Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Next Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and at the beginning of Mass candles will be blessed as a sign of the Light of Christ shining in the midst of the world.
You will be offered a candle as you enter the Church for the entrance procession, but if you would like you could bring a candle too Mass and then take it home afterwards as a sign of the light of faith within your home.
This feast was originally celebrated in the Eastern Churches as "The Meeting" or "Encountering" (Hypapante), in the Church where all people meet the Lord. By the sixth century it began to be celebrated in the West, where the focus became the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was accompanied by solemn blessings and processions with candles; hence, it is popularly called "Candlemas." 
St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) wrote this reflection on lighting candles.  “The candles which you light reveal to you the intelligible light. Just as the church, that house of great beauty, is full of light from many candles, so the house of your soul, which is more precious than that church, should be illumined and full of light in a noetic sense – that is to say, that within you all the spiritual virtues should burn with divine fire… The multitude of burning lamps signify the illumined thoughts which should shine within you like lamps, so that there should be no dark thought in the house of your soul, but that all should be aflame and shining with the light of the Holy Spirit.”