When candles are lighted on Candlemas Day

When candles are lighted on Candlemas Day. Elizabeth Cosnett* (1936-2024). This hymn for Candlemas (The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 2 February) was written for Liverpool Parish Church and first appeared in Hymns and Congregational Songs (1992). The thirteen stanzas, based on Luke 2:22-38, with the chorus, ‘A glory dawns in every dark place,/ The light of Christ, the fullness of grace’, invite God’s ‘everyday saints’ to praise and to pray ‘When Christmas greets Easter on Candlemas Day’. The hymn is sung to the traditional pilgrimage tune, LOURDES. Where a shorter version is required stanzas 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11 may be omitted (then it makes better sense to sing ‘we’ instead of ‘they’...