With all due respect to Bill Murray, let’s skip the groundhog watch this year, and instead celebrate Candlemas. Wednesday, February 2, 2022, marks 40 days after Christmas. Candlemas is actually a very old feast, celebrated by both the churches of the East and the West, and in some places it is on this day that the creche is finally removed from the church. If you haven’t done so already, it’s really time to put your Christmas decorations away. This date occurs at a period between the December solstice and the March equinox, so many people traditionally marked that time of the year as winter’s “halfway point” while waiting for the spring.
Candles are blessed on this day (hence the name “Candlemas”). It is the day of the year when all the candles, that are used in the church during the coming year, are brought into church and a blessing is said over them – so it is the Festival Day (or ‘mass’) of the Candles. Candles were important in past days not only because there was no electric lights. Some people thought they gave protection against plague and illness and famine. For Christians, they were (and still are) a reminder of something even more important. Before Jesus came to earth, it was as if everyone was ‘in the dark’.
Also called the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, it is the Christian festival marking the ritual presentation of Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem, during which prophets Simeon and Anna proclaimed him the Messiah. Simeon spoke the prayer known as the “Nunc Dimittis,” calling the baby “a light to lighten the gentiles.”
In this Sunday’s service booklet, you will find an insert with our Candlemas blessing. You are welcome to bring a special candle to church on Sunday, or on Wednesday for intercessory prayer at noon, for a blessing. Give Punxsutawney Phil a break this year, and remember, “if Candlemas Day be fair and bright, winter will have another fight. If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter won’t come again.”
Hello faith family! Sunday is the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 23, 2022, Year A. Services are held in-person with 
CHRISTIANITY – The first 1500 years viewed through the lenses of the 1st, 4th, 11th, and 16th centuries. This series is scheduled for February 3, 10, 17, and 24, 2002 from 10-11:20 a.m.