Gospel: Luke 19:41-44
When Jesus had come in sight of the city, he wept over it, and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Yet days will come upon you, when your enemies will surround you with barricades, and shut you in, and press on you from every side. And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and not leave stone upon stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

Reflections
“If only today you knew the ways of peace!”
The presentation of Mary at age 3 was a fulfillment of the promise her mother Anne made when she was still childless. Al- though the source of the story is a dubious account, the so-called Protoevangelium of James, this has been celebrated since the 6th century and was adopted by the whole church 10 centuries later. Rev. Alban Butler wrote that the presentation paved the way for Mary to spend her youth in holy retirement and to the exercises of a religious and interior life. Through the act of presentation then, the Blessed Mother was introduced early into a life of holiness. And her holiness, seen in her obedience to God, she kept until the completion of her life on earth.
We keep this practice even in our times with us being initiated young into the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. But keeping our holiness, our closeness with God, is something many of us miss to keep. Let it be our prayer that this commemoration of the presentation of Mary rekindle our own interior life.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019