Liturgical Calendar

The Presentation of the Lord: This Feast in the Church’s Liturgical Calendar always falls on February 2^nd, 40 days from the Savior’s birth on December 25^th (as the ancients counted with the 25^th counting as day #1). The Western Church did not adopt the feast that originated in the East until the 6^th century. In the past, this feast traditionally marked the end of the Christmas season in the Liturgical calendar. The celebration was initially called the “Festival of Lights,” inspired by the prophetic words of Simeon in Luke 2:32 when the Holy Family came to the Jerusalem Temple for Mary’s ritual purification and Jesus’ dedication as a “firstborn” son (Ex 13:11-16; Num 18:15; Lk 1:6-7; 2:22-38; also see CCC 529, 583, 713). Simeon proclaimed that the child Jesus would become a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel (Lk 2:32).

In earlier centuries, candles were blessed and lit to remember Simeon’s proclamation of Jesus as “a light to the nations,” which gave the feast the popular name “Candlemas.” Later, it became the Feast of Purification since it remembered the Virgin Mary’s ritual purification after Jesus’s birth, according to Old Covenant Law (Lev 12:2-8). After the reform of the Roman Catholic calendar, the feast became the “Presentation of the Lord.”

It is still the custom in Catholic parishes to bless enough candles to last the entire liturgical year on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, and the congregation traditionally sings Simeon’s canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, named after its first words in Latin, “Now you dismiss” (Lk 2:29). In some Catholic countries, the people light candles and carry them in a procession around the church building and often out into the streets. This feast reminds us of our mission to take the light of Christ to every part of the earth as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19-20. See a lesson on the readings for this feast day on our website at the Sunday and Holy Days Readings.

The Chair of St. Peter the Apostle: This feast is usually celebrated on February 22 unless preempted by Ash Wednesday. The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle emphasizes the unity of Jesus’s universal Kingdom on earth, the Church, and the importance of the mission entrusted to Simon Peter as keeper of the keys of the Kingdom on earth and the Shepherd of the faithful in Christ’s absence. At one time, the Church celebrated this feast on two different days. One feast day celebrated the authority of St. Peter’s Chair at Antioch, the faith community where he spent seven years after leaving Jerusalem and before going to Rome. The Christian community at Antioch, Syria, was the faith home of Sts. Barnabas and Paul, and where the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). Then the next day, on February 22^nd, the Church commemorated St. Peter’s journey to Rome, where he became the first Bishop of Rome and suffered martyrdom in c. 67 AD. The Christians of Rome decided that they should honor Peter on what in pagan times in Rome was “Ancestors’ Day” since St. Peter was the Church’s “Founding Father” as Rome’s first bishop and Papa/Pope, the “father” of Christ’s Kingdom of the Universal Church. Like the Davidic Vicars (Chief Stewards) who were “fathers” to the covenant people and entrusted with the key of the Davidic palace (Is 22:21-23), Christ entrusted Peter and his successors with the keys of the Kingdom of the Church (Mt 16:16-20). He also gave them the power to bind and forgive sins, controlling entrance into the gates of Heaven (Jn 20:23).

We celebrate St. Peter’s mission as “the Rock,” upon which Jesus founded His Church. We call it the “Chair of St. Peter” because every bishop has a chair from which he presides and preaches (also see Mt 23:2, where the authority of the Old Covenant Church was said to be the “chair of Moses”). In the Basilica of St. Peter, an ancient wooden chair, believed to have been his chair when he was the Bishop of Rome, is part of an altar. The Latin word for the bishop’s chair is cathedra, from which comes “cathedral,” the bishop’s home church in each diocese. Today’s feast honors the unity of the Church and St. Peter’s chair, the symbol of his authority as the pastor-Vicar of the universal Church, a mission he received from Jesus Christ (Mt 16:16-20; Jn 21:15-17).

The Edict of Milan: This year marks the 1,712^th anniversary of the Edict of Milan, a decree issued in February 313 AD by Roman Emperor Constantine I in the West and his co-emperor Licinius in the East at their meeting in Milan, Italy. The Edict of Milan stated that all Roman Empire inhabitants had the right to follow any religion they desired. This law established religious tolerance in the Empire, ended three centuries of Christian persecution, and established the climate Christianity needed to expand into the most widely held religion in the Roman Empire.

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