Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In Praesentatione Beatae Mariae Virginis
This feast honours the offering of the Blessed Virgin Mary to God in the temple while she was yet a child, by which her whole life was consecrated to the Lord from her earliest years.
On the twenty-first of November the Church keeps the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which commemorates her dedication to God in the temple at Jerusalem while she was still a little child. The feast celebrates the truth that she who was to be the Mother of God was given over to the Lord from her earliest years, her whole being consecrated to him.
The offering of the Virgin
The Gospels do not recount the events of Our Lady’s childhood, and the particular story of her presentation in the temple comes to us through an ancient tradition rather than the inspired Scriptures. Yet the Church, in keeping this feast, does not rest upon the details of the story but upon the deeper truth it expresses: that Mary belonged wholly to God before ever she belonged to the world, and that her consent at the Annunciation was the flowering of a heart long since given over to him.
The feast came to the Latin Church from the Christian East, where it had long been celebrated, and it was received into the universal calendar of the Roman Church in later centuries. In honouring the Presentation, the faithful contemplate the hidden years of her who was prepared by grace from her Immaculate Conception to be the worthy dwelling-place of the Incarnate Word.
Mary, the living temple
The Presentation invites every Christian soul to imitate Our Lady’s total self-offering, giving oneself to God without reserve and from the beginning. She who was presented in the temple of stone became herself the living temple in whom the Word was made flesh. Her feast teaches that the surest path of holiness is the early and entire gift of self to God, and that grace prepares the soul, as it prepared her, to receive the Lord. The faithful honour on this day the childhood of the Mother of God and ask her prayers that they too may be consecrated wholly to her Son.
The Collect
Patronage
The feast honours the childhood consecration of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it is a day on which many religious renew their vows and the faithful entrust themselves anew to God through her.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this feast is observed on 21 November as an obligatory memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
It is kept on 21 November in both the 1962 Roman Missal (Third Class) and the modern calendar (memorial).
What does this feast commemorate?
It commemorates the offering of the Blessed Virgin Mary to God in the temple while she was a young child, by which her whole life was consecrated to the Lord. It celebrates her total belonging to God from her earliest years.
Is the story found in the Bible?
No. The account of Our Lady’s presentation in the temple comes from ancient Christian tradition rather than the Gospels. The Church keeps the feast not for the details of the narrative but for the truth it conveys — that Mary was wholly consecrated to God from the beginning of her life.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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