A Heart Prepared for God

Today we celebrate the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—an ancient tradition that highlights Mary’s early dedication to God. Although Scripture does not record this event directly, early Christian writings such as the Infancy Gospel of James, Pseudo-Matthew, and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary recount how Joachim and Anne, grateful for the gift of a child, brought Mary to the Temple—perhaps at the age of three—to consecrate her entirely to the Lord. These accounts portray young Mary climbing the steps of the Temple, offering her life to God in purity and trust, prepared even from childhood for her unique vocation as the mother of the Word made flesh. The Gospel presents Jesus’ own relationship with the Temple. In prophetic boldness, He drives out those who had turned His Father’s house into a marketplace. Quoting Isaiah— “My house shall be a house of prayer”—Jesus signals a new order where authentic worship flows not from sacrifices of animals but from hearts renewed by God’s Word. As the hymn Tantum Ergo sings, “Let the ancient forms give way to the new rite”: true worship now centers on Christ Himself—His teaching, His presence, His Eucharistic self-gift. Jesus loved the Temple because it was the place of encounter with His Father. The Catechism reminds us that He went there freely and taught with joy, and even after the Resurrection the apostles honored it (CCC 584). Yet the true dwelling place of God is no longer a building of stone, but the human heart made receptive to His Word. No one embodied this more perfectly than Mary. She is the living Tabernacle who welcomed the Word with total openness. Her early consecration symbolizes a lifelong readiness to listen, to believe, and to allow God to shape her from within. Through her, the Word took flesh and dwelt among us. This feast invites us to do the same. We are each called to “cleanse the temples” of our hearts, allowing Christ to drive out whatever distracts us from prayer, reverence, and love. Our old habits, fears, and superficial ways must “give way to Christ-centered living”—Et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui. Like Mary, we renew our commitment daily so that God’s Word may find a home in us and radiate through us to others. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who prepared her heart for God from her earliest days, intercede for us as we seek to offer our lives wholeheartedly to the Lord.