February, dedicated to the Passion - The Purification
Feb 18, 2019 16:28:02 GMT
Post by Hildegard on Feb 18, 2019 16:28:02 GMT
J.M.J.
The month of February is dedicated to the Passion of Christ. Although Ash Wednesday is not until March 6 this year, the Season of Septuagesima starts this month on Sunday, February 17, which is a prelude to Lent.
The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary
>From “The Saint Andrew Daily Missal” (1937)
Mothers were to offer a lamb, or if their means did not allow, “two doves or two young pigeons”.
The Blessed Virgin took with her to Jerusalem the infant Jesus, and the Candlemas procession recalls the journey of Mary and Joseph ascending to the temple to present “the Angel of the Covenant” (Epistle, Introit) as Malachy had prophesied.
“The wax of the candles signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant,”
says St. Anselm, “the wick figures His soul and the flame His divinity.”
The Purification to which the mother of the Saviour was not obliged to conform, as her motherhood was beyond ordinary laws, is not placed in the foreground by the liturgy and the Presentation of Jesus is the principal object of this feast.
If this solemnity is considered as belonging to the Season of Christmas, Jesus will be seen manifested by Simeon as the God who “Shall illumine the Gentiles with His light and shall be the glory of the people of Israel” (Gospel); and if, as belonging to the Season after Epiphany, we shall adore Jesus in the accomplishment of this prophecy, either at the marriage feast at Cana, where He commences to “manifest His glory” (Gospel of second Sunday), or in the midst of the multitude, when He spreads the light of His doctrine (Gospel of the fifth and sixth Sundays).
We may read the fourth prayer of the blessing of candles in order to understand the symbolism of the lamp of the sanctuary and candles blessed on this day, and to know the right use to be made of them by the bed of the dying, during storms and in the perils to which may be exposed “our bodies and souls on land and on the waters” (First prayer of the blessing of candles).
If the feast of the Purification falls on a privileged Sunday, it is transferred to the following day; nevertheless the blessing of the candles takes place before the Sunday Mass.
Every parish priest celebrates Mass for the people of his parish.
The month of February is dedicated to the Passion of Christ. Although Ash Wednesday is not until March 6 this year, the Season of Septuagesima starts this month on Sunday, February 17, which is a prelude to Lent.
The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary
>From “The Saint Andrew Daily Missal” (1937)
With the feast of the Purification ends the Sanctoral Cycle of the Season after Epiphany. It is one of the oldest feasts of our Lady and in Rome in the seventh century it ranked after the Assumption. The feast is kept on February 2, because Mary, wishing to obey the Mosaic law, had to go to Jerusalem forty days after the birth of Jesus (December 25th, February 2nd) to offer the prescribed sacrifice.
The Blessed Virgin took with her to Jerusalem the infant Jesus, and the Candlemas procession recalls the journey of Mary and Joseph ascending to the temple to present “the Angel of the Covenant” (Epistle, Introit) as Malachy had prophesied.
“The wax of the candles signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant,”
says St. Anselm, “the wick figures His soul and the flame His divinity.”
The Purification to which the mother of the Saviour was not obliged to conform, as her motherhood was beyond ordinary laws, is not placed in the foreground by the liturgy and the Presentation of Jesus is the principal object of this feast.
If this solemnity is considered as belonging to the Season of Christmas, Jesus will be seen manifested by Simeon as the God who “Shall illumine the Gentiles with His light and shall be the glory of the people of Israel” (Gospel); and if, as belonging to the Season after Epiphany, we shall adore Jesus in the accomplishment of this prophecy, either at the marriage feast at Cana, where He commences to “manifest His glory” (Gospel of second Sunday), or in the midst of the multitude, when He spreads the light of His doctrine (Gospel of the fifth and sixth Sundays).
We may read the fourth prayer of the blessing of candles in order to understand the symbolism of the lamp of the sanctuary and candles blessed on this day, and to know the right use to be made of them by the bed of the dying, during storms and in the perils to which may be exposed “our bodies and souls on land and on the waters” (First prayer of the blessing of candles).
If the feast of the Purification falls on a privileged Sunday, it is transferred to the following day; nevertheless the blessing of the candles takes place before the Sunday Mass.
Every parish priest celebrates Mass for the people of his parish.