Today's Feast, which marks the end of the Christmas season, is the feast both of Jesus and Mary: of Jesus, because He is presented by His Mother in the Temple forty days after His birth, according to the requirement of the law; of Mary, because [being obedient to the law] she submitted herself to the rite of purification.
"What do You teach me, O Lord, offering Yourself thus in the Temple? You show me respect for the law by Your willingness to observe it. You teach me adoration, for You offered Yourself to the Father, not as His equal, which You really were, but as man. Here You have given me a model of the respect which I owe to Your law, not only to the Ten Commandments, but also to my Holy Rule and Constitutions. This law is all sweetness and delight for me, but I make it bitter when I do not renounce myself, for then, instead of my bearing it sweetly, the law is obliged to bear me" (St Mary Magdalen di Pazzi)
Adopted from 'Divine Intimacy' Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, OCD
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