presentation of mary preschool

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A Private Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary & Junior High School

Serving the greater nashua & hudson, nh area.

At Presentation of Mary Academy, a private school in Hudson, NH, we are committed to the Preschool through Junior High experience. The breadth of our academic programs and teaching methods are designed to assist each student in becoming a self-disciplined learner. Our teachers work collaboratively to offer an enriching and integrated curriculum as students advance through the grades.

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Why do we celebrate Mary’s presentation?

It is true that scholars debate the authenticity of the feast of the Presentation of Mary, which finds its origin in the apocryphal work  The Protoevangelium of James . As a devotee of the Marian biographies published by Maximus the Confessor, Venerable Maria of Agreda and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, I can affirm each gives an account of Mary’s presentation in the temple at the age of 3. Rather than dwelling on the historicity of today’s event, though, let’s lend our meditation to the feast itself — more specifically: Why do we celebrate Mary’s presentation? The answer is straightforward: The life of Mary provides an example for us, especially in our own spiritual lives. Christians can appropriate spiritual insights for ourselves from the feast of Mary’s Presentation.

The importance of pilgrimage

Tradition believes that Joachim and Anne were barren, and for that reason people of the biblical era would have viewed the couple with suspicion and looked down on them. Like any other couple hoping to conceive, Joachim and Anne prayed to God, asking for the blessing of a child. God heard their prayer, and they were grateful to Him. The story of Joachim and Anne like the Old Testament account of the barren Hannah, who begged God for a child and later gave birth to Samuel. Maximus the Confessor, draws out the similarity in his  The Life of the Virgin , comparing the name Hannah and Anna. The Presentation of Mary reminds us of Hannah’s willingness to offer Samuel back to God because Joachim and Anne bring the child Mary to the temple in a similar fashion at the age of 3.

Joachim, Anne and Mary lived in Nazareth, meaning if they presented Mary in the temple they had to go on a pilgrimage. Many Catholics go on pilgrimage. 2017 was a popular year for pilgrimage because of the centennial anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. There are pilgrimage sites all over the world, including the Holy Land, Marian apparition sites and shrines to saints. A person might go on pilgrimage because of their fascination with a place or story of a saint, or to ask God for a special favor. The Presentation of Mary reminds us that we can go on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving, to give thanks to God for a blessing received. In their gratitude, Joachim and Anne pledged to dedicate Mary to God and give her to His service in the temple. To carry this out, it meant they had to make sacrifice and go on pilgrimage.

 Mary’s choice for God

The Presentation of Mary also highlights the fact Mary chooses God at this point in her life, even if at such a young age. On Dec. 8 the Church celebrates Mary’s preservation from Original sin, called her Immaculate Conception. We could say that God chose Mary, as he foresaw the merits of Christ’s cross and applied them to Mary. But the Presentation allows Mary to exercise her free will and choose to live her life devoted to God. Mary’s choice lends us an example to follow. Each day is an opportunity for us to renew and recommit ourselves to the Lord’s service, just as she did in the temple.

Mary’s preparation for Advent

The biographies of Mary suggest Mary remained in the temple after her Presentation. This means she dedicated herself in service to the temple and to whatever tasks she was assigned. It was a time of spiritual formation. She heard the word of God proclaimed, including the prophecies that would be fulfilled through her. Perhaps hearing the story of Hannah and Samuel resonated with her as she would later make Hannah’s prayer her own in the Magnificat. She also would have spent much time in personal prayer, living in the presence of the Holy of Holies only to receive the All Holy One within her very being at the Annunciation. Catholics can look back and see Mary’s time in the temple, from the age of 3 to 12, as a time of advent and preparation. God called her to be there, and, in turn, she chose God. Because of this, God prepared her to receive the savior of the world. The celebration of Mary’s presentation in the temple is an anticipation of the Advent we commence around the time of this feast. Throughout the holy season of Advent, with Mary we can listen to the prophecies, watch and pray for the coming of the Dawn from on high.

The historical details of Mary’s presentation should not be our primary concern in celebrating her feast. The tradition of observing it reminds us that Mary lived her life for God, and we should too. She is the model of the Church, and in her life we find the example for how to live our own.

Fr. Looney is a priest of the diocese of Green Bay.

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Lessons from the Presentation of Mary

My oldest child was baptized on the feast of the Presentation of Mary. I didn’t realize that that was the day’s feast at the time, because it fell on a Sunday that year (and the feast of Christ the King took precedent). I was delighted to realize that she was baptized on so fitting a feast.

The feast of the Presentation of Mary, recalls the tradition that, as a young child, Mary was presented to the temple by her parents, in order to be raised there. This, of course, calls to mind other instances in Scripture where a child is dedicated to God from a young age. The first to come to mind is the story of Samuel, whose mother, Hannah, prayed for a child and gratefully presented her son to the temple once he was weaned. Like Hannah, tradition holds that Sts. Anne and Joachim (the parents of Mary) prayed for a child for many years, before being given Mary.

The idea of presenting a toddler or preschooler to a temple to be raised sounds like abandonment to our modern ears. I remember the year that my oldest daughter turned three (the age that it is traditionally thought that Mary was entrusted to the temple). I took her to Mass on the feast of the Presentation of Mary that year, to celebrate the anniversary of her baptism. Suddenly, it hit me – this beautiful, funny, adorable little person in my arms was the same age that Mary was, when her parents presented her. My heart ached at the thought of having to give up my own sweet daughter at such a tender age, and I was grateful that it wasn’t necessary.

Certainly, the concept of entrusting a child to the temple sounds like abandonment. In a sense it is, but not in the sense that we may be thinking of. The child would have been well provided for in the temple, would not have wanted for food, clothing, shelter, or education. The parents certainly didn’t forsake the child. In fact, most images of the Presentation of Mary show the high priest of the temple eagerly waiting for her, with his arms wide open. Mary certainly would have been well cared for.

However, there is another sense of the word “abandonment.” In the spiritual tradition, when we speak of abandonment, we are referring to a complete and total entrusting of one to God’s love and providence. In this sense, what Anne and Joachim did was abandonment – total and utter abandonment to the will of God in the life of their daughter.

Another key feature of images of Mary’s Presentation is the willingness with which she entered the Temple. I have a toddler daughter of my own, and I can’t image her skipping up the steps of the church into the arms of a priest or nun (and her father works at a seminary, so she actually is friends with a number of priests and nuns!). She would certainly resist, and a parting like this would be traumatizing for both of us. But this isn’t the case for Mary. The tiny child shown in these images eagerly and peacefully looks up to the Temple. We don’t know exactly how Mary reacted to the parting with her parents, but this depiction of her makes perfect sense. This is she whose son would later say, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Of course she, too, would long to be close to God.

As a mother, I can only imagine how tremendously painful this would have been for Mary’s parents (especially her mother, who had probably only recently weaned her). Presenting Mary to the Temple was no small sacrifice on their part.

For my fellow parents, the inference is simple – do we relinquish our children to God’s plan for their lives? Or do we constantly try to conform them to our own desires? Are we willing to abandon our children to the work of God’s providence in their lives?

For all of us – parents and non-parents alike – there is an even stronger message. Do we long for God the way that Mary did? Do we find ourselves running and leaping up the steps of the Temple, or dragging our feet at the realization that doing so means time taken away from checking Facebook/tuning in to the football game/binging on a TV series on Netflix/sleeping an extra hour? I am fairly certain that Mary would have missed her parents. But I also am certain that she entered the Temple with joy. There is nothing wrong with browsing Facebook (or whatever your social media outlet of choice may be). There is nothing wrong with following your favorite sports team, or sleeping in on occasion, or relaxing with a good book and a mug of coffee or a glass of wine. Of course, there is nothing wrong with loving your children and not wanting to let go of them. There is, however, something wrong with loving each of these things more than God. There is something out of order when our longing for something else makes us less free to long for God.

What is preventing us from dancing up the steps of the Temple, into the arms of God?

image: Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock.com

By Michele Chronister

Michele Chronister is a wife, and mother to three little girls and one little one in heaven. She received her BA and MA in theology from the University of Notre Dame (’09 and ’11). She is the author of a number of books, including Handbook for Adaptive Catechesis, the co-author of Faith Beginnings – Family Nurturing from Birth Through Preschool, editor of the book Rosaries Aren't Just for Teething, as well as an assortment of Catholic children's books. In addition to writing, she also homeschools her daughters, and is the social media manager for the Office of Natural Family Planning in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. When her oldest was a baby, she realized that their family life had taken on a sort of monastic rhythm – eat, pray, play, sleep. Prompted by this, she started the blog My Domestic Monastery ( www.mydomesticmonastery.com ), where she shares inspiration for families wanting to grow in holiness.

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182 Lowell Road Hudson, Hudson, NH 03051 

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Enjoy our "Sounds of the Season"

Choir performance..

Watch our virtual tour and

See what pma has to offer..

A Private Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary & Junior High School

Serving the greater nashua & hudson, nh area.

At Presentation of Mary Academy, a private school in Hudson, NH, we are committed to the Preschool through Junior High experience. The breadth of our academic programs and teaching methods are designed to assist each student in becoming a self-disciplined learner. Our teachers work collaboratively to offer an enriching and integrated curriculum as students advance through the grades.

Upcoming Events

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Presentation of Mary Academy

182 Lowell Road

Hudson, NH 03051

(603) 889-6054

(603) 595-8504

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