MEDITATION 16
THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LADY
Continued
The life of Our Lady in the Temple is an excellent subject for meditation, since it is the continuation of Her offering to God. We can, therefore, find in it great lessons for our own behavior.
1. A Life of Prayer.
The Temple is called the House of Prayer. Certainly we can pray to God anywhere but the Temple is a chosen place for prayer. Thus Mary not satisfied with the communion with God She can observe at home, wishes to enter the Temple where she may lead a more prayerful life. See the tender maid so pure and innocent, prostrate in the Temple praying to, speaking with, God. What intimate communication between God and Her! What a model of fervor!
Test the qualities of your own prayer in the light of this example: humility, attention, trust, perseverance. Mary at prayer is the perfect model. Kneel by Her side and compare your prayer with Hers. Is there any resemblance? Are you aware that the Temple is a House of Prayer and that you go there only to speak with God and adore Him? Do you know how to pray in the company of Our Blessed Lady?
St. Bonaventure says that Mary used to pray seven times a day and that during those prayers She used to address the following supplications to God: 1, to love Him with the whole of Her heart; 2, to love Her neighbor in God and for God; 3, to have a implacable hatred for all sin, for every imperfection; 4, to beg profound humility, together with all other virtues, especially immaculate purity; 5, to ask the grace of knowing the promised Messiah; 6, to be very obedient to the priests of the Temple as the representatives of God, and to let Herself be led by them in order always to do the Holy Will of God; 7, that God should as soon as possible send a Redeemer for the salvation of the world.
Do you not think that you also should ask something similar? Consider all these petitions and you will soon see how in every one of them you can in imitation of Mary find something to implore from God.
[From 'Marian Meditations' Book]
1. A Life of Prayer.
The Temple is called the House of Prayer. Certainly we can pray to God anywhere but the Temple is a chosen place for prayer. Thus Mary not satisfied with the communion with God She can observe at home, wishes to enter the Temple where she may lead a more prayerful life. See the tender maid so pure and innocent, prostrate in the Temple praying to, speaking with, God. What intimate communication between God and Her! What a model of fervor!
Test the qualities of your own prayer in the light of this example: humility, attention, trust, perseverance. Mary at prayer is the perfect model. Kneel by Her side and compare your prayer with Hers. Is there any resemblance? Are you aware that the Temple is a House of Prayer and that you go there only to speak with God and adore Him? Do you know how to pray in the company of Our Blessed Lady?
St. Bonaventure says that Mary used to pray seven times a day and that during those prayers She used to address the following supplications to God: 1, to love Him with the whole of Her heart; 2, to love Her neighbor in God and for God; 3, to have a implacable hatred for all sin, for every imperfection; 4, to beg profound humility, together with all other virtues, especially immaculate purity; 5, to ask the grace of knowing the promised Messiah; 6, to be very obedient to the priests of the Temple as the representatives of God, and to let Herself be led by them in order always to do the Holy Will of God; 7, that God should as soon as possible send a Redeemer for the salvation of the world.
Do you not think that you also should ask something similar? Consider all these petitions and you will soon see how in every one of them you can in imitation of Mary find something to implore from God.
[From 'Marian Meditations' Book]
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