Candlemass, The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.

Presentation in the Temple by Ludovico Carracci

"When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord." Luke 2:22–24

Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews who obeyed the Law of Moses. Jewish Law prescribed that two ritual acts needed to take place for a firstborn son. First, the mother of a newborn son was ritually unclean for seven days, and then she was to “spend thirty-three more days in a state of blood purity” (Leviticus 12:2–8). During these forty days she was not to “touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled.” For this reason, today’s feast has at times been called the “Purification of Mary.” Second, the father of the firstborn son was to “redeem” the child by making an offering to the priest of five shekels so that the priest would then present the child to the Lord (see Numbers 18:16). Recall that the firstborn male of all the Egyptians, animals and children, was killed during the tenth plague, but the firstborn males of the Israelites were spared. Thus, this offering made for the firstborn son in the Temple was a way of ritually redeeming him in commemoration of protection during that plague. Since Jesus was presented in the Temple for this redemption, today’s feast is now referred to as the “Presentation in the Temple.”

“Candlemass” is also a traditional name given to today’s feast because as early as the fifth century, the custom of celebrating this feast with lighted candles had developed. The lit candles symbolized Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” Lastly, this Feast has been referred to as the “Feast of the Holy Encounter” because God, in the Person of Jesus, encountered Simeon and Anna in the Temple.

Today’s feast is celebrated in our Church forty days after Christmas, marking the day that Mary and Joseph would have brought Jesus into the Temple. Though Mary was pure and free from sin from the moment of her conception, and though the Son of God did not need to be redeemed, Mary and Joseph fulfilled these ritual obligations.

At the heart of this celebration is the encounter of Simeon and Anna with the Christ Child in the Temple. It is in that holy encounter that Jesus’ divinity is manifested by a human prophet for the first time. At His birth, the angels proclaimed His divinity to the shepherds, but in the Temple, Simeon was the first to understand and proclaim Jesus as the Savior of the World. He also prophesied that this salvation would be accomplished by a sword of sorrow that would pierce the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Anna, a prophetess, also came forward and “gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Thus, these ritual acts were also a moment in which Jesus’ divine mission was made manifest to the world.

As we celebrate Mary’s ritual purification and Jesus’ ritual redemption, we should see them as acts in which we are called to participate. First, each of us is unworthy of entering the true Temple of the Lord in Heaven. Yet we are invited to enter that Temple in union with Mary, our Blessed Mother. It was her consent to the will of God that opened the door of God’s grace to us all, enabling us to spiritually become Jesus’ “mother” by allowing Him to be born in our hearts by grace. With her, we are now able to appear before God, purified and holy in His sight.

We must also see Saint Joseph redeeming us as he presented Jesus in the Temple. In offering Christ Jesus to the priest to offer Him to the Father, Saint Joseph also presents all who strive to live in union with Jesus. The hope is that, like Simeon and Anna, others will see God alive within us and experience the Savior of the World through us.

Ponder, today, your soul being the new temple of the Lord, and acknowledge your need to be purified and offered to the Father in Heaven. As Christ continues to enter into the temple of your soul, pray that He will shine forth for others to see so that, like Simeon and Anna, they will encounter our Lord within you.

Prayer: My saving Lord, Your loving parents offered You to Your Father in the Temple in accordance with the Law You revealed to Moses. In that offering, our souls are purified and we are offered to Your Father with You. I thank You for the gift of salvation and pray that my soul will always radiate Your light as You dwell within me. Jesus, I trust in You.

Principle and Foundation

You and I forget that
HUMAN BEINGS ARE CREATED
To praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls.

The other things on the face of the earth are created for the human beings, to help them in the pursuit of the end for which they are created.

From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it.

To attain this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden. Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.

Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created (SE 23).

I think I need to re-evaluated my life and recommit myself differently.  What about you?

Translation by George E. Ganss, ST, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius.

MAGA?

As a Christian my faith demands that I show love and care to God and to people and creation.  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might..." “and your neighbour as yourself.”  The parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’  paints out who is my neighbour.

My neighbours includes the poor, the weak the powerless, the disenfranchised, the marginal, those hated and despised in society.  The person who doesn’t look like me, who thinks differently than me. They are the drug addict, homeless, the uneducated, the person on benefits, the illegal immigrant, people of different religious persuasions, sexual orientation, different understanding of gender, race or culture.  My faith demands and commands not tolerance but love, and not just a little bit but “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might…”

In recent weeks and months media has been awash with hateful rhetoric, sentiments and actions.  I have seen one nation of whom history ought to have taught them better commit ethic cleansing on another.  And what did the political leaders of the developed world do, next to nothing, Token shaking their heads verbally at most.  I have witnessed a dictatorship invade and wage war on another nation in an act of empire building.  Enormous lose of life and pain.  Dreadful.  In the United States the present incumbent of the presidency, has criminalise immigrants, cancelled diversity programs, abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement, Withdrawn from the World Health Organisation, expressed interest in taking over Panama, Greenland and Canada, condemned the International Court of Justice, closed US AID.  He also seems to wish to start a disastrous trade war with his allies using tariffs, which will cause awful poverty, depression and recession.

The phrase often attributed to Edmund Burke comes to mind "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

In the light of what I see and hear in the media, what should I do as a Christian?

Shake my head at the TV?  Write a strongly worded letter to my MP, or the US Ambassador?  Pray for those negatively?  Pray for the paddlers of hate, instigators and perpetrators?

What should I do?

Do nothing?  Then evil triumphs.

I am virtually powerless.

I do have the freedom of where I spend my $$.  

I can inform myself of where my money is going when I spend it and make informed decisions to limit my $$ going to supporters of MAGA, Trump, Elon,  Netanyahu.  I will buy locally grown and manufactured where possible.  I will move away from US based Tech companies, move to Linux and European based Tech.  I prefer French wine, German beer and cars and English Pork Sausages.

Avoid the Gloss

Last week after sharing my personal testament with a relative they suggested I ought to write a book to enable the story of my journey to be shared.  I thought and prayed about this.

I have discerned that my story is not unusual, thanks to the mercy of God it is commonplace, the experience of countless others who have responded to Christ's invitation and allowed him to use them as his hands and feet in this corporal world.  My scribblings would not do justice to any real justice to his work on and through me.

Others would do better to read and follow scripture and the writings of the saints, rather than the interpretation or dilution of the same by people like me.  St. Frances of Assisi wrote in his testament no to let others gloss or dilute his rule.  Be wary of those who gloss The Gospel; Those who lighten it to suit themselves, making it the gospel lite.  Read scripture, read the writings of the saints, Ignatius of Loyal, Patrick and Jose Maria Esciva and Frances.  Read their work, not the gloss of others.

Commentaries can be helpful, but they are not a replacement for the original works and for prayer. Rather than reading this or other blogs, read the bible and the work of the saints in Christ.

Covid 19

We live in uncertain times.  Thousands are sick and dying many are fearful.
Churches are closed, and because we are social distancing denied the comfort of the sacrament.

I have been unable to pray or make sence of it all until I read.

“And why do you worry about .... See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

That would be an eccumenical matter

As we are all called to love everybody, it follows we should respect and love our brothers and sisters who worship in denominations other than our own and indeed people of different faiths.  Further we ought to reach out and welcome them to the community of faith. We must be warm, loving and welcoming drawing others to Christ. 

But, and this is important, we must be faithful to our Traditions, the Scriptures and the teachings of the church.  Where we water down our teachings, where we are compliant and liberal minded in order to be more acceptable towards others we dilute our faith, we do an injustice to Christ.

Today I read an article in the Church Times (the Church of England's newspaper), I was shocked to read how elements of that community are so misguided as to appoint ordained chaplains to build bridges with witches and pagans.  They hold watered down liturgies in forests with no scripture, rather they focus solely on nature, also taking part in pagan rituals.  This is completely misguided when paradoxically sound research has shown that, conservative christian communities who espouse traditional Christian morals and practices are growing where liberal communities are shrinking.

Let us not forget that weak morals and sinful behaviour of some priests and ministers has done great harm to the Church and to Christ.  All of us must be strong and live out our lives as Christ would wish, holding to strong values helps us to do this.  You and I must repent and reject sin.

Stormy Day

The other day as I sat in the church awaiting evening prayers as storm raged outside.  The doors rattled, the windows whistled and the roof clattered. You could imagine the building lifted off the ground and destroyed, like a wood house in the face of a tornado. But the stout stone church had ridden out thousand such storms in its 900 years resolute and immovable.

In our lives we are surrounded by evil, pain and suffering, a host of moral dangers and distractions which rage around us, like the storm.  We ourselves are contaminated and sick. Evil percolates into our very being, often we cannot see it, we are not aware, but it is ever present.

Only Christ protects us.  Only in him is there real calm, real peace.

Like the strong stone walls of the church, providing a safe refuge against the storm, Christ shields us and protects us.

Pray for the grace to allow him shield and protect you from evil.
Pray, sit with him. In a church, on the bus, in the car, on a plane, but especially when you experience evil, Christ will be there to protect you.