11-21-2021, 07:49 AM
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
When the Blessed Virgin was three years old, and was weaned from the breast, her parents brought her with gifts to the Temple of the Lord. Around the Temple there were fifteen steps, one for each of the fifteen gradual Psalms; for, since the Temple was built upon a hill, one could not go up to the altar of holocaust from without except by the steps. And the Virgin, being placed upon the lowest of these steps, mounted all of them without the help of anyone, as if she had already reached the fulness of her age. When they had made their offering, Joachim and Anna left the child with the other virgins in the Temple, and returned to their home.