CANDLEMAS; 2nd FEBRUARY
CANDLEMAS; 2nd FEBRUARY Hans Memling, "The Presentation in the Temple", (1470), Prado, Madrid. 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 Sim...