Happy feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary
An exerpt from a homily of St. Augustine:
The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of divine power, and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.
So too then can we be blessed like our Mother, as the Lord himself said: Whoever hears and fulfils the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother.
The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of divine power, and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.
So too then can we be blessed like our Mother, as the Lord himself said: Whoever hears and fulfils the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother.