The Presentation of The Lord

Dear Parishioners,

    This Sunday is the “Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.”  The Feast only falls on Sunday once every seven years so we may not be familiar with this celebration. I always look at this feast as the end of Christmas Season.  Why?  Because this is the day, we remember Jesus being presented in the Temple. 

    According to Jewish law a first-born son belonged to the Lord. The parents were supposed to symbolically buy him back 40 days after birth.  The way to do that was to make a sacrifice of two doves or pigeons.  In the Gospel of Luke, we have the story.  Matthew does not have the story because the Holy Family had fled into Egypt according to that Gospel account.  This is a reminder that the infancy narratives have conflicting stories.  This happened because accounts were written down by different people, in different places, at different times.

The ideal way to start the liturgy this Sunday is to gather outside the church and process in like we do on Palm Sunday.  Unfortunately, that would be a little frosty this time of year.  Maybe if we build a gathering space, we might be able to do that someday.

Candles are blessed at the start of Mass.  These candles are used throughout the year for our liturgies; thus we have different shapes and sizes.  We light candles and then process in.  The whole exercise is to reminds us, one more time that, Jesus is the light for the world who dispels the darkness of sin, ignorance and death.

As we keep this feast, we once again rejoice in the mystery of the Incarnation.  We cannot be reminded often enough that Jesus came to show us the way to live in this world and the joy that will come to us when we die and go to be with God for all eternity.

Blessings,

Fr. Mark

P.S. Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Blaise Bishop and Martyr.  We will bless throats at the 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. Mass.

P.P.S. Fr. Matthews aunt died a few days ago. He will be gone this week. Please pray for Father and his family.