Candlemas

It's the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the traditional end of the Christmas season and the day that the Church traditionally blesses the candles for use on the altar throughout the year. There's an exercise on base, so no Mass or candle blessing happened there. But we kept the feast as much as we could ourselves.

We put away the creche set and changed the home altar cloth to green for Ordinary Time. Christmas has ended.

At dinner, we prayed with Simeon:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

And I filled the center of the table with candles. Christ is our light!

Now we will have a few weeks of quiet before Lent begins: Ordinary Time, ordinary days, our usual routine. I'm ready for that; ready to embrace the ordinary for a little while, to rest in the rhythm of the usual.

Here's one last photo of our Jesse Tree. Every year, I take pictures long before Christmas when the tree is empty and forget to photograph it when the ornaments have all been placed on the tree.
It has all been put away now until next year, and the front hall table, our seasonal table, will be bare for a couple of weeks: resting and waiting for the beginning of Lent.