Forty days out from Christmas we reach the final marker of the Advent to Epiphany cycle. In the traditional calendar, February 2 is the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, the Presentation of the Lord in the newer reckoning.
In the cycle of Our Saviour’s earthly life, Mary went to the Temple according to the law for ritual purification after childbirth. The elderly Simeon recognised Jesus as the Messiah, who would bring new light to the world’s darkness.
At the traditional celebration of this feast, the Holy Church blesses and gives us light-bearing candles, and so we nickname this day Candlemas. Following their blessing, we hold lighted candles in procession, and during both the Gospel and the Canon. We can take these sacramentals home, our final Christmas gifts. Candlemas candles should remind us of our own baptismal or christening candles, ignited and held after that life-brightening moment. “Receive this lighted candle,” we are told in the Traditional Rite, “and keep your baptism above reproach.” The only moment we will be more intimately bound with the Lord will be when we are admitted to the light of the Beatific Vision.
