Today is the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is not to be confused with the Presentation of Christ. You may ask, what is the presentation of the Virgin Mary? It is an event that is not noted in Scripture, but as Wikipedia points out, it is mentioned in the non-canonical works, the Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. Mary was born to St. Anne, who was childless late in life, and in return, St. Anne and St. Joachim dedicated Mary to God's service. According to tradition, she was brought to the Temple at about age three to be educated.
Wikipedia also notes that this is one of the major feasts of the Orthodox Church, while in the West its status has varied. A lot of people who are critical of the Marian devotions of Catholicism don't realize that the Eastern Church is nearly just as dedicated to these traditions as Rome is, and has been from antiquity. These are not medieval inventions, by any means.
The Roman Catholic church also celebrates this day as "Pro Orantibus" Day -- a day to remember cloistered women religious. If you have a nun in your life who has been of special significance to you, it is a good day to remember her with a phone call or a visit, if her order permits it.
In today's Office of Readings, we have a Sermon from St. Augustine on the blessed Virgin Mary on Matthew 12:49
Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my mother and my brothers, anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and my sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her -- did she not do the will of the Father? Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.
The Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours usually has, as its second reading, writings from church councils, saints, or the church Fathers. It is an extremely valuable to read the Fathers, men such as St. Augstine, St. Ambrose, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St Ignatius of Antioch, and others, because they pondered, many centuries ago, questions on the scripture which are still relevant today. These men had the benefit of living close to the source, in that they heard much in the teachings and semons of the early church that was not necessarily recorded in Scripture. While Scripture is the first and best teacher of the faith, and is considered inerrant by Catholics, it exists, in the Catholic view, as a part of sacred tradition. While reading the Bible is extremely productive, one must be wary of placing too great an emphasis on one's own interpretation. Matthew 12:49 could be taken as a statement that devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary are not approved by Christ -- yet clearly, Augustine, steeped in the tradition of the early church, does not interpret it that way, and neither should we. For who did the will of the Father more perfectly than she who said to the angel Gabriel,
"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Remember the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all women religious today.