This year the Presentation replaces the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
The psalm chosen for today’s Liturgy of the Word almost certainly has its origins in a hymn sung at the Temple of Jerusalem, perhaps in a Liturgy which saw the ark of the covenant returned to the Temple after a battle (cf 1 Samuel 4). It is a psalm sung today in Jewish liturgy when the holy Torah is returned to the Ark after the proclamation of God’s word.
In our Catholic liturgy this Sunday we use only the second part of the psalm, which most lends itself to the principal focus of the feast, ie the coming of God’s only-begotten son to our world, and his being welcomed by Simeon and Anna, representatives of God’s faithful down the ages.
The verses of the psalm omitted by the Lectionary broaden the vision: The meaning of the (presumed) Temple…
View original post 342 more words