Forty days after Christmas the Church recalls the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem. Today's feast used to mark the end of the Christmas Season, and it used to be called The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But by ancient custom this is the day when the candles that are to be used in the church over the next year are blest, and that is exactly what we did at St. Clare's.
The usual morning congregation bearing lighted candles gathered in the newly decorated side-chapel where the candle stiock had been arranged. Here we were reminded of the bith of Christ and of his entry into the Jerusalem Temple. The candles were blessed and then the cllergy and congregation processed into church singing a hymn, ready for the celebration of the Mass of the Feast.
Our tradition of blessing candles springs out of the Gospel for the day. Here we meet that holy and upright man, Simeon who takes the child Jesus into his arms and calls him the light to enlighten all peoples hence the custom of blessing light (candles) on this day. Our prayer at Mass was that sharing the light of Christ, we would become lights to our world.