The Presentation
from Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
Every child is an arrow shot out of the bow of its mother, but its target is God. Children have come through mothers, but they do not belong to them. Mary acknowledges this claim of divinity on her Child by presenting Him back again to God, as she offers the temple of His Body in the temple made by hands.
Mary here anticipated the joy of every mother who brings her child to the baptismal font, where God may claim His own. But in the case of Mary, the Child was claimed for sacrifice, as the aged Simeon said that He was a sign to e contradicted, for the cross is the contradiction.
Mary was even told that a sword her own soul would pierce. That would happen when her Son on the cross would have His heart pierced with a lance. Through His Body and her soul would go that one stroke of the sword. She was the only mother who ever brought a life into the world to die.
It is not so much our presents that God wants from us, as it is our presence, as we offer our life to Him.
Fourth Decade: from St. Louis De Montfort
We offer Thee, O Lord Jesus, this fourth decade in honor of Thy Presentation in the temple by the hands of Mary, and we ask of Thee, through this mystery and through the intercession of Thy Blessed Mother, the gift of wisdom and purity of heart and body.
One Our Father, ten Hail Marys, Glory be to the Father, Fatima Prayer…
Grace of the mystery of the Purification, come down into my soul and make it really wise and really pure.