Monday, February 1, 2021

The Purification Of The Blessed Virgin Mary Feast Day - 2 February

"[February 2] is the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Candlemas Day)." [1]

"The Feast of Candlemas, which derives its origins from the local observance of Jerusalem, marks the  end of the feasts included in the Christmas cycle of the Liturgy.  It is perhaps the most ancient festival of our Lady.  It commemorates not only the obedience of the Blessed Virgin to the Mosaic Law in going to Jerusalem forty days after the birth of her Child and making the accustomed offerings, but also the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, and the meeting o the Infant Jesus with the old man Simeon-- the Occursus Domini, as the feast was anciently termed...." [2]

Quoted below is from Encyclopedia.com [3]:

The ceremony performed by the [M]other of [G]od in the temple of Jerusalem 40 days after the birth of Christ in fulfillment of the Mosaic Law requiring the cleansing of a woman from the ritual impurity incurred at childbirth. This rite is one of several prescribed in the Old Law to render a person pure who has been legally defiled.

The rite of purification after childbirth consisted in the offering of a pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering....

The sacrifice for purification was unnecessary for Mary. However, as a faithful Israelite obedient to the Law, she accomplished the prescription of the Mosaic code by offering two turtledoves....


[2] Copied from the Roman Catholic Daily Missal, 1962, Angeles Press, page 1104.

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