From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   February 2nd - Feast Day of the Purification   
   And Our Lady of Good Success   
      
   Our Lady of Good Success! Our Lady of the Purification! What can be said about   
   these two invocations? In what sense does the feast day of Good Success relate   
   to the Feast of the Purification? And how can these invocations be understood   
   in   
   relation to our fight in the present days?   
      
   According to the precept of the Old Testament, a mother would take her son 40   
   days after his birth to the Temple to present herself to be purified and to   
   offer the child to God. This was a precept that every good Israelite mother   
   observed. It was, moreover, a beautiful law that reflected the holiness of God.   
      
   A child is born amid the dangers that accompany every gestation. But, finally,   
   he is born. Oh! Happy success! As soon as the mother recovers enough to travel,   
   she takes the child and goes to the Temple. She goes and presents her child to   
   God because He was the one who created him so he might be offered to God and   
   live for Him. The Old Law made this presentation obligatory.   
      
   Because she did not have original sin, Our Lady was above the Old Law. Likewise   
   Our Lord, who is God, was not subject to the Law that He Himself made. The   
   Legislator is superior to the Law. So, in principle, He was not obliged to go,   
   and Our Lady was not obliged to take Him to the Temple in Jerusalem. But she   
   wanted to do so. She wanted to do out of respect for the law, for tradition.   
   Loving tradition and animated by her intense love for God, she took her Son,   
   the   
   Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to the Temple of Jerusalem.   
      
   Then we have the story in the Gospels on that episode at the Temple. It is God   
   Incarnate Who enters the Temple built to worship Him. Even if the Temple had   
   been much more splendid than the Temple of Jerusalem, it still would not have   
   been sufficient for the Incarnate God to enter. It was the greatest hour, the   
   blessed hour, the perfect hour. Never before in its history was the presence of   
   God so intense and complete in that Temple as it was in that hour. One can say   
   that at that moment, the angels filled the Temple and began to sing to   
   celebrate   
   the solemn moment. Our Lady entered holding Our Lord. Yet almost no one   
   realized   
   the magnitude of the event.   
      
   The religious decadence of the Chosen People was great at that time. The   
   faithful were divided into two main currents: One wanted to adapt to the   
   Greco-Roman influence that dominated the temporal world. They were the   
   Saducees,   
   in many points analogous to the present day progressivists. The other current   
   pretended to follow the influential party of the Macabees and keep the old   
   traditions of Israel. But unfortunately, this initial good intention had been   
   deviated, and most of this group were now simply practicing a religion of   
   formulas and rites, empty of any soul. They were the Pharisees, in many points   
   similar to some false traditionalists of our days. Thirty years later, the   
   heads   
   of the Pharisees who revolted against the doctrine of Our Lord were the ones   
   who   
   led the plot to crucify Him.   
      
   At the time Our Lord was born, both currents were far from the right path of   
   God. The Temple was filled with booths of people doing business of all kinds.   
   Almost everything was in ruins, a moral decadence.   
      
   Then, the One Who is the Author of all things entered into this spiritual   
   ruins.   
   And those men of ruin did not perceive Who He was. He came to fulfill the   
   ritual   
   of presentation, and a prophet, Simeon, who was the Prophet chosen by God for   
   this act of receiving the Son of God in the Temple, came forward. Receiving the   
   Divine Child in his arms, he spoke the words of that canticle: "Nunc dimittis   
   servum tuum Domine ."   
   "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant in peace, O Lord, according to thy word.   
   Because my eyes have seen my salvation,   
   Which thou hast prepared in the face of all peoples,   
   A Light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel."   
   Our Lady, joyous, heard these words spoken by that old man, who seemed   
   embittered by life, by a promise that still had not been fulfilled. The promise   
   of God that he would see the Messiah before he died. Then, when he saw the   
   Messiah arrive, he cried out "Now, Lord, I can die in peace because my eyes   
   have   
   seen the Savior."   
      
   He blessed them, and told the mother the future of that Child. He foresaw the   
   Glory and the Cross. He said: "Behold this child is set for the fall and for   
   the   
   resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted."   
      
   The Prophetess Anna also sang the glories of the Child. By divine inspiration,   
   Simeon and Anna were given to know that which until then only St. Joseph and   
   Mary and a few others knew, that He was the Son of God.   
      
   What is the relation of this event to Our Lady of Good Success? What is   
   success?   
   It is an event worthy of note, something that demands care, sacrifice, and   
   dedication, and which gives a result. When this result is good, one says that   
   it   
   is a good success. There was much good success in the birth of Our Lord: the   
   gestation of Our Lady was perfect; it was followed by a blessed and happy   
   delivery, and the Child was healthy and perfect. Therefore, to commemorate such   
   good success and to fulfill the precept of purification Our Lady took Him to   
   the   
   Temple.   
      
   In the broadest sense of the word, good success applies also to all those who   
   carry out an arduous work, who take on a great responsibility, who desire to do   
   difficult things to reach the result they were striving for. When their efforts   
   are accomplished with the desired good result, they have a good success. Our   
   Lady is the patroness of all those who seek a good success in the service of   
   her   
   cause.   
      
   You can see how apt it is for our days, how those who work and strive in the   
   darkness of the night of the neopaganism of our days to see the sun of the   
   Reign   
   of Mary rise can rightfully call the result a good success. Can't it be said   
   that Our Lady of Good Success will be the so happily chosen patroness of the   
   hour in which the Reign of Mary will finally be born on Earth?   
      
   See pictures at:   
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j059sdPurificationOLGS2-2.htm   
      
   By the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills   
   them   
   with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm   
   bliss of our heavenly home.   
   - St Rose of Viterbo   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,   
   bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his   
   sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:5-6)   
      
      
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   Indulgenced Prayers   
      
      
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