Candlemas: the Sermon
This is the final part of the section on Candlemas in The New Pagan’s Handbook.
Sermon
Prayers should be heartfelt. They should not be gabbled by rote and dulled in impact by repetitive usage. Whatever form of prayer we use should always be examined word by word, phrase by phrase, concept by concept. It may never be truly what we mean, the great flights of poetry are not for all and language often comes but clumsily to our tongues refusing to speak our feelings as we would wish.
In the prayerful meditation of Candlemas, the theme is Initiation and quickening into new life and a new year. We tune ourselves to the awesome mystery of the Goddess and Her love. And this means that we must consider three responsibilities. There is the responsibility we bear towards Her; the responsibility we bear to others; and the responsibility we bear towards ourselves. It is through this mystery that we understand the place of women in true pagan worship, and the great regard that all men should pay to them. At this ceremony we recognise the powers of the Goddess in women and also the power of the Goddess resident in man, as indeed the power of the Gods is also in some measure resident in women.
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