On February 2, our Christian Year calendars remind us that on Tuesday we remember and celebrate The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple.On this day your prayerbook may well provide you with this beautiful collect:
Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ Our Lord; who livings and reigns wit you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Celebrating the Saints: Devotional Readings for Saints’ Days tells us why the Church highlights this day in our calendar of sacred time:
This day marks the completion of forty days since the birth of Jesus, when Mary and Joseph took the child to the Temple in Jerusalem. The requirement in Levitical law was for Mary to be “cleansed,” the completion of her purification following the birth of a male child. Until that day, she could touch no holy thing nor enter the sanctuary. Yet on seeing the holy family, Simeon praised God and acclaimed the infant “the light to enlighten the nations,” and the prophet Anna gave thanks and proclaimed in the redeemer. The image of Christ as the light has led to the celebration of light countering the darkness, with candles often taking a central place in the observance of this festival.You can read the story in Luke 2:22-40.
In an extended footnote, my Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible provides this commentary:
In modern society the elderly are rarely held in high esteem. They are shunted off to senior citizens' homes where they are cared for by professional staff rather than their own families. We seem to be saying their usefulness is past, and the increasing tolerance of euthanasia underscores that belief. This is not God's attitude. Simeon and Anna are the senior citizens of Luke's version of Jesus' birth, and they know and understand more than anyone else. Of all the people that Jerusalem's streets were teeming with the day that Jesus was named--the rich, the powerful, the young, the holy--only Simeon and Anna are given insight into who is being carried into the Temple courts in his parents' arms. In fact, they know more than Mary or Joseph, who are astonished at what Simeon says about Jesus. It is clear that God has placed great value on Anna and Simeon and that he does not think he is wasting the Holy Spirit on two seniors who have passed the prime of their lives.So to all you grey- and white-haired (and bald-headed too!) senior citizens who have so graciously carried Jesus in your arms and sung your Nunc Dimittis, I thank you for your love of Christ and the songs I've heard you sing about God's mercy and love. If you're reading this, you know who you are; may God bless you.
The story of the presentation of Jesus and the purification of Mary is full of good news, so good that many Christians, using the church's "Night Prayer" or "Compline," sing or say the Song of Simeon (often referred to as the Nunc Dimittus, its Latin name) each evening before they go to bed.
If you wish look at beautiful paintings and icons celebrating the Presentation, listen to the Song of Simeon in Russian and watch the following video, The Canticle of St Symeon as set by Sergei Rakhmaninov for his "Vespers", opus 37:
And to see how more of your Christian sisters and brothers are remembering the Presentation, visit the following:
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