This Sunday and Monday we will celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, followed by the feast of Saint Blaise.
The Presentation of the Lord, also called Candlemas and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, brings a gentle end to the Christmas festivities and begins to turn our minds toward the season of Lent. True, Ash Wednesday is still a month away, but it is on February 2nd that we begin to think of the Passion of Christ. As Our Lady and Saint Joseph enter the Temple with two turtledoves to offer as the customary sacrifice to God, they carried with them the Lamb of God, Whose Sacrifice on Calvary the Liturgy will again make present to us in about two months. The Light of the World came, then, to the Temple, and, for the ancient Jews, this was very significant for it was the return of God to His Temple after the Glory Cloud through which He had made Himself present on earth had ascended just before the original Temple's destruction some hundreds of years earlier.
Interestingly, on the day following the Feast of the Presentation, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Blaise on which day it is traditional for priests to bless the throats of the faithful after the daily Mass, using blessed candles made into a cross by crossing them over each other. For it is by the power of the Cross that we are freed from all ills.
