The Leavetaking of the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord

Last Thursday, Eastern Rite Orthodox of the Gregorian Calendar sort celebrated the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.

I’ve mentioned a bit about this feast before , and it feels trite to say “It’s one of my favorites” because, aren’t they all? But I do have a soft spot for this feast. Mostly due to Saints Symeon and Anna. St. Symeon had been one of the translators of the Septuagient who had been granted his wish to live to see the Messiah. From the above life:



St. Symeon, the Host of God, was a man not only of holy spirit but of great patience as well. He was a highly intelligent scholar and a deeply religious man, who knew from his interpretation of the Old Testament that the Messiah was to come. He prayed not only for deliverance, but for the opportunity to remain alive just long enough to cast his eyes on the Messiah. This was no small request made of the Lord, for it is quite certain, although estimates vary as to his actual age, that he was born many years before Christ. St. Symeon is estimated to have been at least 150 years old at the time of the Nativity, and only because God had given him those many years in answer to his earnest prayers that he be allowed to live to that great day.
St. Symeon was one of the famous Seventy, who were chosen to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek in the time of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.). St. Symeon worked conscientiously, but when, translating the prophet Isaiah, he came to the prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," he was puzzled. He took a knife to scratch out the word "virgin" and substitute "young woman," and translate it thus into Greek. But at that moment an angel of God appeared to him and held him back from his intention, explaining to him that the prophecy was true and rightly expressed. And to confirm its veracity, the messenger from God said that he, Symeon, by the will of God, would not die until he had seen the Messiah born of a virgin. The righteous Symeon rejoiced at these heavenly tidings, left the prophecy unchanged and thanked God that He had found him worthy to live to see the Promised One.
When the Christ Child was brought into the Temple in Jerusalem by the Virgin Mary, the Spirit of God revealed this to Symeon, who was now a very old man with snow-white hair. He went quickly to the Temple and found there both the Virgin and Child, bathed in a light that shone round their heads like a halo. The joyful elder took Christ in his arms and prayed to God, saying: "Lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation" (Lk. 2:29-30). Soon after that, St. Symeon departed this life. This righteous elder is venerated as the protector of young children


His life ties in with the question that Lorna asked me the other day, about what happened before Christ Harrowed Hell. St. Symeon (and later St. John the Forerunner (the Baptist) ) preached to those held captive in Hell that the Messiah was here and Heaven would soon be opened.

One of the things that struck me at the Vigil of the Feast (I was unable to attend the Liturgy but attended the Vigil the night before) was the reading from Isaiah 6:1-12 (I’d like to highlight 5-8)

So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

The hymns of the Forefeast contrasted the coal in Isaiah to St. Symeon’s holding of the Christ child and how he was not burned. It was just stunning.

So, for the last time in 2006 (for those of us of the Eastern Rite Gregorian Calendar type) join me in singing the Troparian of the Feast:

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace!
From you shone the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God.
Enlightening those who sat in darkness!
Rejoice, and be glad, O righteous elder;
You accepted in your arms the Redeemer of our souls,
Who grants us the Resurrection.