Today at church we finally got Candlemas right.
It is not easy, getting Candlemas right! Not only is it not easy, it is a journey. A long journey. Looking back on the time the incense burner snapped I find it hard to believe that six years have passed.
There were other unsuccessful Candlemases too. But they are none of your beeswax.
Beeswax, get it?
I could not help that!
Not for nothing did I write that column The Buzz for so many years in The Buffalo News.
This morning we all went up to the communion rail at the start of mass and were given candles. Beeswax candles with a wonderful aroma.
It was breathtaking to see more and more candles lighted. After a while you extinguished them, and then you lighted them again, and then you extinguished them, and then you lighted them. They were lit for the Consecration. How beautiful that was, a couple of hundred people kneeling there with lighted candles. I could not get over it.
Not only that but as they blessed the candles at the start of Mass the Latin prayers translated to this, which I am cutting and pasting:
O holy Lord, almighty and eternal God, who didst create all things out of nothing, and by Thy command didst cause this liquid to come by the labor of bees to the perfection of wax ...
My friend Meghan and I were following along in her missal and it seems the translation there was even better. However I will have to go and find it. The reason I was reading her missal was that mine was over in the social hall somewhere. I left it there while setting up the coffee hour and when I went flying over to church trying to get there in time, I could not find it and had to leave it behind.
The hurry was worth it. What a great experience. The priest even mentioned in his sermon that today is 02-02-20. It is a palindrome which means it reads the same backwards as forwards. I had read about that yesterday but had he not brought it up, it would have slipped my mind. You must enjoy something like that on the actual day or it is not as much fun.
02-02-20.
It rhymes with "Et cum spiritu 2-0."
A most magical day!
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