Page 20 - Saints of the Month: February

Saints of the Month: February

every observance prescribed by His law,
prompted Mary to perform this act of
religion, though evidently exempt from the
precept. Being poor herself, she made the
offering appointed for the poor; but;
however mean in itself, it was made with a
perfect heart, which is what God chiefly
regards in all that is offered to Him. Besides
the law which obliged the mother to purify
herself, there was another which ordered
that the first-born son should be offered to
God, and that, after its presentation, the
child should be ransomed with a certain
sum of money, and peculiar sacrifices
offered on the occasion.

Mary complies exactly with all these
ordinances. She obeys not only in the
essential points of the law, but has strict
regard to all the circumstances. She
remains forty days at home; she denies
herself, all this time, the liberty of entering
the Temple; she partakes not of things
sacred; and on the day of her purification
she walks several miles to Jerusalem, with
the world’s Redeemer in her arms. She
waits for the priest at the gate of the
Temple, makes her offerings of thanksgiving
and expiation, presents her divine Son by
the hands of the priest to His Eternal
Father, with the most profound humility,
adoration, and thanksgiving. She then
redeems Him with five shekels, as the law
appoints, and receives Him back again as a

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