Commemorated November 21
Following are 3 different accounts of the
Presentation of Mary, taken from the EWTN Library. You'll see that while
there are some differences there are also some areas of consistency. While they are called
"gospels", they do not have the weight of the Gospels and are not considered to
have been written by the author they claim.
Pax et Bonum!
Daniel T Humm
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From the Protevangelium of James:
7. And her months were added to the child. And the child was
two years old, and Joachim said: Let us take her up to the temple of the Lord, that we may
pay the vow that we have vowed, lest perchance the Lord send to us, (10) and our offering
be not received. And Anna said: Let us wait for the third year, in order that the child
may not seek for father or mother. And Joachim said: So let us wait. And the child was
three years old, and Joachim said: Invite the daughters of the Hebrews that are
undefiled, and let them take each a lamp, and let them stand with the lamps burning, that
the child may not turn back, and her heart be captivated from the temple of the Lord. And
they did so until they went up into the temple of the Lord. And the priest received her,
and kissed her, and blessed her, saying: The Lord has magnified thy name in all
generations. In thee, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to
the sons of lsrael. And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God
sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her.
8. And her parents went down marvelling, and praising the Lord God,
because the child had not turned back. And Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she
were a dove that dwelt there, and she received food from the hand of an angel.
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From The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew:
CHAP. 4. --After these things, her nine months being
fulfilled, Anna brought forth a daughter, and called her Mary. And having weaned her in
her third year, Joachim, and Anna his wife, went together to the temple of the Lord to
offer sacrifices to God, and placed the infant, Mary by name, in the community of virgins,
in which the virgins remained day and night praising God. And when she was put down before
the doors of the temple, she went up the fifteen steps (1) so swiftly, that she did not
look back at all; nor did she, as children are wont to do, seek for her parents. Whereupon
her parents, each of them anxiously seeking for the
child, were both alike astonished, until they found her in the temple, and the priests of
the temple themselves wondered.
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From The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary:
CHAP. 6.--And when the circle of three years had rolled round, and
the time of her weaning was fulfilled, they brought the virgin to the temple of the Lord
with offerings. Now there were round the temple, according to the fifteen Psalms of
Degrees,[1] fifteen steps going up; for, on account of the temple having been built on a
mountain, the altar of burnt-offering, which stood outside, could not be reached except by
steps. On one of these, then, her parents placed the little girl, the blessed virgin Mary.
And when they were putting off the clothes which they had worn on the journey, and were
putting on, as was usual, others that were neater and cleaner, the virgin of the Lord went
up all the
steps, one after the other, without the help of any one leading her or lifting her, in
such a manner that, in this respect at least, you would think that she had already
attained full age. For already the Lord in the infancy of His virgin wrought a great
thing, and by the indication of this miracle foreshowed how great she was to be.
Therefore, a sacrifice having been offered according to the custom of the law, and their
vow being perfected, they left the virgin within the enclosures of the temple, there to be
educated with the other virgins, and themselves returned home.
* *
* *
"By faith she believed; by faith, conceived"
A Sermon of St Augustine from the
Office of Readings
Stretching
out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my
mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is
my brother and sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these
words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith,
who was the chosen one from whom our Saviour was born among men, who was
created by Christ before Christ was created in her – did she not do the will
of the Father? Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and
so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to
have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in
her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom
she would obey as her master.
Now listen
and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said. The
Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof
of divine power. and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you,
blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness
in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who
hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and
so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than
carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body were both Christ: he
was kept in Mary’s mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb
insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than
what is carried in the womb.
The Virgin
Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the Church is greater than she. Mary
is a part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an eminent – the
most eminent – member, but still only a member of the entire body. The body
undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its members. This body has the Lord
for its head, and head and body together make up the whole Christ. In other
words, our head is divine – our head is God.
Now,
beloved, give me your whole attention, for you also are members of Christ;
you also are the body of Christ. Consider how you yourselves can be among
those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother and my brothers. Do
you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ? He himself said: Whoever
hears and fulfils the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my
sister and my mother. As for our being the brothers and sisters of
Christ, we can understand this because although there is only one
inheritance and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to
remain alone. It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and
co-heirs with himself.
Now having
said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you
his mother? Much less would I dare to deny his own words. Tell me how Mary
became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of
Christ? You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Of whom were
you born? “Of Mother Church”, I hear the reply of your hearts. You became
sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of
Christ. Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you
possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now
by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to
become the mothers of Christ.
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