Catholic Fire

Today is the feast of St. Blase , the day when we, as Catholics, participate in the beautiful tradition of having our throats blessed. To do this, the priest consecrates two candles, generally by a prayer, and then holds each in a crossed position on the throat of the person being blessed. At the same time the following blessing is given: "Through the intercession of Saint Blase, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." I have always enjoyed this day, not only because it is the time of year when I am more prone to sore throats, but it shows how the Church is truly concerned with the bodily needs of the person as well as the spiritual needs. Why does this blessing of the throat take place on the feast of St. Blase? St. Blase, a physician and bishop, asked God to cure a child who was choking to death on a fish bone and the child's life was saved. ...

1. "They brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord...)" (Lk 2,22). Today, forty days after Christmas, the Church relives the mystery of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. She relives it with the astonishment of the Holy Family of Nazareth, enlightened by the full revelation of that "child", who - as the first and second readings have reminded us - is the eschatological judge promised by the prophets (Ml 3,1-3), the "merciful and faithful high priest" who came to "expiate the sins of the people" (Heb 2,17). The Child, whom Mary and Joseph lovingly brought to the Temple, is the Word Incarnate, the Redeemer of man and of history! Today, commemorating what took place on that day in Jerusalem, we are invited to enter the Temple, to meditate on the mystery of Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father who, by means of his Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery, became the Firstborn of redeemed ...