From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 21st - Feast of the Presentation of Mary   
      
   Religious parents never fail by devout prayer to consecrate their children   
   to   
   God, His divine service and love, both before and after their birth. Some   
   among   
   the Jews, not content with this general consecration of their children,   
   offered   
   them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the Temple, to   
   be   
   brought up in quarters attached to the Temple, attending the priests and   
   Levites   
   in their sacred ministry. There were special divisions in these lodgings for   
   the   
   women and children dedicated to the divine service. (III Kings 6:5-9) We   
   have   
   examples of this special consecration of children in the person of Samuel,   
   for   
   example. Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of the   
   Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is very probable that the   
   holy prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna, who witnessed the Presentation   
   of   
   Jesus in the Temple, as we read in the second chapter of the Gospel of Saint   
   Luke (verses 25 ff.) had known His Mother as a little girl in the Temple and   
   observed her truly unique sanctity.   
      
   It is an ancient and very trustworthy tradition that the Blessed Virgin was   
   thus   
   solemnly offered in the Temple to God at the age of three by Her parents,   
   Saint   
   Anne and Saint Joachim. The Gospel tells us nothing of the childhood of   
   Mary;   
   Her title Mother of God, eclipses all the rest. Where, better than in the   
   Temple, could Mary be prepared for Her mission? Twelve years of recollection   
   and   
   prayer, contemplation and sufferings, were the preparation of the chosen one   
   of   
   God. The tender soul of Mary was adorned with the most precious graces and   
   became an object of astonishment and praise for the holy Angels, as well as   
   of   
   the highest complacency for the adorable Trinity. The Father looked upon Her   
   as   
   His beloved Daughter, the Son as One set apart and prepared to become His   
   Mother, and the Holy Ghost as His undefiled Spouse.   
      
   Here is how Mary's day in the Temple was apportioned, according to Saint   
   Jerome.   
   From dawn until nine in the morning, She prayed; from 9:00 until 3:00 She   
   applied Herself to manual work; then She turned again to prayer. She was   
   always   
   the first to undertake night watches, the One most applied to study, the   
   most   
   fervent in the chanting of Psalms, the most zealous in works of charity, the   
   purest among the virgins, Her companions, the most perfect in the practice   
   of   
   every virtue. On this day She appears as the standard-bearer for Christian   
   virginity: after Her will come countless legions of virgins consecrated to   
   the   
   Lord, both in the shadow of the altars or engaged in the charitable   
   occupations   
   of the Church in the world. Mary will be their eternal Model, their   
   dedicated   
   Patroness, their sure guide on the paths of perfection.   
      
   Reflection: The consecration of Mary to God presented all the conditions of   
   the   
   most perfect sacrifice: it was prompt, generous, joyous, unregretted,   
   without   
   reservation. How agreeable it must have been to God! May our consecration of   
   ourselves to God be made under Her patronage, assisted by Her powerful   
   intercession and united with Her ineffable merits.   
      
   Sources: Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, by Abbé L. Jaud   
   (Mame:   
   Tours, 1950); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger   
   Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most   
   fair,   
   chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing   
   forth   
   the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated   
   to   
   God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field,   
   flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a child,   
   mother   
   without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by   
   your   
   most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our   
   Lord   
   and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father,   
   steer   
   the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor"   
   - (adapted from a homily by St. Germanus on the Presentation of the Mother   
   of   
   God).   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and   
   whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So   
   if   
   you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you   
   with true riches?" (Luke 16:10-11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SOULS   
      
   O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the   
   Souls of all the faithful departed from the pains   
   of Hell and from the bottomless pit;   
   deliver them out of the lion's mouth,   
   lest Hell should swallow them up,   
   lest they fall into the outer darkness;   
   but let Thy standard-bearer, Saint Michael,   
   bring them back into Thy holy light, which Thou   
   didst promise of old to Abraham and to his seed.   
      
      
   OFFERING OF DAILY ACTIONS   
      
   ETERNAL Father,   
   by virtue of Thine generosity and love,   
   I ask that Thou accept all my actions,   
   and that Thou dost multiply their value   
   in favor of every soul in Purgatory.   
   Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Original Prayer of Pope Leo XIII to Saint Michael, the Archangel:   
      
   O Glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our   
   defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities   
   and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.   
   Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image   
   and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the   
   devil.  Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy   
   angels, as already thou hath fought the leader of the proud angels,   
   Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was   
   there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient   
   serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was   
   cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer   
   of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders   
   about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order   
   to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast   
   into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This   
   wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on   
   men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of   
   blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and   
   iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)