Sunday, February 1, 2015

Happy Consecration Day and Feast of Presentation......


Luke 2: 22-35
     When the day came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought the baby up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to God. And they offered a sacrifice as ordered in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.








     There lived in Jerusalem at this time a very upright and devout man named Simeon; the Holy Spirit was in him. He looked forward to the time when the Lord would comfort Israel, and he had been assured by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the Messiah of the Lord. So he was led into the Temple by the Holy Spirit at the time the parents brought the child Jesus. . . 
     Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed God, saying, “Now, O Lord, you can dismiss your servant in peace, for you have fulfilled your word and my eyes have seen your salvation, which you display for all the people to see. Here is the light you will reveal to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.”

     His father and mother wondered at what was said about the child. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, “See him; he will be for the rise or fall of the multitudes of Israel. He shall stand as a sign of contradiction, while a sword will pierce your own soul. Then the secret thoughts of many may be brought to light.”
   

     Mary and Joseph, faithful followers of Jewish rituals, brought the baby Jesus to the temple as their first-born son to be consecrated to God. Together with the consecration they offered two turtledoves.

     Baptism is the initiation of a child or adult into God’s life and incorporation into his Church. At a baptism we may not have a Simeon to prophecy about the child’s role in God’s plan. 

But, through the priest administering baptism in the name of the Church, we are assured that the one baptized has been freed from sin and has become a child of God and a member of God’s Church, called to holiness and God’s kingdom. The parents and godparents are invited to renew their own baptismal vows and to pledge to assist the child in his/her growth and life as God’s child.
    

 Let us pray for our children and godchildren that they may grow up following the ways of Jesus Our Lord. Let us thank the Lord for our own baptism when we were first presented to him to become his children. Let us ask the Lord for the lifelong grace to live our lives according to the faith of the Church in which we were baptized.

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