{"id":6030,"date":"2019-03-04T18:24:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T17:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soeurs-de-la-presentation-de-marie.org\/pom\/?page_id=6030"},"modified":"2021-02-10T12:26:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T11:26:12","slug":"presentacao-de-maria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/soeurs-de-la-presentation-de-marie.org\/pom\/presentacao-de-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation of Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_bottom”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”THE PRESENTATION OF MARY IN THE TEMPLE” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Amarante%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]On this day, the Church celebrates the mystery of Mary’s first encounter with her God.  With her YES, she goes up the steps of the Temple “without looking back”. She leaves everything and offers herself as a holy host, pleasing to God, giving herself entirely and forever. She is seduced by her God and she has allowed herself to be seduced.  Mary becomes God’s most pure temple. She remains in the temple in his presence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary puts herself at the disposal of her God, simply, totally, humbly. Her gift is free and absolute. She desires only one thing: to be the little servant of the Lord who offers herself to her Master. God to whom she offers herself is her life, her joy, her happiness. That is why, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple on  November 21st<\/sup><\/strong>, is the feast of the first yes<\/strong>, the feast of take Lord and receive.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND MARIE RIVIER” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Amarante%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”\u201cThe story of the life of Madame Rivier is almost solely the story of her devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
\nof an uninterrupted reciprocity of trust and favors, of prayers and graces
\nobtained by the intercession of the Virgin Mary.\u201d” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:34|text_align:center|color:%230066bf” google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”-Monsieur Hamon \u2013 The first biographer of Blessed Marie Rivier” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:18|text_align:right|color:%23116ebf” google_fonts=”font_family:Alice%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner content_placement=”top”][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

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It is in Montpezat, at the foot of the Piet\u00e0, that little Marie Rivier lets herself be seized by a mystery that is beyond her comprehension.  From this long contemplation of the dead Son being offered and of his broken-hearted Mother, she will learn the depths to which an offering of love can lead. Like Jesus and Mary, Marie Rivier\u2019s heart will become ever more deeply a heart filled with compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can affirm that, from her childhood to the very last hours of her life, Marie Rivier placed herself totally in the hands of the Virgin Mary.  Over the course of their encounters, a kind of complicity was created between Marie Rivier and the Virgin Mary, one that deepened over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Virgin Mary is Marie Rivier\u2019s foremost formator.  She teaches her Jesus Christ and the meaning of adoration and offering.  The mystery of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple is the perfect response to the deepest desires of Marie Rivier\u2019s heart: \u201cShe always wanted her life to be a continuous Presentation: Here I am!\u201d The feast of November 21st is closely linked to the offering of Jesus, the perfect Servant, who offered himself for the salvation of the world:  Holocausts and sin-offerings you do not require, so I said: \u201cHere I am to do your will\u201d (Ps 40). Therefore, it is not surprising to see Marie Rivier in awe before the mystery of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: \u201cThis feast suffocates me by the ardent desires it awakens in me to sacrifice myself with Jesus Christ\u201d.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_bottom”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AND MARIE RIVIER
\nIN THE HISTORY OF FOUNDATION” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:34|text_align:center|color:%230066bf” google_fonts=”font_family:Amarante%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_top”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

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\"\"[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space height=”45px”][vc_custom_heading text=”The Birth of a Foundress” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:38|text_align:left|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]The Foundress, Marie RIVIER, was born in Montpezat, France, on December 19, 1768. She was not yet five years old when she felt a strong urge to dedicate her life to God to teach catechism to children. Deprived of the use of her legs following a fall she had at the age of sixteen months, she tirelessly begged Our Lady: “Blessed Virgin, heal me and I will gather children for you. I will make a school for them and teach them to love you.” It is there, at the foot of the Piet\u00e0 that our Congregation was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this School of the Cross and of the heart, Marie Rivier takes on ever more deeply, the sentiments of Jesus and his Mother. Her heart learns to love, to love tenderly, intensely, to the very end.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Our Lady of Mercy, her compassionate heart opens to all types of suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

 [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”The Healing” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

Partially healed on September 8, 1774, she obtained her complete healing three years later on another feast of Mary, that of her Assumption. From then on, she only lives to fulfill her promise, certain that she can expect everything from the Blessed Virgin Mary. This confidence in Mary will be hers for the whole of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”The Promise” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

On  November 21, <\/span>1796, <\/span>the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, <\/span>in the midst of revolutionary turmoil and against the rules of human prudence, faithful to her promise, she founded her Institute, with the approval of the Vicar General of the Diocese, Monsieur R\u00e9gis Vernet, priest of Saint-Sulpice who became the Counsellor and Father of the new foundation. With four companions, she consecrates herself to God and dedicates herself to the Christian instruction of youth.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”The Prophesy” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

Her burning love for God, her daring zeal, her passion to make Jesus Christ known and loved to the ends of the earth, her tender and boundless charity for the afflicted, the poor and the abandoned children, made Pius IX call her the Woman Apostle. She died in the hunger of her zeal on February 3, 1838. Saint John Paul II beatified her on May 23, 1982.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie Rivier founded 149 schools during her lifetime. She predicted: “My daughters will cross the seas”. Less than twenty years after her death, the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin Mary began to spread to other European countries and established themselves in America. The daughters of the Woman Apostle have crossed the seas. Foundations have multiplied on all four continents: America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 [\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”The Interior Strength” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Alex%20Brush%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text] <\/p>\n

Marie Rivier was convinced of the urgency of prayer for an apostolic life. She placed particular emphasis on the spirit of prayer, the “interior retreat”, the presence of God, the state of adoration, and offering.   She was convinced that “nothing could be done without prayer”.  She attributed all that she had accomplished through the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”THE NAMING OF A CONGREGATION” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:36|text_align:center|color:%230060c1″ google_fonts=”font_family:Amarante%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_top”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Upon hearing the name, \u201cPresentation of Mary in the Temple,\u201d and the brief  explanations that her devout spiritual director, Msg. Pontanier gave her on the significance of this feast, Marie Rivier suddenly felt filled with great joy and deep conviction that her most cherished wishes would be fulfilled; that the community that she so wished, be born; and that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wanted to preside over its birth, under the patronage of one of her most touching mysteries.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following day November 21, 1796, \u201cwas a day of extraordinary fervor.\u201d Marie Rivier\u2019s supernatural joy spread to all in the house.  All of them received holy Communion from Monsieur Pontanier, and all of them dedicated themselves to Mary with unanimous and devout enthusiasm, which is the sign of celestial inspiration, and of great things to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the ceremony Monsieur Pontanier gave her a seal bearing the initials of the \u201cAve Maria,\u201d as he said to her: \u201cTake this, for it will be the seal of your house.\u201d It was the seal of the Sulpicians. The devout Foundress took the seal with respect, kissed it several times, and did not  want to part with it for the rest of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the way the Institute of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary was founded on November 21, 1796, the feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie Rivier never forget that it was under the patronage of Mary that her Congregation was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \u201cMy children, always entrust yourself unreservedly to the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the beginning of our Congregation, it is She who did everything\u2026\u201d<\/em> (MR)<\/span><\/p>\n