Friday, February 2, 2018
Feast of
the Presentation (candlemas) ground
hog day
Sirach,
Chapter 41, Verse 3
Do not fear death’s decree
for you; remember, it embraces those before you and those to come.
Napoleon Hill noted in his
manuscript on a book he never published entitled “Outwitting the devil”[1]
stated that fear of death was one of the prominent methods the devil uses to
control us.
Hill in this imaginary work has the
power to interrogate the devil in which the devil is forced to tell all.
Q
How do you gain control of the minds of people?
A Oh, that is easy: I merely move in and occupy the unused space of
the human brain. I sow the seeds of negative thought in the minds of people so
I can occupy and control the space!
Q You must have many tricks and devices by which you gain and hold
control of the human mind.
A To be sure, I employ tricks and devices to control human thought.
My devices are clever ones too.
Q Go ahead and describe your clever tricks, Your Majesty.
A One of my cleverest devices for mind control is fear. I plant the
seed of fear in the minds of people, and as these seeds germinate and grow,
through use, I control the space they occupy. The six most effective fears are
the fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, and death.
ON
this day the Church solemnly celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the
temple, and the obedience and humility both of Mary and her divine Son, who,
though not subject to the law in regard to purification and presentation, yet
subjected themselves to it. Hence this feast is called the Purification of the
Virgin Mary. In common speech we call it also Candlemas, because on this day
the candles required for the divine service are blessed and carried in
procession.
What
is the design of this custom?
1.
It
is to remind us that Jesus, the light of the world, was offered up to His
heavenly Father, by Mary, in the temple at Jerusalem, where He was called by
Simeon; a light for the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of the people
of Israel.
2.
To
remind us, also, of several important truths, to which the priest refers in the
prayers at the blessings. Thus he prays that as the earthly light dispels the
darkness of night, so Jesus, with the light of His divine doctrine, may clear
away our spiritual blindness and ignorance, and lead us in the way of virtue; that
as the Holy Ghost enlightened Simeon, so He may also enlighten us to
acknowledge Jesus as the true light, to love Him and follow Him, to keep our
hearts from the way of sin, and to guide them in the way of virtue, and to
kindle them with the fire of holy love; finally, that God may preserve, in soul
and body, those who use blessed candles with devotion, may hear their prayers,
and grant them entrance into the kingdom of the eternal and ever-blessed light.
Things to Do[3]
·
Ask your parish priest to bless the
candles that you will be using on your home altar this year.
·
Read Luke 2:22-35, the account of
the presentation including the Canticle of Simeon.
·
Meditate on the constant fiat
of Our Lady of Sorrows, who embraced the will of God even as Simeon predicted
that a sword would pierce her heart.
Since the children share in blood
and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy
the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who
through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.
One
of the grandest feasts of the Middle Ages and one of only three feasts in the
English language verbally denoted by a Mass (Christmas and Michaelmas being the
other two), Candlemas, or the Feast of
the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorates Our Lady's visit
to the Temple in humble obedience to that clause of the Old Law which requires
a woman to be ritually purified forty days after bearing a son. On the
assumption that Our Lord was born on December 25, the date of Mary's visit to
the Temple would be February 2. It was on this day that Simeon the aged
prophet, upon seeing the infant Jesus, proclaimed him to be "a Light to
the gentiles" (Lk. 2.32). Hence the day has always involved a celebration
of light. The most famous of these customs -- and the one from which the feast
takes its common name -- is the blessing
of, and procession with, candles. The day begins with five beautiful blessings of candles that invoke God's
aid in living out allegorically what the light and fire of a candle symbolize:
wisdom and illumination, purification and charity, and so on. A solemn and
penitential procession (in which the
celebrant wears purple) exits and then re-enters the church, at which point the
purple is cast aside for the jubilance of white and a joyful Mass is offered.
One of the more distinctive features of this Mass is that the candles are held lighted in the hand during the
Gospel and from the Sanctus to the Communion. Candles used in the
procession are not the only ones blessed on this day. Many families
traditionally had most or all of their special candles -- for Advent, St.
Lucy's Day, Christmas, or the family shrine -- blessed on this day.
The
Feast's association with light also made it a great day for predicting the
weather. According to an old legend, if the sun shines bright for the better
part of the day, it means forty more days of winter. Subsequently this quaint
superstition became Groundhog Day. Finally,
Candlemas is the absolute last day for ending
the Christmas season. Any Christmas items that had not been taken down on
Epiphany or its Octave were now carefully put away.
In 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II instituted a day of prayer
for women and men in consecrated life. This celebration is attached to the
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. This Feast is also
known as Candlemas Day; the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ
who is the light of the world. So too, those in consecrated life are called to
reflect the light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. The celebration of World Day
for Consecrated Life is transferred to the following Sunday in order to
highlight the gift of consecrated persons for the whole Church.
I ask Christ if he has
seen the movie, “Ground Hog day”. He laughs and says playfully, “No, but I
inspired it”. I continue, well today is Ground Hog day and tradition say that
if the ground hog sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. Christ asks, “So what happens in the movie?”
I state it is a story of a cranky young man who keeps magically repeating his
ground hog day until he has a life changing attitude toward people and life in
general. Christ says that is the reason for His coming to these coffee clutch’s
with me and that He wants to give me a whole new view of life. This is what I
referred to when I told Nicodemus that a person must be born again to enter the
kingdom. That is you must awaken or give birth to the Spirit of the Father that
is in you-the spirit of love and you must also live in the truth. Your action
and behavior must be true to the spirit the Father reveals to you.
Since the children share in blood
and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy
the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who
through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.
Daily
Devotions
·
Please pray for me and this ministry
Comments
Post a Comment