Dedicating Ourselves to the Purposes of God - Weekday Homily Video

Today we celebrate the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the presentation to God of Mary when she was a baby by her parents who tradition teaches us were Joachim and Ann. This presentation of Mary that we celebrate today is different from the Presentation of Jesus in the temple by Mary and Joseph.

The current translation of the Catholic Bible does not contain all the books the early Church relied on. There are many other books that were not included in the final version of the canon, a list or collection of books that comprise the sacred scriptures, approved by the Council of Trent in the mid-1500s. One such book that did not make the list is the Gospel of James, or what we call the Protoevangelium of James, dated around the year 200 AD. None of the four Canonical Gospels tells us about the early life of Mary, such as when she was born and how she grew up as a child.

Early Life of Mary

The Apocryphal Gospel of James tells riveting stories about the early life of Mary. The heart of the story is that God was preparing her for a special role in the drama of our salvation. In the Protoevangelium of James we learn that when Mary was born, Joachim, the father of Mary, told Anna, his wife, that he wished to bring their daughter to serve in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. Anna did not want her baby Mary to be separated from her that early. Anna made Joachim wait until Mary was three years old, and then they made the trip to the Temple in Jerusalem. Young Mary was accompanied by a group of chaste Hebrew girls to the Temple who carried lamps burning as they made the journey. There at the Temple, Mary was received by a priest, who blessed her, and kissed her as a gesture of welcome. The priest proclaimed about Mary that, “The Lord has magnified your name in all generations. In you, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the children of Israel.” Mary was placed on the third step of the Temple, where she “danced with joy and all the house of Israel loved her.” The narrative goes on to describe how she continued in the Temple, living in the service of the Lord, while her parents returned home, glorifying God.

It is to this beautiful account that we owe the Memorial of the Presentation of Our Blessed Mother. The message behind this account is simple: from her earliest childhood, Mary was completely dedicated and given over to God. Throughout all her childhood she was completely dedicated and abandoned to the will of God.

Total Obedience to the Will of God

In Matthew's Gospel, we hear Jesus rhetorically ask “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” and the answer He provides is that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, my sister, and my mother.” This is one of the greatest praises given to Mary and not an insult! If there is any person who gave total obedience to the will of God in her life, it was Our Blessed Mother. She was not merely the mother of Jesus because of the biology of her flesh and blood, she was the Mother of Jesus because of her faith, her fiat—her “Let your will be done in my life.” Today we celebrate Mary’s dedication to the purposes of God. There is a powerful invitation in there to each one of us to dedicate every aspect of our lives to the purposes of God.

Mission of Venerable Patrick Peyton

From the perspective of our ministry of Holy Cross Family Ministries, it is on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary that Venerable Patrick Peyton chose to mail his first batch of letters to people throughout the United States to ask them to support the Family Rosary Crusade that he was starting. The symbolism of this gesture should not be lost on us: Venerable Peyton was simply asking people, “Will you allow yourself to dedicate your life to the purposes of God the way Mary did? Will you allow yourself to be used like Mary as an instrument to birth Jesus in the world, to bring Jesus to families in the world?”

Last week we had the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Father Peyton Center here in Easton, Massachusetts. Our goal is to grow the work of Venerable Patrick Peyton. Today on the Memorial of the Presentation of Our Blessed Mother, just like Venerable Patrick Peyton many years ago, we will mail letters going out to people in the United States and throughout the world asking them to support the work of Venerable Patrick Peyton of bringing Family Prayer back into homes and nurturing its practice in our contemporary families. Today we will ask people just like Venerable Peyton did—“Will you allow yourself to dedicate your life to the purposes of God the way Mary did? Will you allow yourself to be used like Mary as an instrument to birth Jesus in the world, to bring Jesus to families in the world? Will you support the mission of Venerable Patrick Peyton with your prayers, your time, your talent, and your treasure to make God known, loved, and served in our families?”

May the Memorial of the Presentation of Mary remind us of the variety of ways we can dedicate ourselves to the purposes of God.

• Today’s Readings

• Father Fred's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. Please view the video on our Facebook page. (You don't need a Facebook account to view.) 

• To view the Rosary prayer and Mass streaming live, please visit our Facebook page at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, Monday – Friday. Please invite your loved ones to join us too! (If you are not a member of Facebook and a signup window appears, simply select the X at the top of the pop-up message and continue to the livestream.)