It was a beautiful morning for Candelmas today. We got up before dawn to make it to the early mass and procession in the neighborhood around the church. The tiny smoke trails wafting up from the children's candles in front of the colored glass windows as the sun poured in nearly took my breath away.
This is an ancient celebration of the Church we repeat in our day. Alban Butler tells us:
The procession with lighted tapers on this day is mentioned by pope Gelasius I., also by St. Ildefonsus, St. Eligius,St. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, &c., in their sermons on this festival. St. Bernard says,
"This holy procession was first made by the virgin mother, St. Joseph, holy Simeon, and Anne, to be afterwards performed in all places and by every nation, with the exultation of the whole earth, to honor this mystery."
In his second sermon on this feast he describes it thus: "They walk two and two, holding in their hands candles lighted, not from common fire, but from that which had been first blessed in the church by the priests, and singing in the ways of the Lord, because great is his glory."
He shows that the concurrence of many in the procession and prayer is a symbol of our union and charity, and renders our praises the more honorable and acceptable to God.
We walk while we sing to God, to denote that to stand still in the paths of virtue is to go back.
The lights we bear in our hands represent the divine fire of love with which our hearts ought to be inflamed, and which we are to offer to God without any mixture of strange fire, the fire of concupiscence, envy, ambition, or the love of creatures.
We also hold these lights in our hands to honor Christ, and to acknowledge him as the true light, whom they represent under this character, and who is called by holy Simeon in this mystery, a light for the enlightening of the Gentiles; for he came to dispel our spiritual darkness.
The candles likewise express that by faith his light shines in our souls: as also that we are to prepare his way by good works, by which we are to be a light to men."
"O Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light, Who enlightens every man that cometh into this world, pour forth Thy blessing upon these waxen candles and sanctify them wit the light of Thy grace; and be pleased to grant that, as these lights, kindled with visible fire, dispel the darkness of night, so our hearts, being enlighten with invisible fire, even the effulgence of the Holy Spirit, may be delivered from the blindness of every vice, that with the eye of the mind purified may be able to discern those things which are pleasing to Thee and useful for our salvation; whereby after the dark trials of this world, we may be found worthy to enter into that light that is never obscured."
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