Second Sunday After Epiphany

This afternoon I posted a Podcast Homily for the Second Sunday After Epiphany, based on the BCP readings from St. Paul’s homily on various Christian virtues (Romans 12:6-16, to which I added two additional verses to better establish the context) and Mark 1:1-11, with quotations from similar material in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. John.  The primary subject is the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  The Podcast Homily is the third episode in a series of seven homilies for Epiphany season following the readings in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Listen to the Podcast

The scene is richly illustrated by the stained glass window by Franz Mayer of Munich at St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel, Richmond, VA, 1931 A.D.  The simultaneous appearance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is represented by the presence of Jesus Christ; the Dove (the Spirit); and the legend carried by the Dove:  Ecce Agnus Dei.   This and all the other stained glass windows at the Chapel are features in the AIC Bookstore publication, Paintings on Light: the Stained Glass Windows at St. Joseph’s Villa Chapel.   For more information or to order your own copy, visit my Author Central page at Amazon.com

In doing the research for the Christmas series, Reflections on the Twelve Days of Christmas, I came across another illustration of John the Baptist in the form of a mosaic at Jerusalem.   John the Baptist is depicted in mosaic form at the Cathedral of the Assumption on Mt. Zion, the highest point in Jerusalem.  The Cathedral is also called the Cathedral of the Dormition, which means falling asleep, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.  The church was built in the late 19th C. on a site where a previous building existed in the 6th or 7th Century.