THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY...........

As the final week of the Church Year winds down, we commemorate today the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple as an infant.  Her parents Anne and Joachim being faithful and true to the Jewish law brought their baby daughter Mary to the Temple to present her to the Lotd God, as the perscription of the law required.  Mary, the chosen vessel of God to cooperate with the Divine in bearing and bringing the Co-Eternal into the World as God Made Man, was immaculately conceived to be free from the stain of sin herself, so that her Presentation was akin to a consecretion.  The Blessed Virgin Mary consecreted her life to doing God's Will, and to faithfully following Discipleship in her Son, Jesus.  As Catholic-Christians we rejoice in and with Mary, and accept our discipleship responsibility to be, "the brother, sister, mother," of Jesus as He proclaims in Matthew's Gospel today...........Fr.  Troy