Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Presentation of Our Lady. At a tender age, the Immaculate Virgin was brought to the Temple by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, where she was consecrated to God’s service.
See also:
Mass Readings
First Reading – 1 Rev 11:4-12
I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.
OR: Zechariah 2:14-17
Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD. Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land, and he will again choose Jerusalem. Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD! He stirs forth from his holy dwelling.
Responsorial Psalm – 1 Chronicles 144:1, 2, 9-10 (R. 1b)
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! R.
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war. R.
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me. R.
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword. R.
“You have dominion over all,
In your hand are power and might;
it is yours to give grandeur and strength to all.” R.
OR:
Responsorial Psalm – Lk 1:46-47, 48-49, 50-51, 52-53, 54-55</h5
R. (49) The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
or: R. O Blessed Virgin Mary, you carried the Son of the eternal Father.
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” R.
“For he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.” R.
“He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.” R.
“He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.” R.
“He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.” R.
Gospel – Lk 19:45-48
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
OR:
Gospel – LK 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
Featured Saints
St. Gelasius I, Pope (†496). To avoid the imperial authority from harming the unity of the Church, he clearly explained the competencies of the two powers and their mutual independence.
St. Agapius of Caesarea, martyr (†306). After suffering torture and imprisonment for two years in Caesarea Maritima, he was drowned by being thrown into the Mediterranean with stones bound to his feet.
St. Rufus, of whom St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, calls “elect in the Lord”.
Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, virgin (†1902). She founded the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Rome, to help immigrants from her homeland, Poland.
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