A Warm Epiphany

Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

It was a record-breakingly warm day here in New York, and people were wandering the streets with slightly surreal and euphoric expressions of disbelief as the temperature hovered around 70 for several hours. I avoided the hordes in Central Park by spending a good part of it outside the West End door. It was blessedly warm on West End Avenue as I labored to get the door ready for varnishing and the installation of our new lantern. The light was good and I had some uninterrupted time to get most of the troublesome details done. I just had time to clean up a bit before the 7:00 pm Epiphany solemn mass. We were not many in numbers for a Saturday night but it was a lovely procession to the Epiphany creche and a simple solemn mass, without choir but Doug and Charles sang the propers and graduals quite adequately. We had several fine voices in the congo so the hymns and Willan mass setting were sung quite heartily. Fr. Gentile gave a fine sermon although the velcro on his amice had gone awry sometime during the Introit and didn't get fixed until the ablutions. I sat near the front and once again wished I hadn't. There's a new lady sitting in the Zabriskie pew that I have not sat in for awhile so I sat a few rows back, but still too close. But all in all it was a truly joyous Epiphany and I give thanks for being almost done with the door.