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According to an ancient tradition, Our Blessed Lady was presented in the Temple at the age of three. A feast was held to celebrate this occasion in the East from early times. In 1372, Pope Gregory XI approved the celebration of the feast in the West.Â
Collect for the Feast: O God, Who wast pleased that on this day the blessed Mary ever a Virgin, being herself the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, should be presented in the Temple; grant, we beseech Thee, that through her intercession we may be found worthy to be presented in the temple of Thy glory.
What do we celebrate on this feast?
Atila S. Guimaraes attended talks given to youth by Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira between the mid-1960's until 1995. His notes from some of these talks are presented at the Tradition in Action website. What follows is based on those notes.Â
The good professor explained that Our Lady was presented at the Temple so that she could live there as a consecrated virgin, contemplating God.
Before time even began, Our Lady was chosen as the Queen of Jesse from whom the Messiah would be born. As the Temple was the place in the Old Testament where sacrifices were offered to God, it represented at that time the only true religion. Our Lady being received at the Temple was thus the first step in the fulfillment of the promise that the Messiah would come to the true religion. In Her, hope met reality.
When She was received at the Temple, Our Lady entered the service of God. That is to say, a soul incomparably holy entered into God's service. At that moment, notwithstanding the decadence of the nation of Israel, and even though the Temple had been transformed into a den of the Pharisees, the Temple was filled with an incomparable light that was the sanctity of Our Lady.
It was in the Temple atmosphere that, without knowing it, she began to prepare herself to be the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It was there that she increased her love of God until she formed the ardent desire for the imminent coming of the Messiah. It was there that she asked God the honour to be the servant of His Mother. She did not know that she was the one chosen by God. This is so true that she wondered about the meaning of the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel when he greeted her to ask her permission for the Incarnation. That preparation for Our Lady to be the Mother of Jesus began with the Presentation at the Temple, the feast the Church celebrates on the 21st November each year.
Is there a grace we should ask on this day? We should ask for spiritual help to be better prepared to serve God as Our Lady did. But the best way to serve God is to serve Our Lady herself. So, on this feast day we should re-present ourselves before Our Lady, asking her to receive our offer of service and to give us her assistance in the task of our sanctification, just as the Holy Ghost helped her at the Temple of Jerusalem.
We pray that these words of the good Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira will encourage and inspire each of us to act accordingly.
We wish you all a blessed feast day. Â
