A service for Candlemas devised by a Church of England and Methodist Church local ecumenical partnership in Bedfordshire is available here.

Prayers for Candlemas are also available here.

by Rev Paul Booth

CANDLEMAS is celebrated on 2nd February, forty days after the feast of Christmas.

LIGHT has always been a significant image of Christian spirituality. From the dawn of creation to the sunset of time the Bible rejoices in light. ‘Let there be light’ are the first recorded words of God (Genesis 1:3), and in the very last chapter of the New Testament, Jesus reveals himself to be ‘the bright Morning Star’ (Revelation 22:16).

LIGHT illuminates, clarifies, brightens, reveals. It was in these terms that Simeon recognized the Christ-child when Joseph and Mary travelled to Jerusalem to present their first male child in the Temple, as was the custom, after forty days of parental purification following childbirth. "Now I have seen for myself, you can let me go in peace, I can die a satisfied man! It’s out in the open now for all to see: a God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and a glorifying light for us Jews" (Luke 2:29-32, adapted from ‘The Message’).

AND so Candlemas was born! Or was it? Like many Christian festivals, Candlemas draws some of its elements from Paganism where it was an ancient festival of light which marked the mid-point of winter, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Snowdrops, those beautiful delicate heralds of new life out of hardened ground, are sometimes known as ‘Candlemas Bells’. Superstitions abound, one being that:
"If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won’t be back again."

ON Candlemas Day some people light candles to scare away evil spirits on the dark winter nights. Others light candles to celebrate the light of Christ made known on that important day of presentation when Anna, a faithful old lady who had made the house of God her second home, quietly honoured the presence of God in this baby brought that day, and the Nunc Dimittis was first uttered by Simeon; his prayer of response to God for the promised Messiah he now realised was before his very eyes – an enlightening presence.

IN Christian spirituality, Candlemas commemorates the ritual purification of Mary, forty days after the birth of Jesus, and her and Joseph’s presentation with a sacrifice ‘in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons’ (Luke 2:24 cf Leviticus 12:8). A cleansing light.

CANDLEMAS marks the end of the Christmas season, which more often ends exceptionally early on Boxing Day for the secular world these days, (their ‘Christmas season’ being mainly ‘pre-Christmas’ started weeks before, in Advent), and after the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ for most others, who are glad to ‘clear the decks’, and get back to some sort of normality! This coincides with the feast of Epiphany on 6th January, which recalls the wise men visiting Jesus, having followed the star, marking the end of the Christmas season in many churches. Some churches do keep their Christmas decorations, or at least their crib scene, intact until Candlemas, which gives Christmas the forty days of a major Christian festival along with Advent, Lent and Easter. Six weeks not so much of revelry, but of contemplation and application. So what can Candlemas help us contemplate and apply?

CANDLEMAS is really about recognition, revelation, and the renewal of hope.

RECOGNITION
IN our very material, tangible culture, where what is seen masks the deeper truth of what is unseen, how do we train ourselves to recognise the presence of holiness? How do we perceive moments of immense, even momentous significance in the midst of ordinariness? There were no flashing arrows for Anna or Simeon screaming out, ‘This is it!’ Theirs were hearts, and eyes, prepared by grace of patient waiting. Lives of anticipated expectancy that God would deliver enabled the moment to be recognised, grasped and savoured. The inner soul is the seed bed where spiritual truth is nurtured. Eyes see, but the soul recognises God. Our eyes are but exteroceptors, receiving information which our brain assimilates factually, but our soul embraces spiritually.

SIMEON recognised something special in Jesus and he knew that he had indeed witnessed the Lord’s Christ, and that young or old he could depart in peace, for the eyes of faith had seen God’s salvation; perhaps not the salvation he was expecting, the vindication of a particular people, but something bigger and better, the salvation which God had prepared before the face of all people.

REVELATION
BUT Simeon adds some disturbing words to his joyful song of recognition (Luke 2:33-35). This salvation had a dark side. Not everyone will take kindly to Jesus; there will be a falling as well as a rising of many in Israel. Jesus will be spoken against; the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. No one will escape this penetrating, heart-searching event, not even Mary the mother of Jesus.
WE’RE not too comfortable with that kind of straight talking! We want Jesus to be light and fluffy; no talk of difficulty or crisis or falling – we’ve enough of that in our everyday life, and we want to be free of it when we go to church, thank you very much. And as for having my deepest thoughts revealed – well really! In truth, Candlemas reminds us of the penetrating light of Christ; searching and cleansing, not with abrasive intention but only in the safety of love, helping us to get real.

JAROSLAV VAJDA, the son of a Lutheran pastor of Slovak descent, began translating classical Slovak poetry at age eighteen. His ‘Now The Silence’ can be used as a prayer as we present ourselves before the revealing God:

Now the silence
Now the peace
Now the empty hands uplifted
Now the kneeling
Now the plea
Now the Father’s heart in welcome
Now the hearing
Now the power
Now the vessel brimmed for pouring
Now the Body
Now the Blood
Now the joyful celebration
Now the wedding
Now the songs
Now the heart forgiven leaping
Now the Spirit’s visitation
Now the Son’s epiphany
Now the Father’s blessing
Now. Now. Now.

RENEWAL OF HOPE
HOPE can never die when its source is living. Jesus, and only Jesus is the source of hope, for hope is held by God, and God is alive in Christ. That was what Anna and Simeon recognised, and what has continued to be revealed through the Spirit to many souls whose lives would be hopeless otherwise.

MAYBE you’d never heard of Candlemas until now, let alone celebrated it. This year, in an extended Christmas season, why not practise recognising God in the present moment, allow the Spirit to reveal more of you to Christ, contemplate Jesus as the one in whom hope is renewed – and light a candle on 2nd February!