Liturgical Feasts
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Forty days after Christmas, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, an event that the evangelist Luke recounts in Chapter 2 of his Gospel. In the East, the celebration of this feast dates back to the 4th century. By the year 450, it was called The Feast of the Meeting of the Lord because Jesus enters the Temple and “meets” the priests, as well as Simeon and Anna, representatives of the people of God. Around the middle of the 5th century, we know the feast was also celebrated in Rome. At a certain point, the blessing of candles was added to this feast to recall that Jesus is the “light to the gentiles”. Thus, this feast is also sometimes referred to as Candlemas.
See All...Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes
Today’s liturgical memorial recalls the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes which began on 11 February 1858. The protagonist of this series of events was a girl named Bernadette Soubirous, today numbered among the host of Saints. Mary appeared to her eighteen times near a grotto along the banks of the Gave River. The details of Bernadette’s experience were gathered by the Diocesan Commission charged to examine the facts. From this investigation, we know that Bernadette found herself on the banks of the river along with some other girls when she heard a sort of “gust of wind” coming from the grotto. She drew near, but the leaves on the trees were not moving. While she was trying to understand what was happening, she heard another “sound” and saw a white figure in the shape of a lady. Fearing that she was hallucinating, she rubbed her eyes, but She was still there. Not knowing what to do, she took her rosary out of her pocket and began to recite it, and the Virgin joined her in prayer. One of the girls with Bernadette, was her sister, to whom Bernadette confided what had happened. As soon as they arrived back home, her sister told their mother, who forbade them from returning there. News spread throughout the area, and Bernadette returned with a group of friends to the location on 14 February, when the second apparition took place.
See All...Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle
Today’s feast places the Chair or “Cathedra” of Saint Peter at the center of our attention – or rather the specific mission Jesus entrusted to Peter. The feast dates back to the 3rd century and is to be distinguished from the day of Peter’s martyrdom celebrated on 29 June. The feast originated around the “cathedra” of Peter, the place where the Bishop of Rome resided and governed. The “cathedra”, was a fixed “seat” of the Bishop, placed in the mother church of the Diocese – hence the word “cathedral” – which was the symbol of the Bishop’s authority who, as a successor of the Apostles, is called to protect the flock and transmit the teaching of the Gospel to the Christian community. We can say that the first “cathedral” was the Upper Room where Jesus gathered His disciples for the Last Supper and where they, along with the Virgin Mary, received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Later, Peter moved to Antioch, the city evangelized by Barnabas and Paul, where Jesus’ disciples were first given the name “Christians” (cf. Acts 11:6). Peter was the first Bishop of Antioch which explains why they celebrated the Feast of the Chair of Peter on 22 February. Later, Peter arrived in Rome where his life ended in martyrdom. Precisely for this “glorious” death, it was decided to consider Rome as the official location of the “Cathedra” of Saint Peter, with a celebration fixed on 18 January. Pope John XXIII united these two feasts, abolishing the latter.
The pastoral and teaching authority conferred by Christ to the Apostle Peter, as recalled in the Gospel chosen for this liturgical feast, is at the heart of today’s feast. Two ancient texts help us understand its significance and value. Saint Jerome wrote: "I decided to consult the Chair of Peter, where that faith is found exalted by the lips of an Apostle; I now come to ask for nourishment for my soul there, where once I received the garment of Christ. I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with your beatitude, that is, with the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built". And Saint Augustine wrote. “The institution of today’s solemnity took the name ‘Chair’ from our predecessors due to the fact that it is said that the first apostle, Peter, occupied this Episcopal Cathedra. It is right, therefore, that the Churches venerate the origins of this See, which the Apostle accepted for the good of the Churches”.