January 29th

Holy Simeon

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When the ceremony of Presentation was over, an aged man advanced towards the little group, and took the Infant Jesus out of His Mother's arms. Sweetly he smiled upon the Child, and then looking up to Heaven he thanked God for having given him the privilege of seeing that happy day on which, in the Temple of the Lord, he saw the Lord of the Temple Himself presented to His Eternal Father. Now he was content to depart in peace; for this foretaste of Heaven made earth and earthly things grievous and wearisome to him. Has the presence of Jesus the same effect of making me dissatisfied with aught else than Him?

How long Simeon had been waiting for that day! Long years before. God had revealed to him that he should not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. But year after year had passed, and he had almost begun to wonder whether he had been deceiving himself in thinking that such a promise had been made him. So we have often to wait long before God fulfills His promises to us. Yet if we wait a little longer He will give us what we desire in rich abundance, even beyond what He promised.

It must have appeared very strange to those who listened to him that the holy man should speak of this little Child in what must have seemed to them such extravagant terms. They saw in Him nothing so wonderful. His father and mother were ordinary sort of people, of the lower class. It is the old story; the natural man judging by appearances; the spiritual man endowed with a clearer vision, and judging in accordance with the Truth of God.

January 31st

Holy Anna


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After Simeon had handed back the Divine Child to His Mother, another dweller in the Temple came upon the scene. Holy Anna, an aged servant of God, who never left the Temple, and devoted her whole life to the prayer and praise of God, advanced under God's holy inspiration to adore the Infant Christ, and pay her homage of respect and congratulation to His Holy Mother and foster-father. She, too, had waited long for that crowning grace. She was eighty years old before it was vouchsafed to her. Perhaps I have been waiting long years for some grace, and think that it is too late now. Courage! it is never too late. Our greatest grace may come at eighty years of age.

Holy Anna, full of joy and happiness, confessed to the Lord, bearing witness before all that the Infant in Mary's arms was none other than the promised Messiah, the Deliverer and the King of His people Israel, and the God and Lord of all the earth. Her long fasts and prayers had obtained for her the gift of faith, so clear and vivid that she saw beneath the veil of flesh the Divine Nature of the Babe before her. It is thus that the mental vision becomes quick in its discernment of heavenly things; those who pray and mortify themselves have always a keen appreciation of Divine truths.

Holy Anna did not keep to herself the knowledge that in their midst was the Lord of Heaven and earth. She spoke of Him to all the dwellers at Jerusalem. Happy those who speak of God to others! They shall shine like the stars to all eternity.