The Presentation of Mary
One
Today, November 21st, is the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple in Jerusalem.
We know from Sacred Tradition, handed down by the Liturgy, that Mary was born in Jerusalem and at a very young age was brought by her parents, Joachim and Anne, to the Temple to be educated.
St. Paul reminds us that by our Baptism we have become Temples of God. In 1 Corinthians he writes, “Didn't you realize that you were God's temple and that the Spirit of God was living within you?”
Mary’s entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem foreshadows her entrance into the temple of our soul to receive Jesus and form him within us.
Two
Why do we need Mary when we have Jesus?
St. Irenaeus has a great little analogy, he says God the Father does everything by his two hands, his Son and his Spirit. Jesus gives his life to us through the Mass and the Sacraments. But we have a hard time receiving. We have a lot of blockages in our soul that prevent us from receiving Jesus completely. Well, it is the mission of the Spirit to help us receive Jesus more completely. And the Spirit works through Mary.
It was the Holy Spirit and Mary who received and formed Jesus in her womb and it is the Holy Spirit and Mary who will receive and form Jesus in you. So the more you turn to Mary, the more the Spirit forms Jesus in you. That is why we need Mary, to help us receive Jesus.
Three
You may be used to hearing that Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in our souls, but the idea of Mary living in your soul might be very new or even seem wrong.
St. Louis de Montfort tells us that Mary is the Mold of God who enables us to receive Jesus and be made like Him. In his little book The Secret of Mary, Montfort writes, Mary is…the living mold of God. In her alone the God-man was formed in his human nature…In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we are made god-like as far as human nature is capable. A sculptor can make a statue in one of two ways: By using his skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter; The second way is by making cast of it in a mold. The first way is long and involved and open to all sorts of accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mold must be perfect and true to life and the material must… offer no resistance. Mary is the great Mold of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit…to fashion through grace men who are like God…Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be molded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, with little pain or effort, as befits our weak human condition.
By consecration to Mary, we invite Maryl the Mold of God, to come into the temple of our soul to help us receive Jesus and form Him there.
Four
St. Louis De Montfort says, “The Mold must be perfect and true to life…” and “The material must offer no resistance.”
The Holy Spirit formed Mary to be a perfect human replica of the Spirit, to be just like the Spirit, a perfect receiver of the Son. She then received Jesus when she conceived him in her womb and educated Jesus as He grew to maturity.
And think about this, Mary lived with Jesus for thirty years. The apostles only spent two and a half years with Jesus. For sure, Mary taught Jesus as he was a little boy growing up. But have you ever thought about this: Jesus personally educated Mary for thirty years, teaching her everything we would need to know about Him and how to live like Him.
So, who knows Jesus the best? Who is in the best position to teach us and form us in the likeness of Jesus? Mary.
This is why St. Louis De Montfort encourages us to invite Mary, the Mold of God, into the temple of our soul through the act of consecration to her.
Five
St. Louis De Montfort also says that “the material poured into the mold must offer no resistance.”
The material that should be poured into Mary the Mold of God is us, it is our soul, so, we’re quite literally asking, what are you made of?
We want Mary to mold us to be like Jesus, to mold our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions. But how do we get to the point where we offer no resistance, we stop resisting God?
We’re going to ask Mary to help us. Were going to invite her into our soul to help us with our thoughts, our desires, and our actions. In the Rosary, we sit at the school of Mary, where she teaches us how to think, and feel and act like Jesus.
But often we find ourselves desperately wanting something that isn’t good for us, something that is sinful, something that could destroy us.
What do we do when we are attacked by thoughts and desires that are so amazingly attractive yet so deadly and we feel absolutely powerless over them? What do we do when the storm of temptation and sin strikes us like a hurricane? We turn to Mary and surrender them to her!
She is the Mold of God, she can transform our disordered thoughts and desires and conform them to Jesus.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes, “All of you, who see yourselves amid the tides of the world, tossed by storms rather than walking on the land, do not turn your eyes away from this shining star, unless you want to be overwhelmed by the hurricane. If temptation rages or you fall upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star: Call upon Mary!
“If you are tossed by the waves of pride or vain ambition, gossip or envy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If anger or greed or lust dash against the ship of your soul, turn your eyes to Mary.
“If troubled by the enormity of your sins, ashamed of your guilty conscience, terrified by dread of the judgment, you begin to sink into the gulf of sadness or the abyss of despair, think of Mary.
“In dangers, in anguish, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name be even on your lips, ever in your heart; and the better to obtain the help of her prayers, imitate the example of her life: “Following her, you will never stray; praying to her , you will not despair; thinking of her, you won’t wander off the right path; supported by her, you will never fall; shielded by her, there is nothing to fear; guided by her, you will not go wrong; helped by her you will certainly reach the goal. And in this way you will experience in yourself how good is that saying: ‘And the Virgin’s name was Mary.’”