Candlemas brings us to the end of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons. This feast—the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple/ the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary—stands as a solemn and beautiful threshold: the close of one sacred season, and the beginning of the Church’s steady march toward Lent.

All of us know the importance of the seven Sacraments.
They are necessary for our eternal salvation. They accompany us through every stage and season of life—birth, growth, healing, vocation, perseverance, and finally death. Truly, they are a magnificent gift of our loving and merciful Lord.

Yet on this feast, the Church reminds us of something else in her maternal care: the power and value of sacramentals.

Sacramentals are reminders of the loving presence of God in every aspect of life. They do not confer grace in the way the Sacraments do, yet when they are used with reverence, faith, and love, they dispose the soul to grace. They awaken devotion, strengthen faith, and help carry the awareness of God into the ordinary “highways and byways” of daily life.

The Church has always understood this. The Rituale Romanum contains blessings for nearly every good thing and place imaginable—
from the blessing of homes to the blessing of bees;
from fields and hospitals to airplanes and railroads.
And for those things not explicitly named, the Church even provides a universal formula: the “Blessing of All Things.”

Tonight we had the blessing of candles. These blessed candles remind us of the Light of Christ—
He who scatters the darkness of Satan, sin, and death.
And tomorrow, those very candles will be used again as the Church imparts the Blessing of Throats on the feast of St. Blaise.

So let us give thanks for these gifts of Holy Mother Church—and take full advantage of their availability.
Holy water reminds us of our baptism, and puts devils to flight—not by superstition, but by faith in the power of the living Lord Jesus Christ.

Fill your homes with these holy reminders. Adorn your bodies with them. Place them upon your possessions—so that everything you do in life will turn your heart back to Him, who is truly the Light of our lives.