Visiting the supermarket today I found that Hot Cross buns have appeared already! Yet in fact, we are still in the last part of the Christmas season, Epiphanytide (so do keep saying Merry Christmas to people!).
The traditional liturgy however keeps us firmly focused on Our Lord's birth, in this period particularly as a light to the whole world, represented by the worship of the Wise Men. Fortunatley, the canticle antiphons from the old 'Octave' of Epiphany have been preserved (at least when not displaced by other feasts or the Saturday of Our Lady).
Here's today's Magnificat antiphon:
Videntes stellam Magi, gavisi sunt gaudio magno: et intrantes domum, obtulerunt Domino aurum, thus et myrrham.
Seeing the star, the Magi rejoiced with great joy. And entering into the house, they offered the Lord gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And here's a rather attractive setting of it by Poulenc.
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