Discourse III — The Presentation of Mary

The offering that Mary made of herself to God was prompt, without delay, and entire, without reserve.

There has never been, nor will there ever be, an offering of a pure creature greater and more perfect than that which the child Mary made to God at the age of three years, when she presented herself in the temple to offer him — not spices or calves, nor talents of gold — but her entire self in a perfect holocaust, consecrating herself a perpetual victim in his honor. Well did she understand the voice of God, which even then called her to dedicate herself wholly to his love, with those words: Surge, propera, amica mea... et veni (Cant. II, 10). And therefore her Lord desired that even then she should forget her homeland, her kindred, and everything else, in order to attend solely to loving him and pleasing him: Audi, filia, et vide et inclina aurem tuam, et obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui (Ps. XLIV, 11). And she promptly obeyed the divine voice.

Let us consider, then, how pleasing to God was this offering that Mary made of herself, since she offered herself promptly and entirely: promptly, without delay; entirely, without reserve — two points.

Point I

Let us begin: Mary offered herself promptly to God.

Although from the very first moment this heavenly child was sanctified in her mother's womb — which was the first instant of her Immaculate Conception — she received the perfect use of reason, so as to begin meriting even then, as the Doctors commonly teach with Father Suarez, who says that since the more perfect way God uses to sanctify a soul is to sanctify it through its own merit, as St. Thomas teaches (3 p., q. 19, a. 3), so we must believe the Blessed Virgin was sanctified: Sanctificari per proprium actum est perfectior modus; ergo credendum est hoc modo fuisse sanctificatam Virginem. And if this privilege was granted to the angels and to Adam, as the Angelic Doctor says (1 p., q. 63, a. 5, and q. 95, a. 2), much more must we believe it was granted to the divine Mother, to whom we must certainly suppose that God, having deigned to make her his Mother, conferred greater gifts than on all other creatures, as the same holy Doctor teaches: Ex ea accepit humanam naturam, et ideo prae ceteris maiorem debuit a Christo gratiae plenitudinem obtinere (3 p., q. 27, a. 5). For since she was his Mother, says Father Suarez, she has a singular right to all the gifts of her Son: Unde fit ut singulare ius habeat ad dona Filii sui. And just as the hypostatic union made it fitting that Jesus should have the fullness of all graces, so the divine maternity made it fitting that Jesus by natural right should confer on Mary graces greater than those granted to all other saints and angels.

Thus from the very beginning of her life Mary knew God, and she knew him to such a degree that no tongue — as the angel told St. Bridget — can explain how far the intellect of the Blessed Virgin penetrated into the knowledge of God in the first instant she knew him (Angelic Sermon, ch. 14). And from that first light by which she was illumined, she offered herself entirely to her Lord, dedicating herself wholly to his love and his glory, as the angel continued to tell St. Bridget: "At once our Queen determined to sacrifice her will to God with all her love, for the whole time of her life. And no one can comprehend how her will then subjected itself to embrace all things pleasing to him."

But understanding then, the immaculate child, that her holy parents, Joachim and Anne, had also promised God by vow — as various authors report — that if he granted them offspring they would consecrate the child to serve him in the temple; and it being already an ancient custom among the Jews to enclose their daughters in certain cells surrounding the temple to be properly educated there — as Baronius, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, and Suarez report, along with Josephus, and with the authority also of St. John Damascene, St. George of Nicomedia, St. Anselm, and St. Ambrose (De Virg., bk. 1), and as is also clearly gathered from the second book of Maccabees (III, 20), where, speaking of Heliodorus who wished to assault the temple to seize the treasury deposited there, it says: Pro eo quod in contemptum locus esset venturus... Virgines quae conclusae erant procurrebant ad Oniam — Mary, I say, understanding this, as soon as she reached the age of three years, as St. Germanus and St. Epiphanius attest, who says Tertio anno oblata est in templo (Sermon on the Praises of the Virgin) — an age at which little girls most desire and most need the care of their parents — she wished solemnly to offer and consecrate herself to God by presenting herself in the temple. Thus she was the first to go and earnestly beg her parents to bring her to the temple to fulfill their promise. And her holy mother, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, Anna haud cunctata est eam ad templum adducere ac Deo offerre (Or. on the Nativity of Christ).

Behold how Joachim and Anne, generously sacrificing to God the dearest part of their hearts on earth, set out from Nazareth, carrying now one, now the other, their too-dearly-loved little daughter in their arms, for she was not able to make so long a journey as that from Nazareth to Jerusalem — a distance of eighty miles, as many authors relate. They went accompanied by few relatives, but the angels in hosts — says St. George of Nicomedia (On the Oblation of the Mother of God) — went escorting and serving on this journey the immaculate little virgin, who was going to consecrate herself to the divine Majesty. Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui, filia principis (Cant. VII, 1): How beautiful are your steps — the angels must then have been singing — how pleasing to God are these steps you take to go and offer yourself to him, O great and beloved daughter of our common Lord! God himself, says Bernardine of Busti, held on that day with all his heavenly court a great feast, seeing his spouse led to the temple: Magnam quoque festivitatem fecit Deus cum angelis in deductione suae sponsae ad templum. For he had never seen a creature holier and more beloved come to offer herself to him: Quia nullus umquam Deo gratior usque ad illud tempus ascendit. Go then — St. Germanus, Archbishop of Constantinople, said to her — go, O queen of the world, O Mother of God, go joyfully to the house of the Lord to await the coming of the Divine Spirit, who will make you the Mother of the Eternal Word: Abi ergo, o Domina Mater Dei, in atria Domini, exsultans et exspectans Sancti Spiritus adventum, et unigeniti Filii conceptionem.

When the holy company had arrived at the temple, the beautiful child turned to her parents, and kneeling, kissed their hands and asked their blessing; and then, without looking back, she climbed the fifteen steps of the temple — as Arias Montano relates from Josephus — and presented herself to the priest St. Zechariah, as St. Germanus holds. And then, taking leave of the world and renouncing all the goods it promises to its followers, she offered and consecrated herself to her Creator.

At the time of the flood, the raven sent by Noah from the ark stayed to feed on corpses, but the dove, without resting its foot, quickly returned to the ark: Reversa est ad eum in arcam (Gen. VIII, 9). Many who are sent by God into this world unhappily remain to feed on earthly goods. Not so our heavenly dove Mary; she recognized that our only good, our only hope, and our only love must be God; she recognized that the world is full of dangers and that whoever leaves it soonest is most free from its snares. Therefore she sought to flee from it as early as her most tender age, and went to enclose herself within the sacred retreat of the temple, where she could better hear the voice of God and better honor and love him. And so the Blessed Virgin, from the very beginning of her actions, made herself wholly dear and pleasing to her Lord, as the holy Church has her speak: Congratulamini mihi omnes qui diligitis Dominum, quia, cum essem parvula, placui Altissimo. And therefore she was compared to the moon, for just as the moon completes its course more swiftly than the other planets, so Mary more quickly than all the saints reached perfection, by giving herself to God promptly, without delay, and entirely, without reserve.

And let us pass to the second point, where we shall have much to say.

Point II

Well did the enlightened child know that God does not accept a divided heart but wills it to be wholly consecrated to his love, according to the precept: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo. Therefore from the moment she began to live, she began to love God with all her strength and gave herself entirely to him. But her most holy soul awaited with great desire the time to consecrate herself to him entirely in act and with public solemnity. Let us consider, then, with what fervor the loving little virgin, finding herself already enclosed in that holy place, first prostrated herself to kiss that ground as the house of the Lord, then adored his infinite Majesty, thanked him for the favor received of being brought so early to dwell in his house, and then offered herself entirely to her God — entirely, without reserve of anything — offering him all her faculties and all her senses, her whole mind and her whole heart, her whole soul and her whole body. For it was then, as is held, that to please God she made the vow of her virginity — a vow that Mary was the first to make, as Rupert the Abbot says: Votum virginitatis prima emisit. And she offered herself entirely, without limitation of time, as Bernardine of Busti asserts: Maria seipsam perpetuis Dei obsequiis obtulit et dedicavit; for she then intended to dedicate herself to serving his divine Majesty in the temple for her whole life, if it so pleased God, without ever leaving that sacred place. Oh, with what affection she must then have said: Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi (Cant. II, 16). Ego illi, as Cardinal Hugh comments, tota vivam et tota moriar. My Lord and God, she said, I have come here only to please you and give you all the honor I can; here I wish to live entirely for you and to die entirely for you, if it pleases you; accept the sacrifice that this poor servant of yours makes to you, and help me to be faithful to you.

And here let us consider how holy was the life that Mary led in the temple, where, quasi aurora consurgens, ever growing in perfection as the dawn grows in its light — who can ever describe how day by day her virtues shone ever more beautifully in her: charity, modesty, humility, silence, mortification, meekness? Planted in the house of God, this beautiful olive tree, says St. John Damascene, watered by the Holy Spirit, became the dwelling place of all virtues: Ad templum adducitur, ac deinde in domo Dei plantata, atque per Spiritum saginata, instar olivae frugiferae virtutum omnium domicilium efficitur (Bk. 4, On the Faith, ch. 14). Elsewhere the same saint says: The Virgin's countenance was modest, her spirit humble, her words gracious, proceeding from an interior well-ordered. And again he asserts: The Virgin withdrew her thought from all earthly things, embracing all the virtues; practicing perfection in this way, she advanced in a short time to such a degree that she merited to be made a temple worthy of God.

St. Anselm also speaks of the life of the Blessed Virgin in the temple and says: Mary was docile, spoke little, was always composed, without laughter and without ever being disturbed. She persevered in prayer, in reading the Sacred Scriptures, in fasting, and in all virtuous works. St. Jerome relates more particular details: Mary ordered her life thus: from morning until terce she remained in prayer; from terce until none she occupied herself with some work; from none she resumed prayer until the angel brought her food, as was customary. She strove to be the first in vigils, the most exact in the divine law, the most profound in humility, and in every virtue the most perfect. No one ever saw her angry; all her words came forth so full of sweetness that God was always recognized upon her lips.

The divine Mother herself then revealed to St. Elizabeth, a Benedictine virgin in the monastery of Schönau — as is read in St. Bonaventure (On the Life of Christ, ch. 3) — that when she was left in the temple by her parents, she resolved to have God alone for her father, and she often thought what she could do to please him: Cum pater meus et mater mea dimiserunt me in templo, statui in corde meo habere Deum in patrem, et saepe cogitabam quid possem facere illi gratum. She further resolved to consecrate her virginity to him and to possess nothing in this world, giving God her entire will: Statui servare virginitatem, nihil umquam possidere in mundo, et omnem voluntatem meam Deo commisi. Moreover, she told her that among all the precepts to observe, she set before her eyes the precept: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum; and that she used to go at midnight to pray before the altar of the temple, asking the Lord to grant her the grace of observing his commandments and of letting her see the Mother of the Redeemer born, praying him to preserve her eyes to see her, her tongue to praise her, her hands and feet to serve her, and her knees to adore his divine Son in her bosom. But St. Elizabeth, hearing this, said to her: "But my Lady, were you not already full of grace and virtue?" And Mary replied: "Know that I considered myself the most vile and unworthy of divine grace; and therefore I asked in this way for grace and the virtues." And finally, so that we might be persuaded of the absolute necessity we all have of seeking from God the graces we need, she added: "Do you think that I obtained grace and the virtues without effort? Know that I received no grace from God without great effort, continual prayer, ardent desire, and many tears and penances."

But above all we must consider the revelations made to St. Bridget concerning the virtues and practices of the Blessed Virgin in her childhood, in these words: From infancy Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit, and as she grew in age, grace grew within her. From that time she resolved to love God with her whole heart, so that in actions and words he would never be offended; and therefore all earthly goods were despised by her. She gave whatever she could to the poor. In eating she was so temperate that she took only what was strictly necessary to sustain the body. Then, perceiving in the Sacred Scriptures that this God was to be born of a virgin to redeem the world, her spirit was so inflamed with divine love that she desired and thought of nothing but God, and finding her delight in God alone, she fled even the conversation of her parents, lest they should distract her from the memory of God. And she supremely desired to be alive at the time of the Messiah's coming, so as to be the handmaid of that blessed virgin who would merit to be his mother. So say the revelations made to St. Bridget (Bk. 1 and Bk. 3, ch. 8).

Ah yes, for love of this great child the Redeemer hastened his coming into the world; for whereas in her humility she did not even consider herself worthy to be the handmaid of the divine Mother, she was chosen to be that Mother; and with the fragrance of her virtues and her powerful prayers she drew the divine Son into her virginal womb. Therefore Mary was called the turtledove by her divine Spouse: Vox turturis audita est in terra nostra (Cant. II, 12) — not only because, like the turtledove, she always loved solitude, living in this world as in a desert, but also because, like the turtledove that always goes moaning through the fields, Mary always mourned in the temple, compassionating the miseries of a lost world and seeking from God the common Redemption. Oh, with how much greater affection and fervor she repeated to God in the temple the supplications and sighs of the prophets, that he would send the Redeemer: Emitte Agnum, Domine, dominatorem terrae (Is. XVI, 1). Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant Iustum (Is. XLV, 8). Utinam dirumperes caelos et descenderes (Is. LXIV, 1).

In short, it was the delight of God to see this little virgin ever ascending to the highest perfection, like a column of smoke rich with the fragrance of all the virtues, just as the Holy Spirit describes her in the Canticle of Canticles: Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi, ex aromatibus myrrhae et thuris et omnis pulveris pigmentarii? (Cant. III, 6). This child was truly, says Sophronius, the garden of delights of the Lord, for he found there every kind of flower and every fragrance of the virtues: Vere Virgo erat hortus deliciarum, in quo consita sunt universa florum genera et odoramenta virtutum. Hence St. John Chrysostom affirms that God chose Mary for his Mother on earth because he found no virgin holier and more perfect than Mary on earth, nor any dwelling worthier than her most sacred womb, as St. Bernard likewise says: Nec in terris locus dignior utero virginali. St. Antoninus asserts that the Blessed Virgin, in order to be chosen and destined for the dignity of Mother of God, had to possess a perfection so great and consummate as to surpass the perfection of all other creatures: Ultima gratia perfectionis est praeparatio ad Filium Dei concipiendum (P. IV, tit. 15, ch. 6).

Just as the holy child Mary presented and offered herself in the temple to God promptly and entirely, so let us on this day, without delay and without reserve, present ourselves to Mary and pray her to offer us to God, who will not refuse us when he sees us offered by the hand of her who was the living temple of the Holy Spirit, the delight of her Lord, and the chosen Mother of the Eternal Word. And let us hope greatly in this exalted and most gracious Lady, who repays with overflowing love the homage she receives from her devoted servants, as may be seen from the following example.

Example

We read in the Life of Sister Domenica of Paradise, written by Father Ignazio del Nente, a Dominican, that in a village called Paradiso, near Florence, this little maiden was born of poor parents. From childhood she began to serve the divine Mother. She fasted in her honor every day of the week; on Saturdays she would distribute to the poor the food she had denied herself; and every Saturday she went into the garden of her home or into the neighboring fields, gathered there all the flowers she could, and presented them before an image of the Blessed Virgin with the Child in her arms, which she kept in her house.

But let us now turn to see with how many favors the most grateful Lady repaid the homage this servant of hers offered her. One day, while Domenica was at the window — she was then ten years old — she saw in the street a woman of beautiful appearance, and with her a little boy, both stretching out their hands as if begging for alms. She went to get bread, and behold, without the door being opened, she found them beside her and saw that the boy had wounds on his hands, his feet, and his breast. She asked the mother: "Who has wounded this child?" The mother answered: "It was love." Domenica, enchanted by the beauty and modesty of the little boy, asked him if those wounds pained him. But he answered only with a smile. Meanwhile, as they all stood near the images of Jesus and Mary, the woman said to Domenica: "Tell me, daughter, what moves you to crown these images with flowers?" She answered: "I am moved by the love I bear for Jesus and Mary." "And how much do you love them?" "As much as I can." "And how much can you?" "As much as they help me." "Continue," said the woman then, "continue to love them, and they will repay you well in paradise."

Then the maiden, sensing a heavenly fragrance coming from those wounds, asked the mother with what ointment she anointed them, and whether that ointment could be purchased. The woman answered: "It is purchased with faith and works." Domenica offered the bread. The mother said: "The food of this child of mine is love; tell him that you love Jesus, and you will make him content." The boy, at this word of love, began to rejoice, and turning to the maiden asked her how much she loved Jesus; and she, answering that she loved him so much that day and night she always thought of him and sought nothing but to please him as much as she could. "Very well," he added, "love him, and love will teach you what you must do to content him." As the fragrance exhaled from those wounds grew stronger, Domenica exclaimed: "Oh God, this fragrance makes me die of love! If the fragrance of a child is so sweet, what must the fragrance of paradise be!"

But then the scene changed: the mother appeared clothed as a queen and surrounded with light; and the boy, resplendent as a sun of beauty, took those same flowers and scattered them on Domenica's head. She, recognizing in those persons Mary and Jesus, had prostrated herself to adore them. And so the vision ended.

Domenica later took the Dominican habit and died with a reputation for sanctity in the year 1553.

Prayer

O beloved of God, most lovable child Mary, oh, if only as you presented yourself in the temple and promptly and entirely consecrated yourself to the glory and love of your God, so too might I today offer you the first years of my life, to dedicate myself wholly to serving you, my holy and most sweet Lady! But I am no longer in time, for unhappily I have wasted so many years serving the world and my whims, almost entirely forgetful of you and of God. Vae tempori illi in quo non amavi te! But better late than never to begin. Behold, O Mary, today I present myself to you and offer myself entirely to your service for the little or much that remains for me to live on this earth; and together with you I renounce all creatures and dedicate myself entirely to the love of my Creator.

I consecrate to you, then, O Queen, my mind, that it may always think of the love you deserve; my tongue, to praise you; my heart, to love you. Accept, O most holy little Virgin, the offering this poor sinner presents to you; accept it, I beg you, for the consolation your heart felt when in the temple you gave yourself to God. And if I come late to serve you, it is right that I make up for lost time by redoubling my homage and love.

Help, with your powerful intercession, O Mother of Mercy, my weakness, by obtaining for me from your Jesus perseverance and strength to be faithful to you until death, so that, always serving you in this life, I may come to praise you eternally in paradise. Amen.