PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

'An old man was carrying a Child; but the Child
was the old man's Lord'.  Today's Alleluia

Candlemas. This day is the official end of the Christmas season. The candles that are blessed and carried today are to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world. The name "Candlemas Day" refers to the rite of blessing the candles to be used by the faithful, which is observed with proper solemnity by the Church. In regard to these blessed candles, there are three special periods of life when the Church places those candles, enriched by her benediction, in the hands of her children, and these are: First, at their entrance into this world--when they receive the sacrament of Baptism; secondly, when, for the first time, they approach the altar, and from the hands of God's minister receive the Body and Blood of Christ; and, thirdly, when, at the close of life, the soul is about to go forth and meet the Judge of the living and the dead.


We hear Jesus telling to love our neighbor in the Epistle. Also, we see Him calming the sea after the Apostles got afraid of it. He tests them; just like He does to us every day. Life is a test. It just depends how we respond that matters.

This is also the day when Our Blessed Mother goes to the Purification ceremony.


Although she didn't need purification of her soul (since she is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and 'full of grace'), she goes to the temple for it anyway, so as to not cause scandal. She is carrying the Redeemer of the world in her arms through the crowds, and no one but Simeon and Anna seem to be aware of it. They are the last of the Old Testament to recognize Him as The One (except when John the Baptist points to Him).

The Law of this testament commanded that a woman who had given birth to a son should not approach the Tabernacle for the term of forty days; after which time she was to offer up a lamb as a holocaust, and a turtle dove or a partridge as a sin-offering. But if she were poor, and could not provide a lamb, she was to offer in its stead a second turtle dove or another partridge. The poor offer these meager gifts. Mary is the richest person in the world! She has the Faith of God within her, and she wishes to share it with us.

She is the Tabernacle, the Ark, the Vessel, etc., of God Himself, and she is offering the Lamb of God Himself to the Father as a testament to the world. As our beloved Abbot Gueranger says: '...these laws had been made were espoused to men; Mary was the chaste Spouse of the Holy Ghost, a Virgin in conceiving and a Virgin in giving birth to her Son; her purity had ever been spotless as that of the Angels; but it received an incalculable increase by her carrying the God of all sanctity in her womb, and bringing Him into this world. Moreover, when she reflected upon her Child being the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all things, how could she suppose that he was to be submitted to the humiliation of being ransomed as a slave, whose life and person are not his own? And yet, the Holy Spirit revealed to Mary that she must comply with both these laws...'

I guess we are told by this to obey the laws, but know that we belong to God, and that our offerings are to Him, since being with Him is our ultimate goal. I'd like to end with something from the past, which we don't hear anymore. It is a sequence written by Adam of Saint-Victor in the Middle Ages.


Let us adorn the temple of our souls, and with new hearts bring back again that old man's joy, whose long-cherished wish is granted, as his arms press Jesus to his breast.

This Child is the Standard of the people, filling the Temple with light, our choirs with praise, and our hearts with jubilee. This day is He presented in the Temple, and will another day, when grown to manhood, be offered on the Cross, the offering for sin.

On one side Jesus, on the other Mary; here the sweet Infant, and there the sweet Mother; oh! what a glad sight! But let us devoutly carry within us the work of Light which our lighted tapers symbolize.

The Father's Word is the light; His virginal flesh is the wax; our lighted taper is Christ Himself, who enlightens our hearts with that wisdom which rescues the sinner from the error of his way, and sets him on virtue's path.

He that holds Jesus by love, carries, as our Feast would have him do, the Candle blest with light. So did Simeon love the Father's Word, and fondly carry in his arms the Mother's Babe.

Be glad, O Mother of thy God! simple, pure, unwrinkled, spotless Mother! O Maiden! chosen by the God of thy love, and loved by the God of thy choice.

All beauty is clouded, deformed, and displeasing to him that has seen thine. All sweetness seems bitter, sour or insipid, to the soul that has tasted of thine.

All fragrance, put near thine, grows faint or foul; all other love must cease, or be put but an afterthought, in hearts that feed on thine.

Beautiful Star of the sea! Thou beautiful honour of all mothers! O true Mother of Truth! O path of holy living! O remedy of the world's ills! Source of the fount of that Wine of Life, for which all men should thirst, and whose strength-giving chalice is sweet to the healthy and the sick, and restores the drooping heart!

O Fount sealed up in holiness! pour out on us thy streams! O Fount of inner gardens! water with rivulet's wave our parched and stony hearts!

Overflowing Fount! flow out on us, and wash our hearts' defilements. O Fount sublime, limpid above our thoughts, cleanse thy servants' hearts from an unclean world. Amen.


This great solemnity, which closes the holy season of Christmas, has been established in commemoration of the two last mysteries of our Savior's Birth and Infancy. The most pure and beautiful Virgin, in obedience to the law, presented the child Jesus in the temple, offering a couple of turtle-doves for her purification, and five sicles as a ransom for her first-born, Jesus. On this day is fulfilled the prophecy of Aggeus concerning the Messiah, Agg. ii. 8: "Yet one little while . . . and I will move all nations: and the Desired of all nations shall came, and I will fill this house with glory." This day St. Simeon and holy Anna, full of the Holy Ghost, recognize our Lord and welcome Him into the temple, as the Salvation, the Light, and the Peace of the world.  (Anna is the one who taught Mary in the Temple for all those years.)

Wax candles are solemnly blessed on this day, in commemoration of our Lord, whom they represent as the Light of the world: "Three things," says St. Anscliu of Canterbury, "may be considered in the blest candle: the wax, which is the production of the virginal bee, is the Flesh of our Lord; the wick, which is within, is His Soul; the flame, which burns on the top, is His Divinity." These blest candles are to be carried in procession, in remembrance of that wondrous procession made in the temple by our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Simeon, and holy Anna. They should also be kept, to be used by the faithful either on land or sea, and especially to be lit near the bed of a dying Christian, as a symbol of the immortality merited for us by Christ, and as a pledge of the protection of our Lady.

Let us pray for the 'eyes of Faith' that Simeon and Anna in the temple had. That we may see, Lord.

Let us also strive to imitate the humility of the ever-blessed Mother of God, remembering that humility is the path which leads to lasting peace and brings us closer to God, who gives His grace to the humble.


(And, this is yet another day which society has deliberately overlooked.  Now, it is called 'Groundhog Day'.  So, not only are ALL days concerning our Lord reduced to something secular and un-religious, but they have reduced one of the days concerning Our Lady to something almost comical.  But, it is NOT a laughing matter, if you ask me.  But, on the other hand, maybe if Pelosi sees her shadow we wouldn't have to see her for awhile)


I would like to add this, which is from Rorate-Caeli, and because I like it:

The feast of Candlemas is a rich tradition in the Church; it is a day that we celebrate many events, including the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, and the Nunc Dimittis of Simeon. In reflecting on this beautiful feast day, one common theme that we find present is obedience. Obedience is the proper response of an individual to God’s invitation and call; it is the fitting response to God’s commandments and law. We too should strive in obedience to follow the commandments of God, just as we find in the Holy Family and the aged Simeon.

The first example of obedience is Mary who, even though she was conceived without original sin, went to be purified in the Temple in accordance with the Mosaic Law. As we read, “And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’)” (Luke 2:22-23, RSV-CE).

I shall return to the Presentation of Christ later. For now, the reference to purification comes from Leviticus 12:2-8, which gives the laws for purification after a woman has given birth to a child. As St. Paul explains to the Galatians, we know that these laws were given to Israel because of the nation’s sinfulness: “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19). In other words, God gave to the Israelites the laws about food, purification, and sacrifice because of their sinful behavior; in an attempt to bring them back into His covenant, He gave them more ritual laws to follow, to separate them from the other nations.

What is remarkable is the Blessed Mother’s obedience: in a certain way, she was not bound by these laws because of her lack of sin. Nevertheless, because she, like the individual in Psalm 1, who “meditates upon the law day and night” (Psalm 1:2), is faithful to God’s laws, submits herself to them out of obedience, and comes to the Temple for her purification. What a sublime example for those of us who live in the age of grace: we, who are fettered by the chains of sin, should strive to be obedient to God’s commands and to repent for our sins as we attempt, through His grace, to remain ever more faithful to His laws.

Furthermore, we find obedience in the Holy Family in bringing Christ to be presented in the Temple. This presentation is also rooted in the Old Covenant; as cited above, Luke quotes from Exodus 13:2, which states, “Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” Further, we read, “You shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb” (Exodus 13:12). Thus, we see that the Holy Family is following the prescriptions of the Old Law: Jesus Christ, as Mary’s first-born Son (Luke 2:7), is brought to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord.

This should strike us as somewhat odd and ironic. Jesus is the Lord; He is God. Should that not exempt Him from the laws, which He Himself established? How can the Lord be presented to the Lord? First, we should note the Holy Family’s obedience to the Torah: Mary and Joseph are righteous Jews (Matthew 1:19), and so they desire to obey all the precepts of the Law. Even though one might think that they, above all people, should be exempt from bringing Jesus to be presented (since he is the Son of God), they still follow the precepts of the Law and bring him to the Temple. Moreover, this presentation is a further sign of Jesus’s divinity. As we read in Psalm 110:2, “The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.’” This verse is often interpreted to reveal the divinity of Christ: Christ the Lord is the only one who can speak to His Lord.

Similarly, only the Lord can be offered to His Lord in the Temple. Christ’s whole life was an act of obedience to the Father. As He prays in His high priestly prayer, “‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him….I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made” (John 17:1-2, 4-5). Christ accomplished the will of the Father on earth; he glorified the Father through His work, and now He asks to be glorified through His death, which is also an act of obedience.

Finally, on this feast day, we celebrate the obedience of the aged Simeon, who is described as a “righteous and devout” man, “looking for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). Furthermore, “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Simeon comes to the Temple by the prompting of the Holy Spirit when Mary and Joseph bring Christ to be presented, and upon seeing them, he proclaims his beautiful and profound Nunc Dimittis prayer: “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32). Simeon is finally rewarded for his obedience to God, in remaining devout and faithful, trusting in his promises. He has seen his salvation, and he can now pass into the next life peacefully. The Nunc Dimittis has traditionally become the Church’s prayer during Compline: we too are called to be like Simeon, obediently waiting for our Lord and anticipating our salvation.

Holy Mother Church gives us the opportunity to reflect on these holy individuals as examples of obedience to God. Indeed, even Jesus Christ, our Lord, is revealed as an example of obedience to His Father in Heaven. We too, who are living in the New Covenant, are called to give our obedience to God through obeying His commands, following the teachings of the Church, and frequenting His sacraments. These are the means given to us to receive His grace; just as Mary and Joseph were righteous before God through following the Old Covenant, which Christ had come to fulfill, so too are we justified before God through His grace by being obedient to the means of salvation He has given to us in His Church. Let us then pause on this beautiful feast day, especially as we approach the season of Lent, and ask for the grace to increase our obedience to the Father, through the “obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26).

Keep up with the talented work, Miss Arntz. And, thank you for parts of this post.