“Christ manifests himself in the Amazon that resists, cares for, and dreams”
Every January 6, the Church celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord, the mystery of Christ’s manifestation to all peoples. In the Amazon, this celebration takes on a unique character: Christ reveals himself today in the concrete lives of its peoples, in their ancestral spirituality, in the defense of their territory, in the wisdom that cares for creation, and in the hope that remains alive even in contexts of exclusion and threat.
In this context, the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) calls for the celebration of the Day of Prayer for the Epiphany of the Lord in the Amazon 2026, as a privileged space for communion, discernment, and ecclesial commitment. This initiative, which began modestly in 2025, is consolidating itself as a shared spiritual journey for the Church in the Amazon and for the entire universal Church.
The Epiphany: a God who manifests himself in the territory and in the peoples
Celebrating the Epiphany in an Amazonian key is to recognize that God continues to manifest himself in the concrete history of peoples. Just as the Magi followed the star to find the Child, today the Church is invited to allow itself to be guided by the signs of the Spirit present in the Amazon: the rivers that give life, the forests that protect biodiversity, the communities that resist, and the cultures that preserve a deep relationship with the Creator.
The Epiphany of the Lord in the Amazon invites us to contemplate a God who is present on the margins, who speaks through the cry of the earth and the poor, and who calls for a Church with an Amazonian, synodal, and prophetic face.
Prayer and Celebration Guides: a path to living the Epiphany
With the desire to accompany communities on this journey, CEAMA has prepared a Prayer Guide and a Celebration Guide, designed to be lived in homes, communities, parishes, and Amazonian territories.
These guides offer a spiritual itinerary that integrates the Word of God, community prayer, signs specific to the Amazon, and concrete gestures of commitment. They are available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, as an expression of the intercultural and universal character of this proposal.
Three axes that illuminate faith and life
The Day of Prayer is structured around three axes that guide reflection, prayer, and action:
- The search for God, which recognizes the many ways in which the Amazonian peoples express their spirituality and their relationship with the mystery of God through creation and community life.
- Solidarity and hospitality, as a concrete expression of the Gospel lived in simple gestures of closeness, care, and service, especially towards the most vulnerable.
- Care for creation, understood as an evangelical responsibility and an urgent call to protect our Common Home, God’s gift to all humanity.
These themes allow the Epiphany to be not only celebrated, but lived as a transformative experience of incarnate faith.
The epiphanic gesture: faith that becomes a journey
As a visible sign of the Day, the guides propose the Amazonian Epiphanic Visit, a concrete gesture that expresses the manifestation of Christ in daily life. Visiting a neighbor, sharing a traditional meal, accompanying a vulnerable family, bringing coffee as a sign of closeness, or sailing down rivers to contemplate creation are simple actions that make the Gospel visible.
These gestures, when shared as a community witness, strengthen the bonds between local Churches and express a faith that becomes encounter, care, and hope.
A Church that prays, walks, and dreams with the Amazon
The Day of Prayer for the Epiphany of the Lord in the Amazon reinforces the Church’s commitment to inculturated evangelization, synodality, and the defense of life. It also seeks to establish itself as an annual tradition in the nine countries of the Amazon region—Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana—strengthening ecclesial coordination and awareness of a shared mission.
Recognizing the Epiphany of the Lord in the Amazon is to affirm that Christ continues to manifest himself today in the peoples who resist, who care, and who dream, and that the Church is called to walk alongside them, with humility, hope, and commitment, in the service of life, justice, and our Common Home.