Today, we contemplate the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary: The Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple and the Purification of Our Lady. Having completed the forty days after the birth of Christ, the time of the purification of Mary had arrived. She and St. Joseph took the Child and brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. This offering was the prefiguring of the supreme sacrifice that the Child of God would make on the Cross.

With the eyes of our imagination, let us consider the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph entering the ample interior courtyard of the Temple of Jerusalem: an imposing building of those past ages, with high columns and many arches. Our Lady is carrying the Child Jesus in Her arms, and St. Joseph is carrying a basket holding two turtle doves. Before the altar of the Lord, Mary offers Her Son in the name of all humanity, saying: “Behold, O Eternal Father, Thy firstborn Son, that is also mine; I offer Him as a Victim to placate Thy justice towards sinners; accept it, God of mercy, have pity on our misery; for the love of this unblemished Lamb, receive men into Thy grace.”

Gospel of St. Luke (2, 22-32)

And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple. When the parents brought in the Child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for my eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people