Close to my hometown in the north of England is a church—St Oswald’s if I remember right—that has a particularly ugly relic: the Holy Hand of Edmund Arrowsmith. It is usually kept in a glass bell jar and, mercifully, covered up with a kind of black glove. But once a month or on special occasions …
Monthly Archives: February 2000
The Feast of the Presentation
In the pagan calendars Candlemas is a halfway feast—halfway between solstice and equinox—halfway between winter and spring—halfway between darkness and light. The Celtic name for the feast, Imbolc—meaning “in the womb”—captures it perfectly. We are in the womb and celebrating it—not yet fully alive but by no means dead. So today we celebrate in-between-ness. Inbetweenness …