February 2nd - Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas Day)

Simeon the Just
Andre Durand

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace,

your word has been fulfilled:

My own eyes have seen the salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel

Febuary 2nd is the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, forty days after his birth when Mary and Joseph went up to Jerusalem to ransom him according to the Law of Moses. The feast used to be known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is more often known as Candlemas Day as tradition holds that all the candles to be used in the church for the coming year are blessed on this day.

You can read up on the history of the feast and other reflections on previous blog posts here and here.

Over at Blue Eyed Ennis, Phil has a wonderful round up of her own previous reflections on this feast and also some excellent links as well.

The feast day is also set aside as the Day for Consecrated Life celebrating all the men and women who faithfully live out their vowed lives consecrated to the Lord. Given the bad press that Irish religious have had over the last twenty years, perhaps days like this are a reminder to us how much we in Ireland owe to the many silent and now increasingly forgotten contributors who ran our hospitals, schools and social institutions where the State was unable or unwilling to do the same.

A documentary about three Irish Missionaries will be screened on RTE at 10.15pm on Thursday, 31st January. Film-maker Ruan Magan travels to some of the world's remotest regions to meet three missionaries who carry out their duties in some of the toughest circumstances on the planet. John Glynn, who carries out his work for We Care Foundation in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Pat Murray, a Loreto sister who was employed in education in Ireland and is now in charge of Solidarity with South Sudan, and Pat Brennan, a Divine Word Missionary living in the Amazonian rain forest in Brazil, all tell their stories of endurance and faith in the face of extreme adversity