CANDLEMAS; 2nd FEBRUARY
CANDLEMAS; 2nd FEBRUARY
The Missal provides as to today’s feast day, which is a second class feast day of Our Lord (the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple):
The Feast of Candlemas, which derives its origins from the local observance of Jerusalem, marks the end of the feasts included in the Christmas cycle of the Liturgy. It is perhaps the most ancient festival of Our Lady. It commemorates not only the obedience of the Blessed Virgin to the Mosaic Law in going to Jerusalem 40 days after the birth of her Child and making the accustomed offerings, but also the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the meeting of the Infant Jesus with the old man Simeon-the Occursus Domini, as the feast was anciently termed. This is the principle theme of the liturgy on this day: Jesus is taken to the Temple ‘to present Him to the Lord’. So the Lord comes to His Temple and is met by the aged Simeon with joy and recognition.
Preceding the Mass is the blessing of candles and a solemn procession with the lighted candles, followed by the Mass of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is integral to the presentation of Our Lord in the Temple.
The procession on this day is one of the most picturesque features of the western Liturgy. The blessing and distribution of candles, to be carried lighted in procession, precedes the Mass today- a symbolic presentation of the truth proclaimed in the Canticle of Simeon: Our Lord is ‘the light for the revelation of the Gentiles’. The lit candles, symbolic of Jesus presence in the world as a light to all of us, are held during the Gospel and again, from the Sanctus until Communion.
THE PURIFICATION OF OUR LADY
The Mass of the Purification celebrates the humility and obedience of Our Lady who, though free from sin and requiring no purification, nevertheless subjected herself to the Mosaic Law requirement by her obedience and humility. In the Levitical Law, the ancient Jewish law, women for forty days after the birth of a boy, and for eighty days after the birth of a girl, were regarded as unclean and required to stay away from the Temple. Admittance to the Temple, at the end of the purification period, required the presentation of a propitiatory sacrifice – a lamb as a holocaust, or for the poor, a dove. The woman was to be pronounced pure by the prayers of the priest.
THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN
The Catholic Custom:
This law of purification does not apply to Catholic women, because the Church has abandoned many of the Jewish ceremonies but the Church, nevertheless, allows for women to abstain from the church for 6 weeks, or as long as necessary after the birth of a child, in order to care for their health and the health of the child. The husband should, in this time, be mindful of the requirements of the mother for the necessary quiet and attendance which nature requires after childbirth.
After the time of absence, the Church desires for the mother to follow Our Lady’s example and obtain the blessing of the priest, to thank God for her delivery, to offer the child to God, praying with the priest for the grace to bring the child up in sanctity and piety. The ceremony is a thanksgiving and is performed in all circumstances surrounding childbirth, including those times when the child is still-born or when it has died unbaptised. The Churching of Women, an ancient ceremony for the welcoming of the new mother, is a very beautiful custom, recognising as it does, the natural rhythms of life and the strength of the community as the family of Christ.
Images of Churching from https://www.showerofrosesblog.com/2017/07/churching-of-women.html, a blog by a Catholic mother, who posted this beautiful prayer:
Offering of a Child to God after Baptism
(from my Mother Love prayerbook)
Behold, Heavenly Father, this precious gift of Thy goodness, my dearly beloved child, whom even before its birth I already offered to Thee! By holy baptism, Thou hast raised it to the state of grace, hast regenerated it, and made it Thine own child. I give and dedicate it anew to Thee. With all my heart, I devote it to Thy service, Thy love, and Thy good pleasure. Would that I could offer and consecrate it to Thee with a heart as sincere, as pious, and devout as was that of Elizabeth when she offered St. John to Thee, as was that of Anne when she consecrated to Thee her immaculate child, as was that of Mary when she sacrificed to Thee her only, her Divine Son!
Take, O Father of Jesus Christ, this child for Thine own! Possess it as Thy own property. Keep it safe under Thy constant protection from every grievous sin, and grant that it may never fall from the state of grace in which Thou hast placed it. May it carry the snowy garment of baptismal innocence, adorned with which it now lies before me, to Thy Judgement-seat, where it will have to render an account of its earthly pilgrimage.
Gladly do I accept all the care and trouble which its support, its protection, and its education will bring along. All that Thou wilt require of me on its account, I shall willingly bear, through love of Thee and of it. Grant me only Thy grace, for without that I can do nothing toward advancing its true welfare. Stand ever at our side with Thy paternal love, that I may gain for myself the reward of a good mother, and that this Thy beloved child, may, like its Divine Model, increase in wisdom and in grace, as in years, before Thee and all good men! Amen.
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