Admire ber humility, in being willing to pass for a person unclean, she that was more pure than the angels; and to be excluded for forty days from touching any thing that was holy, or coming near the house of God; and to be cleansed by a sin-offering, as if she needed any such expiation. Admire her love of purity, which brought her on this day to the temple of God, to be there purified with these legal sacrifices; because she was desirous of omitting nothing that could in any way contribute to increase or maintain purity. And learn to imitate these great virtues, her ready obedience, her profound humility, and her great zeal and love for purity.
Consider, secondly, that on this day the Blessed Virgin made a rich present to God, in his temple, infinitely surpassing all the offerings that had ever been made there before; when, according to the law of the first-born, she presented her Son, the first-born of the whole creation, by whom all things were made, both visible and invisible, to his eternal Father.
Parents, learn to imitate this presentation, by making an offering of your children to God, by the hands of Mary, to be dedicated for ever to his love and service. Christians, learn to present him with your hearts, together with all their offspring, your thoughts, words, and deeds: learn to make an offering to him of your whole being, every day, and every hour of your life.
But then you must not stop here: you must also present to him his Son Jesus Christ, and yourselves with him, and through him, daily in the sacred mysteries, and hourly in the spiritual temple of your souls. The temple of God in Jerusalem was highly honoured on this day, by the presence of the Son of God, according to that prophecy of Aggeus(ch. ii): "The desired of all nations shall come:, and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of Hosts.—Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first, saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place I will give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts."
My soul, art not thou ambitious of a share in this glory, peace, and happiness? Invite then this same Son of God, the desired of all nations, into thy inward house; and he will come and make thee the temple of his glory, and bring thee his true peace, which will make thee happy indeed.
Consider, thirdly, that on this day the venerable Simeon, who had received a promise from the Holy Ghost that he should see the Saviour of the World before he died, coming by divine instinct into the temple, whilst our Lord was presented, there, took him into his arms, and declared him to be the promised Messias, the glory of Israel, and the light of all nations. At the same time that holy widow, Anna, the prophetess, who for a great number of years had attended on the Lord in his temple by continual prayer and fasting, was also favoured with the like grace, and made the like public profession of her faith in our infant Saviour. This sacred meeting of so many persons of such eminent sanctity in the temple of God, in company with the Son of God, and his blessed mother, the church celebrates in the procession of this day, which we make with lighted candles in our hands, that are solemnly blessed in the name of Christ, and received from the hand of God's priests, as emblems of the light of Christ.
See then, Christian souls, with what affection of devotion you ought to receive, and to bear in your hands these hallowed candles, as figures of Christ. O, learn, on this occasion, of holy Simeon, to seek Christ alone, to sigh after him alone, to aspire with your whole souls after his embraces; despising all things else that you may find him. O, remember that he is the true light of the world in his life and doctrine; and determine from this time forward ever to follow him.
Conclude to study well all the lessons which are to be learnt from the Presentation of the Son of God, and the Purification of his Blessed Mother, and to conform yourselves to them in the practice of your lives; that so being purified from all your sins, you may also be worthy to be one day presented to God, in the eternal temple of his glory.
Bishop Richard Challoner
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The SSPX will offer 3hrs of confessions at the local church and will offer 3 Masses for the Feast!
Do you see a theme?
Abraham offered Isaac, Mary offered her Son, and God also the Son; now, priest (in persona cristi) offers again Christ (at the Traditional Latin Mass). Obviously, these are different offerings, but all entail pain, or death. The offeratory in the Novus Ordo entails neither.
Why is it so hard for protestants to wrap their heads around the concept of Sacrifice?
Nevertheless, this is a very nice, beautiful piece about Mary, and her offering.
"According to Jewish law, two things still remained--the buying back from God of the child, and the purification of the mother: strange to think of the Redeemer redeemed and the all-pure purified!"
Frank J. Sheed, To Know Christ Jesus
(God, rest the soul of Father D.S.)
I can tell you more about the neo-protestants - the charismatics, NCW etc., than the official Protestants.
It is hard for them to accept the concept of Sacrifice because they do not have the mind of the Church, but the mind of the world, which abhors sacrifices. It is a religion of the earthly.
They think: "God is merciful. Why should God ask for the death of His Son as a price for our salvation?" and so they teach that the Cross is only an expression of God's communion with His people or of His love, and deny Redemption. They emphasize the Resurrection as a celebration of life and a celebration of man, which they consider to have been thus perfected and resurrected.
Of course, they leave out of the equation that God is both just and merciful, and that the boundless offence of all our sins must be recompensed by a boundless sacrifice.
What man is capable of such penance, mortification, sacrifice so as to be able to wash the sins of all mankind? What man is able to end one Divine Covenant and institute a New Covenant between God and mankind? Answer this to those that doubt the divinity of Our Lord, whether by their words or actions - no mere man.
The Protestants deny that Mass is a sacrifice. They refuse to believe that Our Lord, being God, could have turned the bread and wine on Good Thursday into His Most Holy Body and Blood, before His Sacrifice on Calvary. This is a practical denial of the Divinity of Our Lord. In the same way, by refusing to believe, they deny the Divine marks of the Church, the priesthood, for they believe that God, who always kept a priesthood in Israel, would leave His Church orphaned for 2000 years, the infallibility and the indefectibility of the Church, for they claim the Church was in error for 1200 years etc. They deny the Divine authority to absolve sins, they deny that God can cleanse a man of his sins, and so they hold all of man's works sinful, even good works. This is again a practical denial of Our Lord's Divinity. Being so in spiritual poverty, as Luther was in a state of obsession with fear of being damned, they say that faith alone is sufficient, without works, although the Apostle says Faith without works is dead. Again they disregard that God is both just and merciful.
The Protestant religion is in its very basis deeply unchristian. It is, much like the conciliar ideal, a religion of man, of man's resurrection, of man's sanctification, of man's deification. It is, in its basis, a practical denial of the Divinity of Our Lord.
Lord God, glorify Your Holy Name!
Our Lady, for whom victory is reserved over all heresies, may your triumph come soon!
Ecclesia, I agree with everything you just wrote. Well said!
My wife is the only one who keeps me grounded!
So, good night!
Thanks to the editors for highlighting the writings of Venerable Bp. Richard Challoner, one of the last Vicars Apostolic of the London District, and an instrumental figure in preparing the way for Newman's "Second Spring." Challoner's "Meditations For Every Day in the Year" along with "Memoirs of Missionary Priests" and his "Garden of the Soul" formed the three fundamental volumes of Catholic reading material from the mid to late 1700's through the end of the 19th century. He was admired and respected by friend and adversary alike, and helped to bring the church in England out of the catacombs after the brutalities of the Reformation. His cause for sainthood has stalled, somewhat, but remains open, and should be pursued with vigor. As your present post demonstrates, he continues to give to the church in all ages, which reflects the fact that he was called Venerable Richard Challoner even in his own lifetime. He has long been an inspiration to me, personally. God bless him, and all of us on this Candlemas Day. Venerable Richard Challoner, ora pro nobis.
A special title of Our Lady of the Purification is one given through a Spanish seer in Quito, Ecuador ... Our Lady of Good Success.
The story of Our Lady of Good Success was remarkable and miraculous from the beginning, having revealed Herself to two friars in Spain. It was sometime afterwards when a Spanish nun in the new territory of Ecuador was praying to this Spanish title of Our Lady that She revealed Herself to her under that special title.
The term "Good Success" relates to the success of the Virginal Conception and birth of Our Lord, a manifest sign of Our Lady's good success in crushing the head of the serpent, and, as the Ark of the New Covenant, delivering the "Glory of Israel" back into the Temple after the prescribed 490 years of an Arkless Temple.
OUr Lady of Good Success, Our lady of the Purification, Pray for us and grant Holy Mother Church a definitive and final victory over the evil forces of Modernism.
Amen.
"Admire ber humility, in being willing to pass for a person unclean, she that was more pure than the angels;"
I had never thought deeply about this before regarding The Purification. Our Lady is truly amazing and an endless source of wonder in aspiring to be like Her.
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