In the Roman tradition, the feast kept on February 2nd was always known as the Purification of the Virgin Mary. Of course, it also commemorates the presentation of the Lord in the temple, which is why liturgical commentators of the Middle Ages such as our dear friend William Durandus often referred to it as a “double feast”. The Roman Office for it was always a mixture of parts proper to the feast, and others drawn from the common Office of the Virgin Mary, with the three hymns taken from the latter. But there were other traditions which mixed these elements differently; for example, in the use of Liège, the hymn for Lauds of Christmas, A solis ortus cardine, was sung at both Vespers.
Many medieval Uses have a hymn for Vespers, Quod chorus vatum, which was written by the Blessed Rabanus Maurus (780 ca. - 856), whose feast day is today. Among them is the Use of Sarum, (along with those of the Carmelites and Premonstratensians), which is why we have this lovely setting in alternating chant and polyphony by the famous English composer Thomas Tallis (1505-85). In the post-Conciliar Liturgy of the Hours, it was by some miracle incorporated into the feast without any of the usual cack-handed mangling of the text. The English translation below is the Anglican priest Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853-1913), and very cleverly keeps the meter of the original. The individual lines are too long for the side-by-side tables which I normally use for hymns.
Quod chorus vatum venerandus olim, Spiritu Sancto cecinit repletus, In Dei factum genitrice constat Esse Maria.
Hæc Deum cæli Dominumque terræ Virgo concepit peperitque virgo, Atque post partum meruit manere Inviolata.
Quem senex Iustus Simeon in ulnis In domo sumpsit Domini, gavisus: Ob quod optatum meruit videre Lumine Christum.
Tu libens votis, petimus, precantum Regis æterni genitrix, faveto, Clara quæ cæli renitens Olympi Regna petisti.
Sit Deo nostro decus et potestas, Sit salus perpes, sit honor perennis, Qui poli summa residet in arce, Trinus et Unus. Amen.
All prophets hail thee, from of old announcing, By the inbreathèd Spirit of the Father, God’s Mother, bringing prophecies to fullness, Mary the maiden.
Thou the true Virgin Mother of the Highest, Bearing incarnate God in awed obedience, Meekly acceptest for a sinless offspring Purification.
In the high temple Simeon receives thee, Takes to his bent arms with a holy rapture That promised Saviour, vision of redemption, Christ long awaited.
Now the fair realm of Paradise attaining, And to thy Son’s throne, Mother of the Eternal, Raisèd all glorious, yet in earth’s devotion Join with us always.
Glory and worship to the Lord of all things Pay we unresting, who alone adorèd, Father and Son and Spirit, in the highest Reigneth eternal. Amen.
In the Byzantine Rite, the term “synaxis” (σύναξις in Greek, собóръ (sobor) in Church Slavonic) refers to a commemoration held the day after a major feast, honoring a sacred person who figures prominently in the feast, but who is, so to speak, overshadowed by its principal subject. The best known example is the feast of the Holy Spirit, which is kept on the Monday after Pentecost, since Pentecost itself is the feast of the Holy Trinity. Likewise, a Synaxis of the Virgin Mary is kept the day after Christmas, of St John the Baptist on January 7th, the day after the Baptism of the Lord, and of St Gabriel the day after the Annunciation. These are not the principal feasts of the persons honored by these “synaxes”, and one also finds on the Byzantine liturgical calendar the other major feasts of the Virgin (Conception, Nativity, Assumption etc.) feasts of St John on Sept. 23 (his conception), June 24 and August 29, and that of St Gabriel on June 11.
In the case of Ss Simeon and Anna, the placement of their joint feast on February 3rd, the day after the Meeting of the Lord, as it is called in the East, was clearly inspired by this custom; it is not, however, a synaxis, but their proper feast day, and in Greek liturgical books is therefore called a “μνήμη (mneme) - memorial.” This feast appropriately shares a number of its liturgical texts with the After-feast of the Meeting, the equivalent of a western octave. In the Roman Rite, Simeon is noted in the Martyrology on October 8, and Anna on September 1st, but neither of them has ever been the object of any liturgical devotion.
All feasts in the Byzantine Rite begin with Vespers of the preceding day. On the evening of February 2nd, the following hymns of the type known as stikhera are sung between the verses of a group of Psalms which are said every day at that Hour, 140, 141, 129 and 116 according to the Septuagint numbering. The first three of these are proper to the After-feast of the Meeting, the second three are of the two Saints.
First Stikheron: The Maker of all things and our Redeemer was brought to the temple by the Virgin Mother, whence the Elder received Him, and with joy cried out, “Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant, o Good one, in peace, as it hath pleased Thee.”
Second: Simeon, taking from the Virgin in his arms Him that was before the ages, and was born as the Savior, cried out, “I have seen the illumination, the wonders of Thy glory; now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant, o Good one, in peace, because I have seen Thee.”
Third: Simeon, bearing in his arms Him that was born as the Savior in the last days for the salvation of mortals, cried out with joy, “I have seen the light of the nations and the glory of Israel; now dost Thou dismiss (me), as thou hast said, o God, from this world by Thy command.”
Fourth: As one just and perfect, and glorious in all things, o divinely inspired one, speaking in prophecy, thou didst take up in thy hands the one perfect God, who was made incarnate and came to justify the world; and thou was released from the body, crying out to Him, “Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant in peace, who lovest mankind, for I have seen Thee today!”
Fifth: Being still young in spirit, though advanced in years in the body, thou didst learn in prophecy, o Simeon, that thou wouldst not see death until thou shouldst see as a newborn Him that was before the ages, God the Creator, like a poor man in the flesh of all man; and seeing Him, thou didst leap for joy, and asked for release from the flesh, rejoicing that thou didst pass over unto the tabernacles of heaven.
Sixth: Anna the divinely inspired and Simeon the all-blessed, shining forth in prophecy, blameless in the law, having pointed out the Giver of the Law, who was beheld as an infant in our likeness, have now seen and worshipped Him. Gladly let us keep their memory today, duly glorifying Jesus, who loveth mankind.
The last hymn of such a group is called a Theotokion, sung after the doxology, and always dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Theotokion The ancient of days, being an infant in the flesh, is brought by the Virgin Mother to the temple, fulfilling the commandment of His own Law; whom Simeon receiving, said, “Now dost Thou dismiss in peace Thy servant, according to Thy word, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, o Holy One.”
On any given day, the most frequently used chants of the Byzantine Office are the tropar and kontak, which are said at all of the minor Hours, Orthros, and the Divine Liturgy; the tropar is always said at the end of Vespers, and is also known as the dismissal hymn (apolytikion). The feast of Ss Simeon and Anna does not have its own texts for these chants, but simply repeats them from the previous day.
Tropar Rejoice, who are full of grace, Virgin Mother of God, for from Thee hath arisen the Sun of Justice, Christ our God, who enlighteneth those in darkness. Rejoice thou also, o righteous Elder, who didst receive in thine arms the liberator of our souls, and granteth us also the Resurrection.
Kontak Thou who didst sanctify the virginal womb by Thy birth, and bless the hands of Simeon, as was becoming, hast even now saved us beforehand, o Christ our God. But give peace in the midst of wars to the community, and strengthen the kings whom Thou hast love, who alone lovest mankind.
The following recording is the very end of a Divine Liturgy, after which the clergy descend to venerate the festal icon, while the choir repeats the major chants of the feast. The tropar begins at 4:30, followed by the doxology and the kontak.
It is of course Simeon who pronounced the canticle which in the Western church is known from its first words as the Nunc dimittis, and is said every day at Compline in the Roman Rite outside monastic churches. In the Byzantine Rite, it is said every day at Vespers at the conclusion of a series of hymns called the aposticha. Here is a recording of two chants, the hymn to the Virgin “Truly it is fitting”, which is ordinarily sung during the anaphora of the Divine Liturgy, and the Nunc dimittis (beginning at 1:50), both in Church Slavonic. This recording was made at the Russian College in Rome in November of 2015 at a conference in honor of Fr Ludwig Pichler, SJ, a few months after his 100th birthday. Fr Pichler directed the college’s choir from 1948 until his retirement in 2009; he passed away in May of 2017.
On the great feasts such as the Meeting, the hymn to the Virgin is replaced by another, the last of the long series of chants known as a Canon, which is sung at Orthros. In Slavic practice, it is repeated each day of the After-feast, but in the Greek practice, only on the last day, which is known as the Leave-Taking.
Mother of God, help of all Christians, look upon, watch over and protect them that hope in Thee. In the law, which is shadow and letter, let us, the faithful, see a type: every male that openeth the womb is holy to God; wherefore do we magnify the first-born Word, Son of the Father without beginning, and first born of the Mother without husband.
The Gospel of the feast of the Purification, St Luke 2, 22-32, says in its first verse that the Christ Child was presented in the temple in Jerusalem “according to the Law of Moses.” This refers to Leviticus 12, which states that “(i)f a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean seven days … and on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised, but she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. … And when the days of her purification are expired, … she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest, who shall offer them before the Lord, and shall pray for her…” In the Tridentine reform of the Roman Breviary, this chapter was made the second and third reading of Matins on February 2nd.
From the very beginning, as the Church wrestled with the question of whether the observances of the Mosaic law remained valid for its members, one of the strongest arguments in favor of them was that Christ Himself, who said that “not one jot or tittle should pass away from the Law” (Matt. 5, 18), had observed them. The Church Fathers, therefore, emphasize that He did so in order to indicate to us the true meaning of the Law of Moses, as a prefiguration of the new Law of the Gospel. In the mid-3rd century, the great Biblical scholar and commenter Origen, who was very influential on subsequent generations of the Fathers, writes that Christ “ ‘was made under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law’, and subject them to another Law.” (Homily 14 on Luke, citing Gal. 4, 5) In St Ambrose’s time, the Presentation of Christ in the temple was celebrated on January 1st along with the Circumcision, and he comments on this passage of St Luke, “he that is circumcised of vices was judged worthy of the sight of the Lord… you see that the whole succession of the old Law was a figure of the future, for even circumcision signifies the purification of sins.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, II, 56)
St Cyril of Alexandria also comments on the two episodes, the Circumcision and Presentation, at the same time. “(T)oday we have seen Him obedient to the laws of Moses, or rather we have seen Him Who as God is the Legislator, subject to His own decrees…” But the sacrifice of the birds that accompanied the latter has a mystical significance. “The (turtledove)... is the noisiest of the birds of the field: but the (pigeon) is a mild and gentle creature. And such did the Savior of all become towards us, showing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtledove moreover soothing the world, and filling His own vineyard, even us who believe in Him, with the sweet sound of His voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, ‘The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.’ (Cant. 2, 12) For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the Gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.” (Sermon III on the Gospel of St Luke, ad finem.)
Finally, we may note the words of St Bede the Venerable, that neither Christ nor His Mother were subject to the conditions of the Law. Moses writes that a woman shall do these things when “she has received seed,” and borne a child, to distinguish from Her that conceived and bore a Son as a Virgin. Christ “was free from the condition of the Law, but deigned to accept it for this reason, that He might approve it as holy, just and good, and by the grace of Faith, free us from the service and fear thereof.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, Liber I in cap. 2)
In the Byzantine Rite, the feast of the Purification is called “the Meeting of the Lord with Simeon”, and the liturgical texts of the feast lay great emphasis on Christ as the giver of the Law which He obeys, and from the observance of which He then releases the Church. This hymn from Vespers typifies the motif: “Today Simeon receiveth the Lord of glory in his arms, even He whom Moses saw of old beneath the darkness on Mount Sinai, giving him the tablets. This is the One who spoke in the Prophets, and the Maker of the Law; this is the One whom David proclaimeth, feared of all, that hath great and rich mercy.”
A painting in the cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Kyiv, Ukraine, based on Proverbs 9, 1-11, the first words of which are written in Greek on the building’s cornice. God the Father, with the seven great archangels to either side sends the Holy Spirit down upon the Virgin Mary, who stands in the middle of Wisdom’s house, with the Christ Child in a halo on Her chest, the icon type known as the “Virgin of the Sign.” The steps ascending towards Her are labelled “Faith (cut off by the frame), Hope, Love, Purity, Humility, Grace, Glory”; to the left are shown David, Aaron, and closest to Her, Moses, to the right, the four Major Prophets. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)
Several other texts on the feast and during its Afterfeast (the Byzantine equivalent of an octave) refer to the darkness that enveloped Mt Sinai when Moses went up to receive the Law, which is implicitly contrasted with the “light unto the revelation of the gentiles” of which Simeon speaks in the Nunc dimittis. Thus, the old Law, including the rites of circumcision and the sacrifice of purification, was revealed in darkness, and applicable only to the Jewish people. But it was intended to serve as a figure of the new Law, in which circumcision is replaced with baptism, which is applicable to all, “male and female, Jew and Gentile.” And thus, the feast on January 6th, which celebrates the Baptism of the Lord, is called the Theophany, but also simply “the lights.”
The Roman Rite prefers great simplicity and subtlety in its rhetoric. In the context of this feast, it asserts this relationship between the Lawgiver and the Law, and the passage from the Old Law to the New, through the five prayers of the candle blessing, each of which refers, in order, to one of the five books of the Law of Moses.
The first prayer, corresponding to Genesis, begins with the words “Lord, … who created all things from nothing…”, a reference to the creation of the world. This also explains the statement that candles are made for the use of men, and the health of their body and souls, “whether on land or at sea”, since Moses’ account of creation includes the division of the land from the waters, and the creation of man “as a living soul.” (Gen. 2, 7) This is the only one of the five prayers that mentions the Virgin Mary, the new Eve; it asks for the prayers of “all Thy Saints”, perhaps in reference to the holy Patriarchs of the Old Testament. The last part asks that that God “be merciful to all those who cry out to Thee, whom Thou hast redeemed by the precious blood of Thy Son”, a reference to the blood of the just Abel that cries to God from the earth.
The second prayer, which corresponds to Exodus, states that the faithful received the blessed candles “unto the magnificence of Thy name.” This refers to the Canticle of Moses in chapter 15, a passage familiar to all Christians from its presence among the prophecies of the Easter vigil. “Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified… The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me: he is my God and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name.”
(Exodus 14, 24 -15, 1, followed by the Tract from chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, sung at the vigil of Pentecost.)
The third prayer corresponds to Leviticus, and asks that the faithful may “be without the blindness of all vices, so that… we may be able to see those things which are pleasing to Thee and useful to our salvation.” This refers to the Church’s distinction between the perennially valid precepts of the moral law contained in Leviticus, and in the Law generally, and the ritual prescriptions to which She is no longer bound. Notice also here the contrast between light and darkness of which the Byzantine liturgy speaks: “so that after the dark ‘discrimina’ (both ‘hazards’ and ‘decisions’) of this age, we may merit to come to the light unfailing.”
The fourth prayer begins with a reference to God’s command to Moses to prepare oil for the lights that burn before Him in the tabernacle of the covenant. In St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible, this is mentioned three times in Exodus, and twice more in Numbers, the fourth book of the Law, with the verb “concinnare – to make, prepare”, which is also used in this prayer. The prayer that “the light of Thy spirit not be lacking inwardly to our minds” refers, perhaps, to the sharing of Moses’ spirit with the seventy elders of Israel described in chapter 11.
Finally, the fifth prayer, which corresponds to Deuteronomy, asks that we may be “enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit.” This refers to the canticle of Moses in chapter 32, which begins with the words, “Let my doctrine gather as the rain, … I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.” At the Easter vigil, after these words are sung in the Tract after the eleventh prophecy, the Church states in the prayer that follows that God “willed to teach the people by the singing of His holy song.” The prayer concludes with the petition that “we may truly know and faithfully love” God, a reference to the words of chapter 6, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.” This commandment appears nowhere else in the Law of Moses, and is, of course, commended by the Lord Himself as the first and greatest commandment. (Matt. 22, 37)
It was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Ghost that he would not see death before he had seen the annointed of the Lord; * and when they brought the Child into the temple, he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now lettest Thou thy servant depart, Lord, in peace. V. When His parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms. (The second responsory for the procession of Candlemas.)
The Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple, by Pietro Cavallini, 1295-1300; apsidal mosaic of the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.
R. Responsum accépit Símeon a Spíritu Sancto, non visúrum se mortem, nisi vidéret Christum Dómini: * et cum inducerent Puerum in templum, accépit eum in ulnas suas, et benedíxit Deum, et dixit: Nunc dimíttis servum tuum, Dómine, in pace. V. Cum indúcerent púerum Jesum paréntes ejus, ut fácerent secúndum consuetúdinem legis pro eo, ipse accépit eum in ulnas suas.
The first part of this responsory in Gregorian chant.
The beginning of this same text is the same as the Communion of the Mass; here is a particuarly good polyphonic setting of it by Luca Marenzio (1553-99).
The Gospel of the feast of the Purification, St Luke 2, 22-32, says in its first verse that the Christ Child was presented in the temple in Jerusalem “according to the Law of Moses.” This refers to Leviticus 12, which states that “(i)f a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean seven days … and on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised, but she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. … And when the days of her purification are expired, … she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest, who shall offer them before the Lord, and shall pray for her…” In the Tridentine reform of the Roman Breviary, this chapter was made the second and third reading of Matins on February 2nd.
From the very beginning, as the Church wrestled with the question of whether the observances of the Mosaic law remained valid for its members, one of the strongest arguments in favor of them was that Christ Himself, who said that “not one jot or tittle should pass away from the Law” (Matt. 5, 18), had observed them. The Church Fathers, therefore, emphasize that He did so in order to indicate to us the true meaning of the Law of Moses, as a prefiguration of the new Law of the Gospel. In the mid-3rd century, the great Biblical scholar and commenter Origen, who was very influential on subsequent generations of the Fathers, writes that Christ “ ‘was made under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law’, and subject them to another Law.” (Homily 14 on Luke, citing Gal. 4, 5) In St Ambrose’s time, the Presentation of Christ in the temple was celebrated on January 1st along with the Circumcision, and he comments on this passage of St Luke, “he that is circumcised of vices was judged worthy of the sight of the Lord… you see that the whole succession of the old Law was a figure of the future, for even circumcision signifies the purification of sins.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, II, 56)
St Cyril of Alexandria also comments on the two episodes, the Circumcision and Presentation, at the same time. “(T)oday we have seen Him obedient to the laws of Moses, or rather we have seen Him Who as God is the Legislator, subject to His own decrees…” But the sacrifice of the birds that accompanied the latter has a mystical significance. “The (turtledove)... is the noisiest of the birds of the field: but the (pigeon) is a mild and gentle creature. And such did the Savior of all become towards us, showing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtledove moreover soothing the world, and filling His own vineyard, even us who believe in Him, with the sweet sound of His voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, ‘The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.’ (Cant. 2, 12) For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the Gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.” (Sermon III on the Gospel of St Luke, ad finem.)
Finally, we may note the words of St Bede the Venerable, that neither Christ nor His Mother were subject to the conditions of the Law. Moses writes that a woman shall do these things when “she has received seed,” and borne a child, to distinguish from Her that conceived and bore a Son as a Virgin. Christ “was free from the condition of the Law, but deigned to accept it for this reason, that He might approve it as holy, just and good, and by the grace of Faith, free us from the service and fear thereof.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, Liber I in cap. 2)
In the Byzantine Rite, the feast of the Purification is called “the Meeting of the Lord with Simeon”, and the liturgical texts of the feast lay great emphasis on Christ as the giver of the Law which He obeys, and from the observance of which He then releases the Church. This hymn from Vespers typifies the motif: “Today Simeon receiveth the Lord of glory in his arms, even He whom Moses saw of old beneath the darkness on Mount Sinai, giving him the tablets. This is the One who spoke in the Prophets, and the Maker of the Law; this is the One whom David proclaimeth, feared of all, that hath great and rich mercy.”
A painting in the cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Kyiv, Ukraine, based on Proverbs 9, 1-11, the first words of which are written in Greek on the building’s cornice. God the Father, with the seven great archangels to either side sends the Holy Spirit down upon the Virgin Mary, who stands in the middle of Wisdom’s house, with the Christ Child in a halo on Her chest, the icon type known as the “Virgin of the Sign.” The steps ascending towards Her are labelled “Faith (cut off by the frame), Hope, Love, Purity, Humility, Grace, Glory”; to the left are shown David, Aaron, and closest to Her, Moses, to the right, the four Major Prophets. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)
Several other texts on the feast and during its Afterfeast (the Byzantine equivalent of an octave) refer to the darkness that enveloped Mt Sinai when Moses went up to receive the Law, which is implicitly contrasted with the “light unto the revelation of the gentiles” of which Simeon speaks in the Nunc dimittis. Thus, the old Law, including the rites of circumcision and the sacrifice of purification, was revealed in darkness, and applicable only to the Jewish people. But it was intended to serve as a figure of the new Law, in which circumcision is replaced with baptism, which is applicable to all, “male and female, Jew and Gentile.” And thus, the feast on January 6th, which celebrates the Baptism of the Lord, is called the Theophany, but also simply “the lights.”
The Roman Rite prefers great simplicity and subtlety in its rhetoric. In the context of this feast, it asserts this relationship between the Lawgiver and the Law, and the passage from the Old Law to the New, through the five prayers of the candle blessing, each of which refers, in order, to one of the five books of the Law of Moses.
The first prayer, corresponding to Genesis, begins with the words “Lord, … who created all things from nothing…”, a reference to the creation of the world. This also explains the statement that candles are made for the use of men, and the health of their body and souls, “whether on land or at sea”, since Moses’ account of creation includes the division of the land from the waters, and the creation of man “as a living soul.” (Gen. 2, 7) This is the only one of the five prayers that mentions the Virgin Mary, the new Eve; it asks for the prayers of “all Thy Saints”, perhaps in reference to the holy Patriarchs of the Old Testament. The last part asks that that God “be merciful to all those who cry out to Thee, whom Thou hast redeemed by the precious blood of Thy Son”, a reference to the blood of the just Abel that cries to God from the earth.
The second prayer, which corresponds to Exodus, states that the faithful received the blessed candles “unto the magnificence of Thy name.” This refers to the Canticle of Moses in chapter 15, a passage familiar to all Christians from its presence among the prophecies of the Easter vigil. “Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified… The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me: he is my God and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him. The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name.”
(Exodus 14, 24 -15, 1, followed by the Tract from chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, sung at the vigil of Pentecost.)
The third prayer corresponds to Leviticus, and asks that the faithful may “be without the blindness of all vices, so that… we may be able to see those things which are pleasing to Thee and useful to our salvation.” This refers to the Church’s distinction between the perennially valid precepts of the moral law contained in Leviticus, and in the Law generally, and the ritual prescriptions to which She is no longer bound. Notice also here the contrast between light and darkness of which the Byzantine liturgy speaks: “so that after the dark ‘discrimina’ (both ‘hazards’ and ‘decisions’) of this age, we may merit to come to the light unfailing.”
The fourth prayer begins with a reference to God’s command to Moses to prepare oil for the lights that burn before Him in the tabernacle of the covenant. In St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible, this is mentioned three times in Exodus, and twice more in Numbers, the fourth book of the Law, with the verb “concinnare – to make, prepare”, which is also used in this prayer. The prayer that “the light of Thy spirit not be lacking inwardly to our minds” refers, perhaps, to the sharing of Moses’ spirit with the seventy elders of Israel described in chapter 11.
Finally, the fifth prayer, which corresponds to Deuteronomy, asks that we may be “enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit.” This refers to the canticle of Moses in chapter 32, which begins with the words, “Let my doctrine gather as the rain, … I will invoke the name of the Lord: give ye magnificence to our God.” At the Easter vigil, after these words are sung in the Tract after the eleventh prophecy, the Church states in the prayer that follows that God “willed to teach the people by the singing of His holy song.” The prayer concludes with the petition that “we may truly know and faithfully love” God, a reference to the words of chapter 6, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.” This commandment appears nowhere else in the Law of Moses, and is, of course, commended by the Lord Himself as the first and greatest commandment. (Matt. 22, 37)
Simeon received a revelation from the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Anointed of the Lord; * And he blessed God, and said: Now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, o Lord. ℣. When His parents brought the Child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms. And blessed God... (The fifth Matins responsory of the Purification.)
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 1342, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1290-1348). Originally commissioned for one of the side altars in the cathedral of the artist’s native city, Siena, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia Commons.)
℟. Responsum accépit Símeon a Spíritu Sancto, non visúrum se mortem, nisi vidéret Christum Dómini: * Et benedixit Deum, et dixit: Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace, quia vidérunt óculi mei salutáre tuum, Dómine. ℣. Cum indúcerent púerum Jesum parentes ejus, ut fácerent secundum consuetúdinem legis pro eo, ipse accépit eum in ulnas suas. Et benedíxit Deum...
This very nice recording corresponds to the text given above for the first part, but adds the words of Nunc dimittis, “Lumen ad revelationem gentium, et gloriam plebis tuae Israel. – A light for the revelation of the gentiles”, and begins the repetition at “Nunc dimittis...”
A beautiful polyphonic version of the first part by William Byrd.
And another by the Italian composer Luca Marenzio.
In the Byzantine Rite, the term “synaxis” (σύναξις in Greek, собóръ (sobor) in Church Slavonic) refers to a commemoration held the day after a major feast, honoring a sacred person who figures prominently in the feast, but who is, so to speak, overshadowed by its principal subject. The best known example is the feast of the Holy Spirit, which is kept on the Monday after Pentecost, since Pentecost itself is the feast of the Holy Trinity. Likewise, a Synaxis of the Virgin Mary is kept the day after Christmas, of St John the Baptist on January 7th, the day after the Baptism of the Lord, and of St Gabriel the day after the Annunciation. These are not the principal feasts of the persons honored by these “synaxes”, and one also finds on the Byzantine liturgical calendar the other major feasts of the Virgin (Conception, Nativity, Assumption etc.) feasts of St John on Sept. 23 (his conception), June 24 and August 29, and that of St Gabriel on June 11.
In the case of Ss Simeon and Anna, the placement of their joint feast on February 3rd, the day after the Meeting of the Lord, as it is called in the East, was clearly inspired by this custom; it is not, however, a synaxis, but their proper feast day, and in Greek liturgical books is therefore called a “μνήμη (mneme) - memorial.” This feast appropriately shares a number of its liturgical texts with the After-feast of the Meeting, the equivalent of a western octave. In the Roman Rite, Simeon is noted in the Martyrology on October 8, and Anna on September 1st, but neither of them has ever been the object of any liturgical devotion.
All feasts in the Byzantine Rite begin with Vespers of the preceding day. On the evening of February 2nd, the following hymns of the type known as stikhera are sung between the verses of a group of Psalms which are said every day at that Hour, 140, 141, 129 and 116 according to the Septuagint numbering. The first three of these are proper to the After-feast of the Meeting, the second three are of the two Saints.
First Stikheron: The Maker of all things and our Redeemer was brought to the temple by the Virgin Mother, whence the Elder received Him, and with joy cried out, “Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant, o Good one, in peace, as it hath pleased Thee.”
Second: Simeon, taking from the Virgin in his arms Him that was before the ages, and was born as the Savior, cried out, “I have seen the illumination, the wonders of Thy glory; now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant, o Good one, in peace, because I have seen Thee.”
Third: Simeon, bearing in his arms Him that was born as the Savior in the last days for the salvation of mortals, cried out with joy, “I have seen the light of the nations and the glory of Israel; now dost Thou dismiss (me), as thou hast said, o God, from this world by Thy command.”
Fourth: As one just and perfect, and glorious in all things, o divinely inspired one, speaking in prophecy, thou didst take up in thy hands the one perfect God, who was made incarnate and came to justify the world; and thou was released from the body, crying out to Him, “Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant in peace, who lovest mankind, for I have seen Thee today!”
Fifth: Being still young in spirit, though advanced in years in the body, thou didst learn in prophecy, o Simeon, that thou wouldst not see death until thou shouldst see as a newborn Him that was before the ages, God the Creator, like a poor man in the flesh of all man; and seeing Him, thou didst leap for joy, and asked for release from the flesh, rejoicing that thou didst pass over unto the tabernacles of heaven.
Sixth: Anna the divinely inspired and Simeon the all-blessed, shining forth in prophecy, blameless in the law, having pointed out the Giver of the Law, who was beheld as an infant in our likeness, have now seen and worshipped Him. Gladly let us keep their memory today, duly glorifying Jesus, who loveth mankind.
The last hymn of such a group is called a Theotokion, sung after the doxology, and always dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Theotokion The ancient of days, being an infant in the flesh, is brought by the Virgin Mother to the temple, fulfilling the commandment of His own Law; whom Simeon receiving, said, “Now dost Thou dismiss in peace Thy servant, according to Thy word, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, o Holy One.”
On any given day, the most frequently used chants of the Byzantine Office are the tropar and kontak, which are said at all of the minor Hours, Orthros, and the Divine Liturgy; the tropar is always said at the end of Vespers, and is also known as the dismissal hymn (apolytikion). The feast of Ss Simeon and Anna does not have its own texts for these chants, but simply repeats them from the previous day.
Tropar Rejoice, who are full of grace, Virgin Mother of God, for from Thee hath arisen the Sun of Justice, Christ our God, who enlighteneth those in darkness. Rejoice thou also, o righteous Elder, who didst receive in thine arms the liberator of our souls, and granteth us also the Resurrection.
Kontak Thou who didst sanctify the virginal womb by Thy birth, and bless the hands of Simeon, as was becoming, hast even now saved us beforehand, o Christ our God. But give peace in the midst of wars to the community, and strengthen the kings whom Thou hast love, who alone lovest mankind.
The following recording is the very end of a Divine Liturgy, after which the clergy descend to venerate the festal icon, while the choir repeats the major chants of the feast. The tropar begins at 4:30, followed by the doxology and the kontak.
It is of course Simeon who pronounced the canticle which in the Western church is known from its first words as the Nunc dimittis, and is said every day at Compline in the Roman Rite outside monastic churches. In the Byzantine Rite, it is said every day at Vespers at the conclusion of a series of hymns called the aposticha. Here is a recording of two chants, the hymn to the Virgin “Truly it is fitting”, which is ordinarily sung during the anaphora of the Divine Liturgy, and the Nunc dimittis (beginning at 1:50), both in Church Slavonic. This recording was made at the Russian College in Rome in November of 2015 at a conference in honor of Fr Ludwig Pichler, SJ, a few months after his 100th birthday. Fr Pichler directed the college’s choir from 1948 until his retirement in 2009; he passed away in May of 2017.
On the great feasts such as the Meeting, the hymn to the Virgin is replaced by another, the last of the long series of chants known as a Canon, which is sung at Orthros. In Slavic practice, it is repeated each day of the After-feast, but in the Greek practice, only on the last day, which is known as the Leave-Taking.
Mother of God, help of all Christians, look upon, watch over and protect them that hope in Thee. In the law, which is shadow and letter, let us, the faithful, see a type: every male that openeth the womb is holy to God; wherefore do we magnify the first-born Word, Son of the Father without beginning, and first born of the Mother without husband.
Coped priest blessing candles at the side of the altar (usus antiquior)
Of late, comparing and contrasting the prayers of the Pauline modern missal with those of the traditional Roman missal has been a passionate avocation of mine. Taking my cue from Lauren Pristas and Matthew Hazell, true masters of this labor, I find that simply placing the old and new texts beside one another and pondering their differences can be an extraordinarily enlightening exercise. It tends to confirm, time and time again, the doctrinal richness, ascetical realism, and poetic flair of the old prayers and the absense of these qualities in the new.
In this article I shall compare the prayers for the blessing of candles on February 2nd, Candlemas day, known in the old calendar as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the new calendar, with a Grecophilic nod, as the Presentation of the Lord.
The first and most obvious difference is that the traditional Roman rite blesses the candles by means of a sequence of five prayers, in which is expressed a well-developed theology of candles as sacramentals; of how they relate to the order of creation and the order of redemption; of the liturgical reenactment and mystical participation in Christ’s own entrance into the temple; of Jesus Christ as the light of the world and His Spirit as the internal fire/light that guides us through the “perilous darkness of this life to the never-failing light” of heaven; of Simeon as a model of one so guided, whom we should imitate as we receive Jesus in the substance of our flesh; and of the connection between the oil Moses commanded to be prepared so that lamps might burn continuously in the Lord’s presence and the blessed candles we now burn as symbols of the “lumen Spiritus” in our inward minds. The prayers are particularly outstanding for their pneumatology.
A second obvious difference is the repetition of the act of blessing the candles, which is similar to the many signs of blessing to be found in the traditional rite of Mass (think of the Roman Canon!), the rite of blessing of holy water, the rite of baptism, and so forth. Precisely seven times the priest makes the sign of the cross over the candles, using the language “bless and sanctify” in the first, second, and third prayers, and asking one last time for “the grace of Thy blessing” in the fifth prayer.
First prayer
DOMINE sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus, qui omnia ex nihilo creasti, et jussu tuo per opera apum, hunc liquorem ad perfectionem cerei venire fecisti: et qui hodierna die petitionem justi Simeonis implesti: te humiliter deprecamur; ut has candelas ad usus hominem, et sanitatem corporum et animarum, sive in terra, sive in aquis, per invocationem tui sanctissimi nominis, et per intercessionem beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis, cujus hodie festa devote celebrantur, et per preces omnium Sanctorum tuorum bene✠dicere, et sancti✠ficare digneris: et hujus plebis tuæ, quæ illas honorifice inmanibus desiderat portare, teque cantando laudare, exaudias voces de cælo sancto tuo, et de sede majestatis tuæ: et propitius sis omnibus clamantibus ad te, quos redemisti pretioso Sanguine Filii tui: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. R. Amen.
(Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, who hast created all things out of nothing, and by Thy command hast caused this liquid to become perfect wax by the labour of bees: and who, on this day didst fulfil the petition of the righteous man, Simeon: we humbly entreat Thee, that by the invocation of Thy most holy Name and through the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin whose feast is today devoutly observed, and by the prayers of all Thy Saints, Thou wouldst vouchsafe to bless ✠ and sancti✠fy these candles for the service of men and for the health of their bodies and souls, whether on land or on sea: and that Thou wouldst hear from Thy holy heaven, and from the throne of Thy Majesty the voices of this Thy people, who desire to carry them in their hands with honour, and to sing Your praises; and that You would look with favour on all who call upon You, whom You have redeemed with the precious Blood of Your Son, who being God, lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. R. Amen.)
On Saturday, February 1st, the Dominican church of St Patrick in Philadelphia hosted a celebration of Solemn First Vespers of Candlemas according to the Use of Sarum. This remarkable event was organized by Mr James Griffin, executive director of the newly founded Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy and Music, with the help of a great many people, as you can see in this video of the complete ceremony. We are very pleased to congratulate everyone who offered their time and effort for such a beautiful rite; the church was absolutely packed, a hopeful sign for similar initiatives in the future, both here and elsewhere.
Later this week, we will offer a detailed explanation of the ceremony written up by Mr Griffin, and some photos from one of our favorite photographers, Allison Girone. For now, enjoy the video; the texts are given below.
The Psalms of Christmas Vespers (109-110-111-129-131) are sung with the antiphons from Lauds of the Circumcision, which are semidoubled. (The fifth of these antiphons, Magnum hereditatis mysterium is sung at the Benedictus on the Circumcision in the Sarum Use) Aña 1 O admirábile * commercium: Creátor géneris humáni, animátum corpus sumens, de Vírgine nasci dignátus est; et procédens homo sine sémine, largítus est nobis suam Deitátem. (O wondrous exchange! the Creator of the human race, taking upon Him a living body, deigned to be born of a Virgin: and coming forth without seed as a man, bestowed in us His Divinity.) Aña 2 Quando natus es * ineffabíliter ex Vírgine, tunc implétae sunt Scriptúrae: sicut pluvia in vellus descendisti, ut salvum fáceres genus humánum: te laudámus, Deus noster. (When Thou wast born ineffably of a Virgin, then were the Scriptures fulfilled; like the rainful upon the fleece thou camest down, to save the human race; we praise thee, O our God.) Aña 3 Rubum, * quem víderat Móyses incombustum, conservátam agnóvimus tuam laudábilem virginitátem: Dei Génitrix, intercéde pro nobis. (In the bush which Moses saw unconsumed, we recognize the preservation of Thy praisworthy virginity: Mother of God, intercede for us.) Aña 4 Germinávit * radix Jesse, orta est stella ex Jacob: Virgo péperit Salvatórem; te laudámus, Deus noster. (The root of Jesse hath budded, the Star hath arisen from Jacob, the Virgin hath borne the Saviour: we praise thee, O our God.) Aña 5 Magnum * hereditátis mystérium: templum Dei factus est úterus nesciéntis virum: non est pollútus ex ea carnem assúmens; omnes gentes vénient dicéntes: Glória tibi, Dómine.
(The great mystery of heirship; the womb of Her that knew not a man is become the temple of God; in taking flesh from Her, He was not defiled; all nations shall come, saying: Glory to thee, O Lord!)
The Chapter (Malachi 3, 1) Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple.
As in almost all medieval Uses, one of the responsories from Matins is sung between the chapter and the hymn. R. Vidéte miráculum matris Dómini: concépit Virgo virílis ignára consortii. * Stans oneráta nóbili ónere María. * Et matrem se laetam cognoscit: quae se nescit uxórem. V. Haec speciósum forma prae filiis hóminum castis concépit viscéribus: et benedicta in aeternum, Deum nobis prótulit et hóminem.
Stans oneráta. Gloria Patri. Et matrem. (See the miracle of the Mother of the Lord; a virgin conceiveth who knoweth not the company of man. Mary remains entrusted with a noble charge, and knoweth herself to be a joyful mother, who knoweth not herself as a wife. She concevied in her chaste womb Him that is beautful above the sons of men, and being blessed forever, brought forth unto us God and man.)
There follows the hymn Quod chorus vatum, a composition of the Carolingian era which was written for the feast of the Purification, but never adopted at Rome. (It has been incorporated into the revised Latin hymnal of the Liturgy of the Hours.)
V. Responsum accepit Symeon a Spiritu Sancto. R. Non visurum se mortem nisi videret Christum Domini. (Simeon received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.)
The Antiphon of the Magnificat Homo erat in Hierusalem cui nomen Symeon, homo iste justus et timoratus, expectabat redemptionem Israel: et Spiritus Sanctus erat in eo. (There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; this man, just and God-fearing, awaited the redemption of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him. - As in most medieval Uses, the antiphons of the Magnificat and Benedictus were doubled for major feast days.)
The Prayer Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, majestatem tuam supplices exoramus: ut sicut unigenitus Filius tuus hodierna die cum nostrae carnis substantia in templo est praesentatus, ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus praesentari. Per eundem. (Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that as thy Only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts.
)
Let the gate of heaven be opened today; for the Word of the Father, that is without beginning, having taken a beginning in time, leaving not His divinity, as an infant of forty days is willingly brought into the temple of the law by the Virgin Mother; and the elder takes Him in his arms, crying out as a servant to the Master, “Dismiss me, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, that hath come into the world to save the race of men; o Lord, glory to Thee!” (The doxastikon of Vespers of the Meeting of Christ and Simeon, as the feast is called in the Byzantine Rite.)
Mosaic of the early 11th century, from the monastery of Hosois Loukas in Boetia, Greece. (public domain image from Wikipedia; click to enlarge.)
The church of St Dominic in Youngstown, Ohio, will hold a solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite on the feast of the Purification, starting at 7 pm. The church is located at 77 East Lucius Avenue.
A friend has just brought to my attention an article by Jennifer Miller on CatholicCulture.org, which discusses the question of when the Christmas season officially ends; I have also seen a few similar discussions on social media. With all due respect to the author, this article incorrectly asserts that in the Extraordinary Form, the Christmas season officially ends with the Baptism of the Lord on January 13th. Liturgically, the Christmas season ends on the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and Our Lady’s Purification, on February 2nd.
Prior to the 1960 revision of the rubrics, the liturgical books of the Roman Rite did not refer to either Christmas or Epiphany as “tempora – seasons”, and indeed, neither the Missal nor the Breviary had a rubric on liturgical seasons per se. In the 1960 rubrics, within the newly-created section on the seasons of the year (title VIII), “the season of the Nativity” (tempus natalicium) is subdivided into two parts, “the season of Christmas” (tempus Nativitatis) which runs from First Vespers of Christmas to None of January 5th, and “the season of the Epiphany” (tempus Epiphaniae), which runs from First Vespers of the Epiphany to January 13th. In the body of the Missal, the Sundays after Epiphany are given a new header, “the time per annum before Septuagesima”, the forerunner of the widely and rightly detested term “ordinary time.”
Folio 11v of the Gellone Sacramentary, a Gelasian type sacramentary dated 780-800. At the top are several Office prayers for the Epiphany, towards the bottom, the prayer of the First Sunday after Epiphany, the same (Vota quaesumus) found in the Missal of St Pius V. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 12048)
The designation of the second part as the “season” of Epiphany serves to explain the position of the Baptism of the Lord on January 13th, after the unjustifiable suppression of the octave of Epiphany in 1955. Apart from that, none of this new terminology describes the liturgical texts of the season particularly well.
In the Temporal cycle, there are a maximum of six Sundays after Epiphany. The Gospels of these Sundays, the arrangement of which is extremely ancient, are as follows.
First Sunday (within the octave of Epiphany) – Luke 2, 42-52, the finding of Christ in the Temple. (The feast of the Holy Family was permanently fixed to this Sunday in 1921, but its Gospel is the same; the monastic orders retained the older celebration of the Sunday.) Second Sunday – John 2, 1-11, the wedding at Cana. Third Sunday – Matthew 8, 1-13, the healing of a leper and of the centurion’s servant. Fourth Sunday – Matthew 8, 23-27, the calming of the storm on the sea. Fifth Sunday – Matthew 13, 24-30, the parable of the wheat and the tares. Sixth Sunday – Matthew 13, 31-35, the parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven.
Of these six Gospels, the first three always occur before the Purification, the fourth can occur either before or after it, and the fifth and sixth always occur after it. The placement of the Finding in the Temple, the only recorded episode of Our Lord’s life between His infancy and the beginning of His public ministry, is obvious. From the most ancient times, the writings of the Fathers attest that the Wedding at Cana was celebrated as part of the Epiphany, a tradition to which the historical Office of the Epiphany refers several times. (In the post-Conciliar three-year lectionary, this Gospel is now read on this Sunday only in year C; the modern Ambrosian lectionary, which corrects some of the grosser defects of the reformed Roman one, reads it in all three years.) The two miracles read on the Fourth Sunday are the first ones specifically recorded in the Gospel of St Matthew.
The Wedding at Cana, from the Très belles Heures de Notre-Dame, a work of various masters, ca. 1375-1425. (This part of the manuscript is attributed to Pol de Limbourg, 1385?-1416). Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, NAL 3093
These Gospels, therefore, are all very much an extension of the theme of Epiphany, which means “manifestation.” After celebrating the private manifestations of the Savior in His infancy, the Church commemorates the sole recorded episode of His youth, His public manifestation at His Baptism, and His earliest miracles in both the Synoptic and Johannine traditions. However, the two Gospels which can only occur after the Purification break away from this Epiphany theme, being solely parables, as are those of Septuagesima and Sexagesima.
It is true that Septuagesima can arrive before the Purification; its earliest possible date (which has not occurred since 1818, and will not occur again until 2285) is January 18th. It is also true that when this happens, the series of Gospels after Epiphany is interrupted; this year, for example, Septuagesima falls on January 28th, and therefore, the Gospels of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Sundays after Epiphany will be read at the end of the liturgical year. These facts are, however, irrelevant to the original arrangement of the season after Epiphany, in which the first four Gospels continue the theme of that feast, an arrangement which predates the institution of Septuagesima. All of which is to say, the underlying theme of the Christmas season, the revelation of God’s salvation in the Incarnation of His Son, breaks off liturgically with the Purification, and not before.
We should also take note here of a much more significant fact about the arrangement of the liturgical year. The earliest possible date for Ash Wednesday is February 4th; there will therefore always be an interval of at least one day between the closure of the Christmas cycle on February 2nd, and the beginning of Lent.
In the Sanctoral cycle, the month of January is a fairly busy one, and has been for a long time; the feasts of the Saints that occur within it have no bearing on the Christmas season. The article cited above correctly notes that the daily commemoration of the Virgin Mary after Compline is traditionally the same from Christmas to the Purification, and changes on February 3rd. It also states that this is “(t)he only remaining liturgical hint of the Christmas Cycle … within the Liturgy of the Hours.” (Technically, this arrangement is optional in the new Office, and might more accurately be described as the memory of a hint.) However, this is not true of the traditional rite. Between Christmas and the Purification, the Saturday Office and Little Office of the Virgin use the Collect and several antiphons from the feast of the Circumcision. Much more importantly, the Votive Mass of the Virgin for the whole of this period uses the same Collect, as well as the Epistle and Gospel from the Dawn Mass of Christmas; it should be remembered that for a very long time, all major churches had at least one Votive Mass of the Virgin every day.
In practical terms, none of this has much effect on the liturgy, and the discussion on social media seems to focus mostly on the appropriate time for taking down Christmas trees and crèches, whether in church or at home. Both of these are, of course, noble customs which should always be encouraged and maintained, but neither of them has any formal liturgical place. In regards to Christmas trees, it would be perfectly harmonious with the Catholic tradition to leave them up until February 2nd, without ever forgetting that very dry conifers can burn with an incredibly dangerous speed and intensity. In regards to crèches, I have observed a custom in a number of European churches that seems to me very sensible, and a good way to present and celebrate the events of Christ’s life more vividly through the liturgy. Having “arrived” at the adulthood of Christ in the liturgical year, so to speak, with the feast of His Baptism, the manger scene is taken down. A statue of the Infant Jesus continues to be displayed prominently in the church, and only removed after the celebration of His Presentation in the Temple.
The high altar of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the FSSP parish in Rome, on Christmas night. The Baby Jesus statue seen in the middle remains on the high altar until the evening of February 2nd.
Taking Jesus into his arms, Simeon cried out and said: * Truly Thou art a light to enlighten the gentiles, and to the glory of thy people Israel. V. When His parents were bringing in the Child Jesus, then he received Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said: Truly Thou art a light to enlighten the gentiles, and to the glory of thy people Israel. (The seventh responsory of Matins on the feast of the Purification.)
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, from the Brussels Hours (also known as the Très-Belles Heures de Jehan de France, Duc de Berry), by Jacquemart de Hesdin and workshop, ca. 1400.
R. Suscipiens Jesum in ulnas suas Simeon, exclamavit, et dixit:
* Tu es vere lumen ad illuminationem Gentium, et gloriam plebis tuae Israel.
V. Cum inducerent puerum Jesum parentes ejus, et ipse accepit eum in ulnas suas, et benedixit Deum, et dixit: Tu es vere...
Thy virtue covered the heavens, O Christ, for coming forth from the Ark of Thy sanctification, Thy undefiled Mother, Thou didst appeared in the temple of Thy glory as an infant borne in her arms, and all things were filled with Thy praise. (The fourth ode of Byzantine Matins of the feast of the Meeting of Christ and Simeon in the Temple.)
The Meeting of Christ and Simeon in the Temple depicted in a mosaic under the dome of Katholikon (principal church) of the monastery of St Luke, on Mt Helicon in the Greek region of Boeotia; early 11th century. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Hans A. Rosbach.)
Snow drops are the flower for the Feast of the Presentation, so here are some photos. They were snapped on the feast day, February 2nd, and that is why they appear a little later - it took me a few days to get them loaded up.
They are growing up in a garden in England and, true to their designation, they were in full bloom on the feast day, leading the way for the other later blooming early spring bulbs, the crocuses and the daffodils.
I had initially thought of adding some smug comment such as ‘these are the only snow drops we see in England’ to antagonize American readers from New England and the Midwest who are currently under feet of show. Then I heard that the forecast was for snow in northern England too and we had a good covering the next day. It was only an inch or two, but that’s enough to cause mayhem in England. Serves me right!
The house I am staying in has a modestly sized front garden, typical of English gardens. It just shows how you don’t need much to plant something beautiful to tie us into the sacred time as well as the ordinary passing seasons.
Below the pictures of the bulbs I add a beautiful painting of the feast by Fra Angelico, and a painting of Mary at the Fountain by Jan Van Eyck, depicting Her as the Garden Enclosed - hortus conclusus - with what I am hoping are snow drops on the lawn in front of her. I can’t get a detailed enough picture so perhaps someone out there can confirm?
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