Presentation of Mary in the Temple

 Hello Everyone - This Tuesday,  November 21st,  we celebrate the great Feast Day of Mary's Presentation in the Temple.
Mary, at the age of three,in the presence of her mother, St. Anne and father, St. Joachim, presented Herself in the temple to God. She gave Herself entirely to Him. She thought only of loving and pleasing Him by being perfectly united to His Holy Will. Can you imagine if everyone God created did the exact same thing – what a world we would be living in? Maybe someone should write a “fiction” book about it, titled, “Heaven on Earth”. The truth of the matter is, we do have a free will and we could have done the same thing but our original sin and concupiscence got in the way of such a heroic deed. Of course, we do have throughout all of history many saints who have come close. We have saints who at a young age gave themselves to God in a quick and sure way, knowing that God is everything and that nothing else matters. We also have saints who did not figure it out until much later. Look at St. Augustine who lived a life of leisure until later in life when he made the statement: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God!” How many of us each day try to find our Heaven on earth without God even though we know – God can only give us this peace and love that we are all searching for.
We may rationalize our actions by stating, “O, he was a saint and I am not.” Or “Of course Our Lady did that – She had no sin on Her soul!” The truth of the matter is, God has given us everything we need to be saints. His Sacred Heart has enough treasures held within it that it is depicted as flames coming from His Human Heart. It is known as the Furnace of Charity! Our Lord has come to many saints telling them to ask for the graces that no one asks for because He is hungering to give them to us. St. Francis de Sales says that we are not saints because we do not want to be. Once a person has desired to be a saint and has prayed for the graces to be that saint, God answers this prayer with the condition that we persevere in prayer. Our Lady is eager to answer as well. There is a warning with this prayer though. In order to fill your soul with these graces, there must be room. If you do not make room yourself by taking the weeds from the garden of your soul, then Our Lady will have to do it for you. She will send trials to come your way in order to purify that soul in answer to your prayer. When the trials come, know that if we surrender to God’s Will and accept this purification, the room will be made for grace and virtue to flourish. If we resist and resist, then the process will be slow until we learn to surrender like a child in the arms of a tender Mother who knows what is best for that child.
What has been just described is what our Consecration to the Immaculate Heart can do for us. Being the Mother of Jesus, She has a special right to all the gifts of Her Son. The Church teaches that She is the Mother of all Graces. She distributes them to Her children.
Therefore, let us give ourselves to Our Mother so that She may teach us the sure way of surrender to the Will of the Father. Let us ask Her to teach us how to give of ourselves completely to God in love and service. Let us meditate on the greatness of Mary’s love and service during the years She spent in the Temple always increasing day by day in Her resplendent virtues and graces.
As Mary presented and offered Herself to God in the temple with promptitude and without reserve, so let us also present ourselves this day to Mary without delay and without reserve; and let us ask Her to offer us to God, who will not reject us when He sees us presented by the hand of our Queen and Mother, who is the living temple of the Holy Spirit, the delight of Her Lord and the chosen Mother of the Eternal Word. May we not forget to offer prayers of thanksgiving to our Eternal Father for this great Mother and Queen!
Thank you Eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the great gift of our Queen and Mother!