{"id":142652,"date":"2024-11-21T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142652"},"modified":"2024-11-21T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T11:00:43","slug":"the-presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/the-presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Preston,<\/span><\/p>\n

You shouldn\u2019t agonize so much over your decision. \u00a0I know that sounds strange, since your vocation is the most important decision you\u2019ll have to make in your life. \u00a0But even if it sounds strange, I hold by it. If you\u2019re agonizing over it, something\u2019s wrong; you\u2019re thinking about it all wrong. \u00a0It\u2019s not as if God is sitting back and watching to see if you\u2019ll mess up, so he can gleefully make fun of you and turn your life into misery. \u00a0Just the opposite. He has been gently guiding your steps throughout your whole life up to now, honoring your freedom and still, mysteriously, leading you closer to himself. \u00a0Is he going to stop all of a sudden? Is he going to abandon you and leave you to make do with only your own puny, human resources? I don\u2019t think so. That\u2019s not how he works. \u00a0Today\u2019s feast reminds us of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple is one of those odd memorials that sneaked into the liturgy even though there is little historical evidence supporting the actual fact of its occurrence. \u00a0Some of the apocryphal (non-canonical) Gospels depict the scene, describing how Joachim and Anne (Mary\u2019s parents) took the child Mary to the Temple when she was three years old, and the priest kissed and blessed her, and she danced on the altar\u2019s steps, and she stayed there in the Temple from then on, serving the Lord until her betrothal to Joseph. \u00a0Only later in the game (the sixth century in the East and the eleventh century in the West) did the commemoration become regular and widespread. <\/span><\/p>\n

But even if the historicity is questionable, it reminds us of an undeniable spiritual truth: God has a plan for each of our lives form the very beginning of our existence. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t create us and then later on try and come up with something for us to do. Not at all. In his mind, our lives are one with our mission within the Church. Just as a master architect knows in advance how every stone will fit into the Cathedral and oversees the production of every detail of the edifice, so our Lord makes each of us with a particular mission in mind. \u00a0The drama of life, then, consists in freely discovering and embracing this plan, this unique mission that only I can fulfill, this singular role that only I can play in the history of salvation. The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary illustrates this truth by showing how her special place in God\u2019s story was known even before she had reached the age of reason. Thanks be to God she decided to cooperate fully in her mission once she did reach the age of reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

So you don\u2019t have to figure it all out on your own at all; you need to keep your prayer life healthy and do your part (spiritual direction, frequent confession, and communion\u2026), but God will lead you. \u00a0He is even more interested than you in your happiness \u2013 that\u2019s why he created you! Trust him. Listen to him. Follow him, one step at a time\u2026 That\u2019s all he asks, and that\u2019s the solution to your \u201cagony\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your loving uncle, Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Preston, You shouldn\u2019t agonize so much over your decision. \u00a0I know that sounds strange, since your vocation is the most important decision you\u2019ll have to make in your life. 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John Bartunek, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC"},"description":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142652"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=142652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}