The 2^nd of February is the Feast of The Presentation Of Christ in the Temple also known as Candlemas.  On that occasion, Simeon recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah (Luke 2.22-40) and sang a great song of praise which has come to be known as the Nunc Dimittis:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.  For mine eyes have seen thy salvation; Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

TS Elliott wrote a poem which was a reflection of this marvelous song:

A Song for Simeon

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and 

The winter sun creeps by the snow hills; 

The stubborn season has made stand. 

My life is light, waiting for the death wind, 

Like a feather on the back of my hand. 

Dust in sunlight and memory in corners 

Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace. 

I have walked many years in this city, 

Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor, 

Have taken and given honour and ease. 

There went never any rejected from my door. 

Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children 

When the time of sorrow is come? 

They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home, 

Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation 

Grant us thy peace. 

Before the stations of the mountain of desolation, 

Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow, 

Now at this birth season of decease, 

Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word, 

Grant Israel’s consolation 

To one who has eighty years and no tomorrow.

According to thy word, 

They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation 

With glory and derision, 

Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair. 

Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer, 

Not for me the ultimate vision.

Grant me thy peace. 

(And a sword shall pierce thy heart, 

Thine also). 

I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me, 

I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me. 

Let thy servant depart, 

Having seen thy salvation.