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Feast of the Purification (Candlemas)        Today is a day of purification, renewal, and hope. On this day, exactly 40 days after Christmas, we commemorate Mary's obedience to the Mosaic law by submitting herself to the Temple for the ritual purification, as commanded in Leviticus 12:2-4: Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: If a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of separation of her flowers. And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised: But she shall...

Per the 1962 Missal, today's Feast is that of St. Ignatius of Antioch, but St. Brigid, though not celebrated liturgically by those using the 1962 Missal, is still honored today, especially among the Irish.BR> St. Brigid -- her name is correctly pronounced "Brigg-id" or "Bree-id" but almost never is -- was born in A.D. 451 or 452 to a pagan father (Dubthach) and Christian slave mother (Broicsech) just after the time that St. Patrick was preaching (St. Patrick died in A.D. 493). It is said a Bishop -- a follower of St. Patrick -- met the pregnant slave woman...

The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ      With this Feast, Christmas ends liturgically, though it continues on in spirit and as a liturgical cycle until Candlemas when we recall Mary's post-birth Purification and Our Lord's Presentation in the Temple. On this, the Octave of the Epiphany, we continue to focus on the Mysteries that entered our hearts on Twelfthnight and the Epiphany, but today more specifically with regard to the Baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist in the River Jordan. He Whose birth we just celebrated now shows us how to be born again or...

I am worn out from Christmas already, but am still looking forward to the "Little Christmas" in 11 days. While looking for a recipe for King's Cake, I came across a website that has a huge section on the customs of the liturgical year -- and the pages on Twelfthnight and the Feast of the Epiphany are too beautiful to not post here. On the Twelfthnight page, the information on the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem is especially interesting (who knew about the Orion symbolism?!). A quote (from the Twelfthnight page) by St. Ephraem on the Star of Bethlehem:...