Thought for the Week

Most seasons require some length of time. Lent is 40 days, Epiphany can be several weeks while Easter is seven weeks. Christmas is only 12 days, but it hasn’t always been so. In Tudor times Christmas could last till Candlemas on February 2.

‘My true love’ would be broke by now if that lover had to provide a present for those 40 days!

Candlemas is the breakwater between the seasons, where we can reflect upon the early life of Jesus before our attention splits towards Jesus’ ministry and onwards to the crucifixion.

It is the mark between crib and cross and also marks the presentation of Jesus in the temple.

A feast day which combines the conclusion of the rites of purification of Mary after child birth and the circumcision of the new born Jesus.

Dedicating a first born son to God in the temple could sometimes mean actually leaving that child with the temple staff, like the prophet Samuel.

Jesus talks about the temple being his father’s house and one might wonder if he too had not spent much of his childhood there.

His childhood years being largely lost to history allows us to suggest various possibilities, however with the beginning of change from winter to spring; the change from Christmas and Epiphany to Lent and Easter, the split between Crib and Cross, allows us to think deeply into our hearts and prepare a place there as the temple in which Jesus may be given a home as his abode, place where that divine light may not only abide but may shine.

Let us purify our hearts and dedicate them, to become enlightened with God’s Spirit indwelling.