Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Feast Day -November 21st
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
Feast Day -November 21st
Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father’s house; and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty. - Ps. xlv:10
What is this festival?
This a feast set apart by the Church for the commemoration of the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary, then in her most tender childhood, was offered by her pious parents, Joachim and Anne, to the Lord-God in the Temple, and on which Mary consecrated herself forever to God's service.
How did this take place?
The parents of the Blessed Virgin had promised, as we learn by tradition, to offer the child which God would give them, to His service in the Temple. Mary, at the same time, child as she was, enlightened by divine inspiration had offered herself wholly to God, consecrating herself unreservedly to His love and service. She knew also that her parents had made a vow to dedicate her to the service of God, for it was an old custom with the Jews to place their daughters in one of the rooms surrounding the Temple, there to be well educated by saintly women, as now did Joachim and Anne with their holy child. As Mary, though only three years of age, knew of her parents' vow, she intended (as Saints Germanus and Epiphanius testify) to solemnly dedicate herself to God in the Temple; she therefore entreated her parents to take her to the Temple and fulfil their promise to God, after which, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa tells us, Saint Anne no longer delayed accompanying her to the Temple and offering her to God. Mary, like a graceful dove, hastened on the wings of desire in advance; simple and without external show was her entrance into the Temple, but innumerable heavenly spirits celebrated this festival, and the Most High looked down with pleasure upon this purest and holiest sacrifice ever offered in His Temple.
The three holy persons fell on their faces and adored the living God; the parents in deepest humility, adoration, and reverence offered Him their daughter; and Mary gave thanks to the God of Israel, that He had given her the grace to serve Him, and to give herself to Him to be His handmaid forever. Then Joachim and Anne gave their beloved child to the priest Zacharias who presided over the holy service, and who, having offered prayers and sacrifices for her, led her to that part of the Temple where the maidens dedicated to God's service were educated. Here, Mary shone as a model for all the maidens who were with her in the Temple, and she shines still for all who, like her, consecrate their virginity to God, and devote themselves wholly and entirely to His service.
INSTRUCTION I
How wonderfully noble were the minds of Mary's parents, which enabled them to deprive themselves of their beloved child for the love of God, offering her to Him, the Most High, willingly leaving her in the Temple for His holy service! True love of God is ready for any sacrifices, prepared to do whatever He requires.
Parents! God does not require from all of you, that you, like Joachim and Anne, should dedicate your children in a special manner to Him, but He does require of you all, that you see in your children the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that you should guard them from every stain of sin. From their earliest youth you should, if you wish for joy in your children, train them for God' service, changing your dwelling into God's temple by a truly Catholic life.
INSTRUCTION II
Mary, even in her tenderest childhood, offers up and consecrates herself; she gives herself unreservedly and irrevocably to God. When shall we give ourselves in earnest to God? We are offered to Him in baptism, it is true, and made His consecrated temple; we then renounced the world and the devil; we then bound ourselves to live for God only, and we have, since then, renewed our baptismal covenant with God. But have we kept to it? Have we not with one hand stolen that, which with the other we offered to God? Have we not profaned with shameful desires the temple of our heart? Have we not lived more for ourselves, for the world, for vanity than for God? When then will we truly give ourselves to God? In our old age perhaps? But will God, after we have spent our youth and strength in the service of the world, sin, and the devil, accept the offering of our weak, feeble body, of our sin bound soul? Will He be satisfied to have us willing to serve Him, when we can no longer serve the world? if we commence to live for God, only when we commence to die? God is a jealous God; He is not satisfied with a heart divided between Him and creatures. He wishes to be loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with all one's strength. And thus He deserves to be loved; it is only such perfect love as this that He can reward, for He wishes to give Himself entirely to us, as we give ourselves entirely to Him, without reserve, for Christ says: If any one love Me, My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. (John xiv:23)
Practical Considerations
The Presentation of Mary in the Temple
Let us adore the Holy Ghost inspiring Mary, whilst she was still a child, with the resolution to leave her family and all the pleasures of the domestic hearth, in order to shut herself up in the solitude of the Temple, and there lead a life of entire devotion to God and in God. Let us congratulate the Blessed Virgin on her perfect correspondence to grace, and let us rejoice at seeing her, whilst she was so young, already so great a saint.
Mary Teaches Us to Give Ourselves to God Without Delay
There were in the appurtenances of the Temple at Jerusalem two kinds of monasteries, where were received children of both genders who were dedicated to God by their parents, as is proved by the example of the youthful Samuel, and of Anne, the daughter of Phanuel. They were occupied there, according to their gender, either in the functions of the holy place or in its decoration, and in keeping in good condition the sacred vestments. Venerable priests were appointed for the education of the boys, and the girls were under the supervision of holy women filled with the spirit of wisdom - a true picture of our traditional religious communities, shining with innocence and virtue. Mary was only at the entrance of life - she was hardly three years old - when she asked her parents to permit her to go and shut herself up in this holy asylum; they, knowing that children belong to God before belonging to their father and mother, consent to her wishes: and immediately the tender infant, docile to the voice of the heavenly Spouse who calls her (Ps. xliv:11) betakes herself to Jerusalem. Her feet can hardly carry her before she ascends the steps of the Temple. Her tongue is scarcely loosed before she confidently pronounces the holy engagement of belonging to God alone. It is a beautiful lesson for parents, teaching them to form their children for piety from their very earliest years, and to give them to God when He asks them, whether it be that He calls them to the religious state, or that He withdraws them from this world to place them in His paradise. It is a beautiful lesson for childhood and youth, which teaches them to consecrate to God the first fruits of their life. A beautiful lesson also for Catholics, which tells them not to put off to a later period their leading a better life. Let us begin this very day to lead the life in which we should like to die in.
Now, let us transport ourselves in spirit to the Temple at Jerusalem, where Mary, after consecration, wished to dwell entirely cloistered, in order there to lead a wholly celestial life.
Let us consider firstly, what the life of Mary in the Temple was in regard to God. We commit two great offenses against God: they consist in forgetfulness and want of respect. We only think of God at rare intervals, and when we do think of Him, we treat Him without reverence, at prayer, in church, everywhere, since He is everywhere. It was otherwise with Mary in the Temple. There, God occupied all her thoughts, filled all her affections, so that the whole world was as nothing to her, or rather served her only as steps by which to raise herself to God. She honored God in her superiors, she loved Him in her companions, she admired Him in the splendor of the skies, in the verdure of plants, in the beauty of flowers. If she spoke, it was of God and for God; if she worked or read, if she took a walk, if she granted her body food and repose, it was in order to please God, who willed that it should be thus. And who could give expression to the profound reverence with which this habitual remembrance of God was accompanied: What recollection in all her senses, what modesty in the whole of her deportment! When she prayed, with what humility did she not abase her nothingness in presence of the divine greatness, like a poor servant before the most august of masters (Luke i:38). With what confidence and abandonment she poured forth her soul into the heart of God! Let us encourage ourselves to imitate the life Mary led in the Temple.
Let us consider secondly, what the life of Mary was in regard to her neighbor. How beautiful was it to see Mary in the Temple in her relations with her superiors and her companions! With regard to the former, what respect, what docility, and what obedience did she not show, not only to their commands, but to their slightest wishes. With the latter, what charity, what gentleness, what forethought, and what delicate attention did she not manifest! Never did she show any rudeness of manner; never did she indulge in a sharp word or a critical remark; never did she allow herself to enter into any disputes or permit herself to contradict others, because she loved better to yield through condescension than to gain a victory at the expense of meekness; never was her behavior cold and careless; she always had an amiable welcome for everyone; she was gentle and gracious, always ready to render a service and to oblige others, not through natural kindness and sympathy or through human love, but from a sentiment of faith, from love of God, of Whom she loved and served in the person her neighbor. Such a beautiful example embellished and sanctified the community, leading all hearts to God, and the edification was universal. It is thus that Mary teaches us charity toward our neighbor. - The Church's Year; Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine, 1871
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After her shall virgins be brought to the King, her neighbors shall be brought to thee; they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing: they shall be brought into the temple of the King - Ps. xlv:14
Hailed beforehand as beautiful above the sons of men, this King, the most-mighty, makes on this day a prelude to his conquests; and even this beginning is wonderful. Through the graceful infant now mounting the temple steps, he takes possession of that temple, whose priests will hereafter vainly disown him: for this child, whom the temple welcomes today, is his throne. Already his fragrance precedes and announces him, in the Mother in whose bosom he is to be anointed with the oil of gladness, as the Christ among his brethren; already the Angels hail her as the Queen whose fruitful virginity will give birth to all those consecrated souls, who keep for the divine Spouse the myrrh and the incense of their holocausts, those daughters of kings who are to form her court of honor.
But Our Lady’s Presentation also opens new horizons before the Church. On the Cycle of the Saints, which is not so precisely limited as that of the Time, the mystery of Mary’s sojourn in the sanctuary of the Old Covenant is our best preparation for the approaching season of Advent. Mary, led to the temple in order to prepare in retirement, humility, and love for her incomparable destiny, had also the mission of perfecting at the foot of the figurative altar the prayer of the human race, of itself ineffectual to draw down the Savior from heaven. She was, as Saint Bernardine of Siena says, the happy completion of all the waiting and supplication for the coming of the Son of God; in her, as in their culminating point, all the desires of the saints who had preceded her, found their consummation and their term. - The Liturgical Year; Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
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