OF ALL THE FASCINATING DETAIL in Brent Landau’s Revelation Of The Magi the one that I’ll be pondering the longest, I think, is his suggestion that the Syriac translation of the name ‘Magi’ refers to the practice of silent prayer. That, for me, brings a wonderful angle to the notion of ‘The Adoration Of The Magi’. Here are people, decidedly ‘foreign’ people, who, waiting on God silently, come to have some experience of the Christ, the Anointed. I love the old prayer book title of the Feast of the Epiphany – ‘the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles’. The great revelation, the great epiphany or eureka moment for me, many years ago, was precisely that God can and God does manifest God’s self to anyone, anytime, anywhere. And there’s plenty of evidence through history that suggest such epiphanies taking place quite beyond the fences and boundaries of particular religious certainties! “O hush the noise and hear the angels sing” was how E H Sears spoke of what is perhaps one of our greatest human needs. I’m enthralled by the thought that Magi adoring do so silently. So before we’ve arrived at mid-Advent I’m already celebrating the silent contemplation and awe-struck adoration of un-numbered international epiphanies.