Feast of the Transfiguration

The meaning of the feast

+ Today’s feast recalls that privileged moment when Jesus, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, revealed his glory and the voice of the Father proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).

+ A feast in honor of the Transfiguration was first celebrated in Syria in the fourth century. It was first celebrated in the Western Church in France in the tenth century and as finally added to the Roman calendar in 1457 to commemorate of victory of Saint John Capistrano and the Christian forces in a battle against the Turks the previous year. 

+ The readings and prayers for this celebration teach us how Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets’ visions and of how we are invited to share in the glory of Jesus as adopted daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father. 

For prayer and reflection

“The law was given through Moses and prophecy through Elijah. Radiant in the divine majesty, they were seen speaking with the Lord, alleluia.”—from Morning Prayer for the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

Prayer

O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration
of your Only Begotten Son
confirmed the mysteries of faith by the witness of the Fathers
and wonderfully prefigured our full adoption to sonship,
grant, we pray, to your servants,
that, listening to the voice of your beloved Son,
we may merit to become co-heirs with him.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Fr. Silas Henderson, S.D.S.