Our Lady In The Sacred Liturgy
By JAMES MONTI As many of our readers are undoubtedly aware, the liturgical feast that we celebrate on February 2 has gone by a variety of names over the ages, beginning with its Greek title in the sixth century, Hypapante (“Meeting,” i.e., the Christ Child meeting Simeon) to the popular name “Candlemas,” and in the modern Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, “the Presentation of the Lord.” But the title for this feast that has had by far the longest history of usage, from the seventh century onward, is the name by which it is identified in the Extraordinary Form (“Usus antiquior”) of the Roman Rite, “the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Of course the titles “Presentation” and “Purification”…Continue Reading