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Moseley Chimes
February 2008
Pilgrimages and processions are deeply engrained in many aspects of our lives. They can express in a visible way our sense of life being a journey with its beginnings, endings and renewals. They also mark significant festivals or other events which are symbolic of belonging to, and taking an active part in community life, as in the Palm Sunday and Easter Eve processions of our United Benefice.
Processions at weddings mark the beginning of a shared life together. The funeral procession is the necessary taking of a mortal body to a place of burial or cremation, a bidding farewell and a symbol of whatever journey may lie beyond the horizon of death.
The feast of Candlemas was one of the great processional feasts of medieval England. Originally it was a pagan festival marking the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. Later on it came to be a Christian festival of light commemorating an earlier pilgrimage recounted in St. Luke’s gospel. This was the journey of Mary and Joseph to the Temple in Jerusalem to present the infant Jesus to God, forty days after his birth according to Jewish custom. This also included the ritual purification and blessing of his mother.
The feast of Candlemas is therefore the natural climax to the Christmas / Epiphany season but it is so much more. The potent prophetic words of Simeon, who saw in the child the Messiah he longed for, speak not only of the light to lighten the Gentiles, but of the falling and rising of many and the sword which will pierce. Prophetic words which directly point us towards the Cross. As we move in procession with lighted candles at the end of the service of lessons and carols for Candlemas we are symbolically affirming Jesus Christ as the light in the darkness of our world and acknowledging that pivotal moment of journeying together from the Crib to the Cross.
This year only three days after the feast of Candlemas we are plunged into the beginning of Lent and in response to our Vision Statement of being a praying community, our focus this Lent is to be on prayer. Coincidently but well timed for us, this ties in with the Bishop’s Lent appeal. Instead of the more usual Lenten appeal for money, Bishop David asks us to join with him in a ‘Lent Given to Prayer’ following the example of Jesus who was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry (see Lent in the Benefice article for Bishop David’s words). Throughout his earthly life Jesus constantly set time aside to pray both with his disciples and in solitude. This Lent there will many opportunities on offer at St Mary’s and St Anne’s both during the day and in the evenings for us to explore subjects such as, What is Prayer? Different Ways of Praying, Difficulties Encountered, Are my Prayers Good Enough? What Does Prayer Do?
May this Lent be a time of prayerful growth for us all so that we can proclaim with confidence that we are a community guided by God and steeped in prayer.