CHURCHING

Churching: translation

   Equivalent to the Purification among the Jews, and which in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary is commemorated as a Feast of the Church on February 2. The reader is directed to the service set forth in the Prayer Book under the title, "The Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth; commonly called, The Churching of Women." "Although every deliverance from peril or sorrow demands a tribute of thanksgiving to God, yet God Himself has placed a mark on the pains of childbirth (Gen. 3:16); and therefore, as bearing special reference to the cause of all other misery, the Church has appointed a special office of praise in acknowledgment of the primeval curse converted into a blessing."