Short Talks
This section of the website comprises short stand-alone talks and articles on different aspects of the Christian Faith, including the teaching of Jesus, the seasons of the Church’s Year and Feasts and Festivals. More talks/sermons/homilies/articles will be added in due course.
The section of the website entitled The Christian Faith provides more extended teaching on larger content areas, such as the Creed and the Sacraments.
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple
On February 2nd or the nearest Sunday we celebrate the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, a Feast which is also known as Candlemas and, in the Book of Common Prayer, as The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin. The liturgical colour is white.
In St Luke’s Gospel we read about the early ceremonies that occurred in the life of Jesus. First was his naming and circumcision which took place eight days after his birth and which we celebrate on January 1st each year. Next came a two-fold rite – the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. This required a journey to Jerusalem for the Holy Family`(1).
The gift of faith
“Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple…” (NRSV, Luke 2:27)
The episode of Simeon is one of the most beautifully told in the whole of the New Testament. In its vividness, achieved by a remarkable economy of words, it recalls one of those brightly coloured miniatures which decorate the capital letters in old illuminated manuscripts.
Life's search
“…it had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26)
Time and again in the Gospels there come forward on the stage of history hitherto unknown characters who, after playing their brief but memorable part, withdraw and vanish in the background of Our Lord’s earthly life.