The blessing and reception of candles, followed by High Mass for the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady (Candlemas Day) will take place at 7:30 pm on Monday 2 February. Any candles you would like Father to bless should be brought before the Mass that day and placed at the table near the altar rail.

Exactly 40 days after Christmas we commemorate Mary’s obedience to the Mosaic law when she submitted herself to the Old Testament Law of Purification, as commanded in Leviticus 12:2-8. Catholic women imitate this rite when they ask for the Churching of Women blessing before their child’s baptism. The Blessed Virgin, of course, did not need this purification, but she submitted herself to it in obedience to the Law. Our Lady and Saint Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple for His ‘redemption’. This ‘redeeming of the firstborn’, known as pidyon ha-ben in Hebrew, is why this day is also known as the Feast of the Presentation. For the Jews, firstborn meant ‘the male child that opens the womb’, not the first of a series of children born. Hence, protestant objections to Mary’s perpetual virginity based on references to Jesus as ‘firstborn’ are totally without foundation. Note also that the Holy Family must have been poor, as they offered a sacrifice of turtledoves rather than that of a lamb, a substitution which the Law permitted if one was poor.

February 2nd is often called the ‘Feast of Light’ (Lichtmess in German) or Feast of the Candles (Candelaria in Spanish, or La Fête de la Chandeleur in French). This is in reference to the prophecy of holy Simeon when the Holy Family first entered the temple. Simeon, the ‘just and devout’ man of Jerusalem, was inspired by the Holy Ghost to know that he would live to see the ‘consolation of Jerusalem’. Before he gave the prophecy that a sword of sorrow would pierce the heart of Our Lady, he referred to her Infant Son as the Light for the revelation of the Gentiles. This is why candles play an important role before and during the Mass, and why this day is often referred to in English as Candlemas.

[The image above shows the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the other name of this feast, painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in 1342. It is currently in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Public domain image.]