CAPG's Blog 

Presentation of the Virgin Mary, Titian  (1490–1576)

"THIS festival is in memory of that day, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the age of three years, was presented to Almighty God, in his temple.

Rejoice in this spotless offering, which was then made to the Almighty: and if you are a parent of children, remember that this is a good day to offer them to God. The misconduct of so many, who taking bad wages, become their parents' greatest misfortune, is sufficient to make you in earnest in this point, for obtaining on yours the protection of heaven. Recommend them not only now, but every day to God; for this charity is one of their best securities.

Fail not to make an offering also of yourself to God. First, by humbling yourself in His presence, confessing your own infirmity and nothingness; and that if He helps you not, by His protection and grace, you are certainly lost and miserable. Secondly, by making a protestation of being faithful in resisting evil, and performing whatever He requires of you. Thirdly, by putting yourself in a holy disposition to accept from His hand whatever He appoints for you, whether sickness, pain, afflictions, poverty, or any other visitation. For no otherwise can you belong to Him, than by conforming your will to His.

Pray therefore for the rooting out whatever rebellion yet remains in you. Thus may you join yourself with the grateful offering, which we honour this day. Beg of God to accept the oblation, which you make. Offer your soul to become the temple of the Holy Ghost. Offer your heart to be the seat of divine love. Offer your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Offer your senses, inclinations, and desires all to His government, to become wholly subject to His will; to be commanded, encouraged, or restrained, as shall be most pleasing in His sight. Offer your thoughts and words to the same subjection. Offer all by the hands of Mary; and pray with the Church, that by her intercession, you may be presented in the temple of God's glory." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church by Rev. Fr. John GOTHER

Parents and the vocation of their Children by Rev. Fr. Ernest F. Miller, C.SS.r.

"Parents should remember that the offering of a son or a daughter is not all pain and sacrifice. Of course the parting is difficult when the boy or girl bids farewell to family and departs for seminary or convent. It seems almost as though the child has been claimed by death. But the hurt that the heart sustained eventually heals. Time takes care of that. And then the blessings that a religious vocation brings down upon the home and particularly upon the parents in that home make themselves felt.

First of all, there is the feeling of assurance that mother and father have that their daughter could hardly be in better hands than in the hands of Our Lord. She has become the spouse of Christ. She has been especially selected by Christ to be His bride. Surely He will take care of her both in time and in eternity.

Good parents sometimes worry about their children. They know that they are responsible for their welfare in eternity. They have often heard that on the day of the last Judgment children who are lost because of the negligence of their parents will point a finger at their mother and father and demand that Christ condemn them for the awful sin they committed in not seeing to it that their children saved their souls.

Some parents have reason to worry, not because of anything that they have done that was wrong in the training of their children but because the children refused to follow their training and involved themselves in invalid marriages and sinful practices that drove them out of the Faith into which they had been born and baptized. Mothers and fathers worry in cases like these lest their children lose their souls.

They do not have to worry about their daughter in the convent. Her habit of prayer, the good example all around her, the spiritual exercises of her daily life will carry her to heaven when her time comes to die. Mother and father can be sure that at least one of their children is safe and that they need have no fear of giving an account to God on how her life was lived and how she was brought up from her youth.

The second blessing that follows upon the sacrifice of a son or a daughter to God is the promise of Our Lord that He will provide for the temporal and the eternal welfare of those who willingly make the sacrifice. In the nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel the following words are to be found: 'Every one that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting.

It is not stretching the meaning of the text too far to maintain that it refers to all the members of the family who consent to a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister leaving home in order to enter the direct service of God at altar or in the convent.

Thus, a brother who gives up his sister can apply Our Lord's words to himself. And so can a mother in regard to her daughter. And so can a father in regard to his son. The consoling part of Our Lord's words consists in this that a girl who has renegade Catholics in her family - a father who has fallen away from the practice of his holy religion, a sister who has sinned deeply through an invalid marriage, a brother who has become a confirmed alcoholic - that girl by giving up her life to God in religion can save the souls of all these unfortunate relatives of hers no matter how far they have fallen. Our Lord says that he who gives up a sister or a daughter as well as a mother and a father will possess life everlasting. Isn't that what all the members of the family do, even the bad members of a family, when they see one of the girls of the family leave home in order to enter the convent? They give her up. And God promises a great reward."