The Presentation in the Temple by Master of the Life of the Virgin, between circa 1460 and circa 1475.
Dear Friends,
Some of us still have our Christmas decorations up, despite having moved beyond the Twelve Days of Christmas. If this applies to you too, there is no shame! There are different ways of marking the Christmas season, depending on which “branch” of the Church one finds themselves in, or where you find your own spiritual practice.
For some, Christmas ends with The Epiphany, because that is where the Nativity story itself ends. Yet for others, Christmas ends with The Feast of The Presentation of Christ in The Temple or “Candlemas” on Feb. 2. For although The Epiphany marks the end of the birth narrative, Christ’s childhood reaches a pivotal moment as we witness to Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus for a blessing at the Jerusalem Temple, and the prophets Simeon and Anna proclaim him as the King of Kings. And so, The Presentation marks the transition from Jesus’ childhood to his wider life and ministry, and the acknowledgment by others of his life’s purpose. Therefore, this moment is marked accordingly in the calendar, whereby we move from childhood towards adulthood, and all this means for Christ and indeed our own lives.
These differences in the calendar are therefore important. Indeed, whether you’re a Christian or otherwise, calendars themselves are helpful because they enable us to bring (at least a degree of) order to our often chaotic and over-stretched lives. They help us locate ourselves within a certain time and place, so that we can consider more carefully what is happening in our lives, our work, and, in the case of a religious community, our faith. Furthermore, amidst all this, a calendar helps us to consider how time itself works, and how our time might be perceived within the context of something much bigger than ourselves. This brings us back to the meaning of these seasons themselves.
Candlemas Day by Marianne Stokes, 1901
In this transitional season between Epiphany and Lent (the next major season in our calendar), and ultimately at the heart of all the traditions we find in the Church, we are called upon to remember that God’s time, indeed God’s life, is eternal, infinite, beyond our comprehension, and yet is intimately bound up with ours. By following the seasons of the Church, we come closer to centering our lives around God’s own heart and spirit, even when we feel as though we are far off. And by attending to those more nuanced details, we find ourselves—like I did when writing this—contemplating why we worship and pray the way we do.
The Rev. Edward Thornley
Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist