Some great feast days of the Church have the suffix —mas added to their names. Christmas and Michaelmas, for instance signify the Mass offered in honor of Christ's birth and the Mass offered on a feast day of St. Michael the Archangel. So Candlemas Day, February 2nd, might be said to mean the "Mass of the Candles." It coincides in date and meaning with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother in the Temple on the 40th day after she gave birth to the Christ Child in Bethlehem. Or that day, the Blessed Mother entered the Temple precincts with St. Joseph to complete the ritual purification prescribed by the Law of Moses for women who had given birth 40 days previous, and to offer the poor people's sacrifice on behalf of Mary's newborn Son. Simeon, the priest, took the Divine Infant in his arms, and prophesied that He was 'the Light unto the revelation the nations." Thus it is that light is the dominant idea of this Mass on the Feast of the Purification. The arrival in the Temple of this light of God, of Whom St. John writes "erat ille lux.. .erat lux vera" — He was Himself the light...He was the true Light — marks the conclusion of the Christmas Season. At the Purification, the aged prophet Simeon told Mary that a sword would pierce her heart "that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed." And upon the finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple twelve years later, we read in the Gospel that "His Mother kept all these things, pondering them in her heart." It is as though the thoughts, the intentions, the cares of all the faithful are virtually enclosed and held for safe-keeping in Mary's own Immaculate Heart. Thus, we should all ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to keep in her Immaculate Heart, as in a splendid and secure treasury all those souls who are near and dear to us and all the intentions of great importance to us.