The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the memorial that honors, according to ancient tradition, the offering of the child Mary to God in the Temple of Jerusalem by her parents, Sts. Joachim and Anne, who consecrated her wholly to the Lord from her earliest years. Though the event is not recorded in the canonical Scriptures but comes down through early Christian tradition, it beautifully expresses the truth that Mary belonged entirely to God from the very beginning of her life.

Celebrated in the Christian East as the Entrance of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple from at least the sixth century, the feast was gradually adopted in the West and kept on 21 November. It invites the faithful to contemplate Mary's complete and loving dedication of herself to God's will, a self-giving that would find its fullness in her consent at the Annunciation, and to imitate her by offering their own lives to the Lord.