Overprotective parenting, living vicariously through our children, and otherwise attempting to control their lives goes against the Gospel of Life. Mary and Joseph offer a powerful witness to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, and other friends of children on this Feast of the Presentation. Children are God’s beloved souls, each with a unique calling and mission. Our role, as adults in their lives, is to receive children as gifts, to pray for them and nurture who they are as distinct persons to the best of their ability, and then to present them, day by day, back to God. We are responsible for how well we love them, how fervently we pray for them, how faithfully we serve them, but not for the outcome of their lives, or for the choices they make in the freedom God has given to them. May we love them well, and stand in awe and wonder at their capacity, and also at the directions they will go that we could not go ourselves.
Prayer: For the faith to care for our children and entrust them to God’s care, we pray to the Lord. Mary and Joseph, you took Jesus to the Temple to present Him to God, a sign of what you would do as parents over and over again in loving Jesus. Pray for us, that we might follow your example, and that we might commend our love for the children in our lives to your beloved Son for purification and for strength in loving children well. Amen.
Reflection: CCCB
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Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary
