Meditation 44
THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHILD
1. Mary Enters the Temple.
She has been purified and , therefore, deemed worthy to enter the Temple. How great was Her respect and devotion at that moment! She knew the Temple was the place of prayer; the place wherein God communicates Himself to souls. Although in the Temple of the Old Testament He was present rather in a symbolic and figurative manner, nevertheless it was the dwelling of the Almighty.
Mary reveres and respects the Temple where the Majesty of God dwells. How would Mary enter our Temples? What a lesson for us who sometimes are so disrespectful in those sacred places. When She entered the Temple with Her Child in Her arms, She sanctified it. We go to the Temple in order to be sanctified. She with Her Son went to the Temple to sanctify the very Temple.
What recollections must have then flooded Her mind! In the Temple at a tender age She had been presented by Her parents. Thus She had spent the first years of Her childhood. There She had passed long hours in prayer and had uttered to the Lord Her vow of virginity. How many memories would those holy precincts whisper to Mary?
As for you, is the Temple speechless? Does it not remind you of graces, of the Sacraments, of inspirations, of Communions with which you have been favored there? Have you forgotten that in front of that image of Our Lady you received so many signs of the love She bears you? Love the Temple. It must for you be the most longed-for of all places. Nowhere will you find God as there. Love the Temple and at the same time respect it. Do not allow anything unworthy of its sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHILD
1. Mary Enters the Temple.
She has been purified and , therefore, deemed worthy to enter the Temple. How great was Her respect and devotion at that moment! She knew the Temple was the place of prayer; the place wherein God communicates Himself to souls. Although in the Temple of the Old Testament He was present rather in a symbolic and figurative manner, nevertheless it was the dwelling of the Almighty.
Mary reveres and respects the Temple where the Majesty of God dwells. How would Mary enter our Temples? What a lesson for us who sometimes are so disrespectful in those sacred places. When She entered the Temple with Her Child in Her arms, She sanctified it. We go to the Temple in order to be sanctified. She with Her Son went to the Temple to sanctify the very Temple.
What recollections must have then flooded Her mind! In the Temple at a tender age She had been presented by Her parents. Thus She had spent the first years of Her childhood. There She had passed long hours in prayer and had uttered to the Lord Her vow of virginity. How many memories would those holy precincts whisper to Mary?
As for you, is the Temple speechless? Does it not remind you of graces, of the Sacraments, of inspirations, of Communions with which you have been favored there? Have you forgotten that in front of that image of Our Lady you received so many signs of the love She bears you? Love the Temple. It must for you be the most longed-for of all places. Nowhere will you find God as there. Love the Temple and at the same time respect it. Do not allow anything unworthy of its sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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