Inasmuch as tomorrow's evening welcomes the secular world's New Year, perhaps it's a good time now for us to get ready for the Church's January 1 celebrations in prayer and worship. Our Episcopal friends commemorate January 1 as The Holy Name while Lutherans designate the day as The Name of Jesus; Roman Catholic communities will turn thoughts to Mary, Mother of Our Lord. And in many communities, Presbyterians and Methodists who use the Daily Office will join hands with all who tell time by the church's calendar. The reasoning behind all this attention to the name of Jesus and to the role of His Mother is simple. Matthew tells us that "when the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcized, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception" (2:21).

In addition to encouraging our reflection on the Name Day of Jesus, the prayerbook June and I use will ask us to remember that on his Naming Day, Jesus was also circumcized. In fact, a decade or two ago, January 1 was known in the Lutheran Church, as it is today among the Orthodox, as The Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus. Apparently we Lutherans got a little embarrassed over this "first blood-letting of Jesus," a foreshadowing of His passion, so that we quietly dropped any mention of it in the church's calendar. Some Anglicans and a few Lutherans, however, continue not to be so "theologically proper." I trust the stained-glass window's depiction of the event, now housed in The Cloisters, is an appropriate reminder that Jesus, the Word made flesh, was and is today fully human.

Although tomorrow, December 31, ushering in New Year's Eve, is a rather "relaxed" day in the Church's calendar, nevertheless several churches remember some of our Christian mothers and fathers. Roman Catholic Christians will mention Columba of Sens, a virgin martyr (beheaded in 273) and the Roman Bishop Sylvester, who participated in the Council of Nicea in 325; both the Roman and Orthodox churches also remember the Widow Melania the Younger.

May God bless your December 31 and January 1!