O Come Let Us Adore Him

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 4th, 2026:
Epiphany of the Lord

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Psalm 72
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R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. 

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. 

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

For he delivers the needy one who calls, the poor and the one who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. 

R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

The year was 2006. In that summer of my 13th year, you could find me about as angsty a preteen girl as anyone could imagine. Young, pimply, and loud, noticing a new boy each week and just generally looking for a place of eternal belonging. In early July of that summer, I was given the opportunity to join my youth group on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a Marian apparition site in Bosnia, to participate in the Festival of Youth. While I had a good relationship with Mary and I was generally up for anything Jesus-focused, in reality I’m sure what drew me were the attractions of a trip to Europe with a bunch of my friends. I was really just along for the ride, and I had no idea what I was in for spiritually. 

As we arrived a few days before the festival, we had become accustomed to this little, holy town with many walks through the streets and shops, time spent in the Church there, and various moments of prayer and sharing before the big events would begin. One evening as we made our way to the first night of the festival, an event held outside behind the church, we rounded the corner of St. James Church and were – seemingly without warning, and out of nowhere after our quiet days of pilgrimaging – confronted by the roar and excitement of a crowd of over 50,000 youth. Now, many people have probably been in much bigger Catholic crowds than this, but as a 13-year-old who’d never ventured beyond the Maritimes, I was floored. 

Flags were waving all throughout the crowd showing the global representation of the youth present there. Everyone was singing and shouting and crying out for Jesus and Mary. It was my first time seeing the global Church, the true meaning of the universal, Catholic Church! And it was breathtaking. 

This came to mind as I reflected on today’s feast of Epiphany and the refrain of the Psalm “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” 

In these days, when “globalization” has us so much more aware of the lives and circumstances of other nations, I wonder if we have the opportunity to lean all the more into the call we have as Catholics to draw all nations unto their Saviour, Christ Jesus the Lord. 

Every nation is called to worship Him. And what a privilege it was on that night, so many years ago, to see how He calls out to every nation. My life is quieter now and much more “localized.” My current life of rhythm and prayer in a convent is quite a stark contrast to that experience in my youth. But in a spiritual sense, the whole Church, the mystical body, is always present wherever Christ, the Head, is. 

Could our churches and homes, classrooms and workplaces be little Bethlehems, where the wise may come from every different place to encounter Jesus? Every tribe and tongue, every people, nation, and language will come to worship Him. May we be vessels of this encounter today and every day!



​Sr. Angela Burnham

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