Younger children were asked to answer the question: "What does love mean?" Some answers were amusing, some rather earthy. Others show a wisdom far beyond their years...

"Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way. + When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth. + Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other. + Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give you any of theirs. + Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so mad but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings. + Love is what makes you smile when you're tired. + Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay. + Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. + If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate. + When you tell someone something bad about yourself and you're scared they won't love you any more. But then you get surprised because not only do they still love you, they love you even more. + When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toe nails any more. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. + Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day. + Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken. + Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day. + I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones. + I let my big sister pick on me because Mom says she only picks on me because she loves me; so, I pick on my baby sister because I love her. + When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. + You really shouldn't say I love you unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot... People forget."

Ah, the humble Sunday church bulletin. A tradition practiced by thousands of churches across our great land; informing and entertaining countless parishioners. Let's take another glimpse at what others have published in their bulletins...

The outreach committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church. + This afternoon there will be a meeting in the South and North ends of the church. + Next Sunday is the family hay ride and bonfire at the Fowlers. Bring your own hot dogs and guns. + Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door. + Ushers will eat latecomers. + With gratitude from the congregation, the choir has disbanded for the Summer. + Today's Sermon: How much can a man drink? with hymns from a full choir. + The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals. + Will the last person to leave please see that the perpetual light is extinguished.

As a young boy, Jack loved "dressed up animals," falling in love with Beatrix Potter's books, he often wrote and illustrated his own animal stories. He even created his own magical world "Boxen;" inhabited and run by animals. His childhood play (and Anglican view) served him well. Later in life Clive Staples (Jack to his friends) Lewis would complete the most eminent of children's story series "The Chronicles of Narnia." But there's much more to Lewis than being known as a children's author...

Arguably the most influential theologian of the past century, the great Anglican lion C.S. Lewis came to the Church rather late, at the age of 33; "I came into Christianity kicking and screaming. The most reluctant convert of all time." He'd been a good atheist for most of his early life but was brought to the Church "not by mythology, but the facts of the matter." One way he saw it was that people are willing to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but Christ also claimed divinity, so 1: Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it, and so he was a liar. Or 2: Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed he was telling the truth, and so he was insane. Or 3: Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was divine. Lewis maintained that one cannot argue or accept that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher because his moral teachings would be invalidated by virtue of either his lying or his insanity.

The dictionary defines an epiphany as a moment of sudden revelation or insight, a realization or comprehension of the essence of something; from the Greek 'ephiphianein,' "to reveal."

Twelve days after Christ's birth, the Wise Men of Matthew's Gospel, bearing gifts, visit the infant Jesus. The Christ is revealed to the Gentiles. One of the Great Feasts of our church year, Epiphany marks the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi; the realization that Christ is on Earth. At the Epiphany we culminate and celebrate Christ's birth, the Magis' visit and Jesus' childhood and baptism; the revelation of God to mankind in human form.

And so we conclude the celebration of the twelve days of Christmastide that ends with, what else, Twelfth Night (the evening before the Epiphany) as we enter the short season of ordinary time after the Epiphany that leads to Lent.

The Irish call the day Little Christmas. In Spain, Cuba and some Latin American countries Epiphany day is called El D�a de Reyes (Kings Day) or Pascua de Negros (Blackmen Christmas). In Spanish tradition, on this day, the Magi are the ones who deliver Christmas presents.

In some regions of Mexico, it is traditional for children to leave their shoes out on the evening of January 5, filling them with hay for the camels, so that the Magi will be generous with their gifts.

Twelfth Night is the secular festival marking the end of the Christmas season, and popular masquerading parties are typical entertainment. Think of it as an Anglican version of Carnival or Mardi Gras. An English custom, parishes would appoint a layman as "The Lord of Misrule" to oversee the season's (that begins with All Hallows Eve and ends with Twelfth Night) secular revelries for the church. Shakespeare's play 'Twelfth Night' was first performed during the London Twelfth Night celebrations of 1602... Ah, "Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better" (Act III, Scene I).

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
-- Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates to our opinion of ourselves; vanity to what we would have others think of us.