{"id":2109,"date":"2013-02-02T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/the-feast-of-the-presentation-of-the-groundhog.html"},"modified":"2013-02-02T09:31:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T09:31:00","slug":"the-feast-of-the-presentation-of-the-groundhog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/02\/the-feast-of-the-presentation-of-the-groundhog.html","title":{"rendered":"The Feast of the Presentation of the Groundhog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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I suppose in some desperate attempt to rid itself of those Roman shards, our nation did the best it could by replacing the Feast of the Presentation (or historically Candlemas) with, well, a rodent. \u00a0If secularists and other cranks can warp history by saying that Christmas was just a cheap steal from pure Roman celebrations, I can assume that Groundhog Day was just a cheap ploy to avoid what was once an important feast day in the Church. \u00a0For Catholics, this marks the 40th day since Christmas, when the temple priest held the baby Jesus up to look for his shadow and see if there would be a short winter or not.<\/p>\n

Really, it\u2019s the presentation of our Lord in the temple<\/a>. \u00a0More traditionally, it also marked the obedience of Mary to the Mosaic law, and some Catholics prefer to keep the focus there. \u00a0But as Mary should always point to Jesus, the I like the point of Jesus being offered up in obedience to the\u00a0organized\u00a0religion of the day. \u00a0If I had anything I could take away from this, and if we had such things in my Protestant evangelical days, I would certainly use this as a smack down for any of that \u201cI love Jesus but hate religion<\/a>\u201d rubbish. Nothing screams \u2018why learn when you can rant instead\u2019 than the banal \u2018I\u2019m spiritual, not religious\u2019 \u00a0And nothing dispels it faster than a good soaking in today\u2019s readings. \u00a0And it didn\u2019t end when Jesus was out of diapers. \u00a0He, like the\u00a0apostles\u00a0who served him, would carry on as devout Jews in their own way. \u00a0As Jesus said, he came to fulfill the law, not abolish it. \u00a0Something our \u2018religion of me\u2019 generation would do well to remember.<\/p>\n

The feast was first observed in the Eastern Church as \u201cThe Encounter.\u201d In the sixth century, it began to be observed in the West: in Rome with a more penitential character and in Gaul (France) with solemn blessings and processions of candles, popularly known as \u201cCandlemas.\u201d The Presentation of the Lord concludes the celebration of the Nativity and with the offerings of the Virgin Mother and the prophecy of Simeon, the events now point toward Easter.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span>\u201cIn obedience to the Old Law, the Lord Jesus, the first-born, was presented in the Temple by his Blessed Mother and his foster father. This is another \u2018epiphany\u2019 celebration insofar as the Christ Child is revealed as the Messiah through the canticle and words of Simeon and the testimony of Anna the prophetess. Christ is the light of the nations, hence the blessing and procession of candles on this day. In the Middle Ages this feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or \u2018Candlemas,\u2019 was of great importance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe specific liturgy of this Candlemas feast, the blessing of candles, is not as widely celebrated as it should be, except of course whenever February 2 falls on a Sunday and thus takes precedence. There are two ways of celebrating the ceremony, either the\u00a0Procession<\/i>, which begins at a \u2018gathering place\u2019 outside the church, or the\u00a0Solemn Entrance<\/i>, celebrated within the church.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014 From\u00a0Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose in some desperate attempt to rid itself of those Roman shards, our nation did the best it could by replacing the Feast of the Presentation (or historically Candlemas) with, well, a rodent. \u00a0If secularists and other cranks can warp history by saying that Christmas was just a cheap steal from pure Roman celebrations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Feast of the Presentation of the Groundhog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I suppose in some desperate attempt to rid itself of those Roman shards, our nation did the best it could by replacing the Feast of the Presentation (or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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