Two special feasts this week

There are two special and popular feast days this week.

Monday the Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of the Lord or Feast of Purification which occurs forty days after the birth of Jesus and is also known as Candlemas day. The feast day is called Candlemas because that was the day on which the year's supply of candles for the church were blessed. Christians were observing Candlemas in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century A.D. By the middle of the 5th century, candles were lit on this day to symbolize that Jesus Christ was the light, the truth and the way.

Tuesday is the Feast of St. Blase. St. Paul Parish will celebrate the feast day
with a Mass at 8:30 a.m. and a blessing of throats. There will also be a Prayer Service with blessing of throats at 6:30 p.m. in the evening.

St. Blase has been extremely popular for centuries in both the Eastern and Western Churches. He was a physician and the Bishop of Sebaste, Armenia. One legend says a mother brought him her small boy, who was choking on a fishbone stuck in his throat. Blase prayed over the child, and he was healed. Every year on St. Blase's feast, two candles tied with ribbon in the shape of an X are used to bless throats. Here is the blessing:

“Through the intercession of St. Blase, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”