Candlemas

Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Presentation in the Temple

Giovanni do Paolo c.1403-1482

Painted by the Sienese artist c.1435

Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

Image: Wikimedia

There is more about the painting on the Metropolitan Museum website at Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia) | The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Candlemas marks the end of Christmastide, and also looks forward to Lent and Easter in its themes and in its liturgy. As I pointed out in 2012 in a post this has produced an elegant fusion of theology and liturgy and that was well articulated by St John Henry Newmanin his hymn for the feast which I included is reproduced below. The entire blog post can be seen at Newman on Candlemas 

Candlemas

The Angel-lights of Christmas morn,
Which shot across the sky,
Away they pass at Candlemas,
They sparkle and they die.

Comfort of earth is brief at best,
Although it be divine;
Like funeral lights for Christmas gone
Old Simeon’s tapers shine.

And then for eight long weeks and more,
We wait in twilight grey,
Till the high candle sheds a beam
On Holy Saturday.

We wait along the penance-tide
Of solemn fast and prayer;
While song is hush’d, and lights grow dim
In the sin-laden air.

And while the sword in Mary’s soul
Is driven home, we hide
In our own hearts, and count the wounds
Of passion and of pride.

And still, though Candlemas be spent
And Alleluias o’er,
Mary is music in our need,
And Jesus light in store.

St John Henry Newman, The Oratory,1849

This year is the 175th anniversary of the foundation by St John Henry of the Oratory in England on this day in 1848. The choice was, and is, significant. Not only is today a feast day of Our Lord and Our Lady but it had especial significance for Newman. When he was in Rome in 1846-8 he sought a model for community life for himself and his fellow converts. He found it in the Oratory of St Philip Neri, which reminded him of life as a Fellow in Oriel, “The House of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford commonly called Oriel College”, a college whose annual feast is celebrated on Candlemas. Hence no doubt his choice of this feast to establish the Oratory in England.