Abbot Hugh Allan, O.Praem.

Apostolic Administrator of the Falkland Islands and Superior of the Ecclesiastical Mission to St. Helena, Tristan Da Cunha and Ascension Island

Pastoral Letter for the New Year 2020

Dear friends in Christ,

I love words and “epiphany” is a favourite word of mine. In a Christian sense, it names a great January liturgical feast, namely the moment when the three wise men, bearing gifts, appearing from the East, arrive looking for the baby Jesus to worship him. To find the child who is true God and true Man.

“Epiphany” in its secular, dictionary definition, complements the religious meaning, and always seems like a thrilling word. Here’s one definition: ‘A sudden realisation about the nature or meaning of something.’

To realise the meaning of something — my life, my gifts, an illness, a death, an ordinary day — that’s huge. It’s a delicious word, this revelation about the very nature of something.

“Epiphany” is a good reminder, a good word, a good experience to carry us through January and into the new year.

How many epiphanies do we really experience in life? There are times in life when we feel we know quite a bit and aren’t necessarily open to the world-shattering nature of epiphany.

This certainty strikes different people at different times. The late teenage years affect some that way. We’ve got it all figured out, until we start university or a job, and all the new information blows away all our certainty.

“I’ve seen that.” “I know all about that.” “I’ve been there once, and I don’t need to go again.”

I’ve known a few older people – me included – who simply aren’t looking for any more epiphanies. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt… Ho hum.

All of us are susceptible, at any age, to getting in a rut and not keeping our eyes open to the epiphany that may surprise us around the next corner. All of us can be reluctant, and sometimes with reason, to saddle up our camels and follow some distant star.

January brings with it a cascade of New Year’s resolutions, including “I’m going to lose 10 pounds,” “I will start exercising,” “I will remember to call my mother more often,” “I will never leave the house with my bed unmade” …

How about just resolving to keep our eyes open for the next epiphany God sends? Perhaps to have an open heart to the greatest epiphany of all, that we are called to become saints.

St. Francis of Assisi had a great “epiphany.” Like many saints, Francis was a party animal as a youth. Perhaps he thought he knew it all and yet:

“One night, he left the house of a friend and looked up at the stars above Assisi. He stood there for a long, long time. He was truly in awe of what he saw. He said, ‘If these are the creatures, what must the Creator be like?’”

Brothers and sisters, the stars above our Island parishes are truly beautiful; they are but a pale image of the beautiful One who created them.

May God help each of us to live this year beginning each day by asking God for the courage to be open to continuing revelation, epiphanies great and small, that God offers in all our lives so that one day we may look upon the face of God and see Him face to face.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. May Our Lady, Star of the Sea, pray for us and help us to get home to God.

Please pray for me as I pray for you every day. God love you.

+Hugh o. praem.

Abbot Hugh Allan, o.praem.