Candle Mass

I did, actually, make it to the "candle" Mass on Candlemas! The priest blessed an assortment of candles, one of each of the types they use at St. Peter's, and he held a taper for the entrance, but that was about it as far as the candles went.
It's a wonderful (and quite ancient) feast. And since I can never get enough of dear old Simeon, so alert to every hint of the Spirit's action, I look forward to Candlemas every year. This year, I am especially struck by the silent presence of St. Joseph there in the Temple. All the focus is on Mary and the Baby; you'd think he'd feel a bit awkward, but since his focus, too, was on the Child and his Mother, Joseph was fully taken with the events. I imagine that, like Mary, Joseph too "kept all these things in mind and pondered them in his heart" all the way home to Nazareth. There, unknown years later, he would pray his own "Nunc dimittis" ("Now you let your servant depart; you have fulfilled your word") in the presence of the "consolation of Israel."

If you have a Kindle (our friend Joyce got one for her birthday yesterday), you can download a little book about St Joseph, prepared by Sr. Kathryn James and contributed to by a good many of our sisters. Or, if you, like me, are Kindle-deprived, you can always opt for the paperback...