According to Leviticus 12:2-8 : ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.
After 40 days, Joseph and Mary brought the Child Jesus to the temple to fulfill the Law of Moses. Mary, exempted from these precepts, chose to submit herself to the law, although she was under no obligation to do so.
The holy man Simeon recognized the infant Messiah and, taking the Child in his arms, proclaimed him to be the “light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.”
The candles blessed in Holy Masses celebrated today all over the universal Catholic Church remind us of Christ, the True Light, and the faith, hope, and love that illumine the Christian heart.
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord was first celebrated in Jerusalem sometime before the year 400 and was first known as the “Feast of the Meeting.”
In 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II declared that the Feast of the Presentation would be celebrated as World Day of Consecrated Life, on which the Church prays for vocations to the religious life—including religious priests, brothers, and sisters—and celebrates the contributions of women and men religious in the life of the Church.
Image Credits: Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
Religious art painting/Fra Bartolomeo (1472–1517) via Wikimedia Commons
Katoliko Ako DYAF 1143 Ang Radyo Ko!
