers Ed, Andrew, and Vicki. This is the place to share your enthusiasm for the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as your questions.
I haven't labelled a post as a Q&A for quite a while. Sorry about that. Having my entire family over for Christmas this year kind of put the blog on the back burner. But I do resolve to get back to a weekly Q&A post with more consistency. So don't be shy---if something about the LOTH doesn't make sense, just add a comment and I"ll get back to you within 24 hours.
