The Third Prevenient Mystery
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
I continue the series on my Prevenient Mysteries of the Rosary. The premise was my thinking that the Immaculate Conception should have been included in the rosary and since it wasn’t I developed the five Prevenient Mysteries leading up to the Annunciation.
So far I have written about the Immaculate Conception and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This week we continue with the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The following paragraph from the Protoevangelium of James describes the days leading up to and the actual presentation of Mary at the temple:
“6. And the child grew strong day by day; and when she was six months old, her mother set her on the ground to try whether she could stand, and she walked seven steps and came into her bosom; and she snatched her up, saying: As the Lord my God lives, you shall not walk on this earth until I bring you into the temple of the Lord. And she made a sanctuary in her bed-chamber, and allowed nothing common or unclean to pass through her. And she called the undefiled daughters of the Hebrews, and they led her astray. And when she was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel. And Joachim brought the child to the priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations. And all the people said: So be it, so be it, amen. And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be forever. And her mother snatched her up, and took her into the sanctuary of her bed-chamber, and gave her the breast. And Anna made a song to the Lord God, saying: I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He has looked upon me, and has taken away the reproach of mine enemies; and the Lord has given the fruit of His righteousness, singular in its kind, and richly endowed before Him. Who will tell the sons of Rubim that Anna gives suck? Hear, hear, you twelve tribes of Israel, that Anna gives suck. And she laid her to rest in the bed-chamber of her sanctuary, and went out and ministered unto them. And when the supper was ended, they went down rejoicing, and glorifying the God of Israel.”1
I often equated the “presentation” with baptism. One difference, though, is that in baptism we seem to take a lot more than we give; we receive admission to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, we reveive the first “installment” of the gift of the Holy Spirit that will be completed in the sacrament of Confrimation, etc. In the presentation, at least in the two we have some details about with the Blessed Mother and Jesus’ presentation, is that the parents and community were thanking God and, especially if it was the first child, offering that child back to God to use however God needed them.
It was well after we had the first two of our four kids thats I realized they were God’s kids before they were my kids. That God had entrsuted the souls of my kids to me for the short time that they would be on this planet under my direct care. I would like to think I did the best I could under the circumstances. I don’t think I am that different from others in that I raised my kids the way that I was raised, for better or worse: we instilled good values, sent them to Catholic schoool and tried to be good examples. We have great kids, not perfect kids. Being in the recovery world I too often see adn hear about the tragedies parents experience when their children end up in addicition world and with what is availabel today it is often lethal. I know families that have suffered multiple losses due to the insidiousness of drugs. Part of my gratitude rosary (mentioned in my last post) is that my kids, at least for today, have not fallen prey to drugs.
As a parent I take comfort knowing that God and the Blessed Mother are my kids eternal parents. That they watch over them better than I do. The greatest gift I can give them is to make sure they know that not only are they loved by their human parents, they are loved even more by the spiritual parents. To that end, I use the surrender rosary to turn each fo them over to the care of God on a regular basis. This does not guarantee they will be protected from tragedy but does give me the peace and serenity to know that if tragedy should strike, God is taking care of them even before the actual tragedy. The grace to face all things, great and small, always comes before the “thing”. But we need to reflect and look at the many “things” that have happend in our lives in order to see it. Trust me, if you look hard enough you will eventually see it!
Protevangelium of James, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm
Is that odd or is that God?
After I posted the article on Thanksgiving earlier this week I heard multiple times about the necessity for gratitude on a daily basis: a homily at our Calix Mass, sharing at the calix meeting after, etc. It was all a reinforcement of how important it is to express our gratitude to God and to others on a regular basis!
Check out my website at www.notsaintsyet.org . I recently added t-shirts to the store and just received 6” x 7” prints of the “Slamming the Door” image that I will be matting and putting in 8” x 10” frames in the next couple days and adding to the website.
Next week: Advent and the 4th Prevenient Mystery - Mary’s Life as a Temple Virgin.