Presentation of Jesus in the Temple—2 February 2020 (YEAR A)

For most of its history today's feast was a dual observation. The Purification of Mary accompanied the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. It's not that long ago that western cultures had ceremonies to ‘purify’ women after childbirth. These rituals have their roots in some appalling thinking about how the flow of women's blood defiles them and those who touched them. Maybe the only modern reclamation we could make of these rites would be to understand them as purification of the memory.

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