Propers for the Feast of the Purification

INTROIT Ps. 47:10-11

We have received Your kindness, O Lord, within Your temple. As Your name, O God, is known to the ends of the earth, so also shall Your praise be voiced to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is just in all things.
Ps. 47:2. Great is the Lord, and worthy of all praise in the city of our God, upon His holy mountain.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
Almighty and Eternal God, we humbly ask that we may be presented to You with purified souls just as Your only-begotten Son was presented this day in the temple after He had taken on the substance of our flesh. Through Our Lord . . .

LESSON Mal. 3:1-4

Thus says the Lord God: Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple. Behold, he cometh, saith the Lord of hosts. And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb: And he shall sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold, and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice. And the sacrifice of Juda and of Jerusalem shall please the Lord, as in the days of old, and in the ancient years, says the Lord almighty.

GRADUAL Ps. 47:10-11, 9

We have received Your kindness, O Lord, within Your temple. As Your name, O God, is known to the ends of the earth, so also shall Your praise be voiced to the ends of the earth.
V. As we had heard, so we have seen in the city of our God, upon His holy mountain.

Alleluia, alleluia. An old man was carrying a Child; but the Child was the old man’s Lord. Alleluia.

GOSPEL Luke 2:22-32

At that time, when the days of Mary's purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: As it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord": And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons"

And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon: and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, He also took him into his arms and blessed God and said, "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace: Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: A light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 44:3

Grace is poured out upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever and for all ages.

SECRET

O Lord, graciously hear our prayers and in Your mercy help us so that our offering may be worthy of Your majesty. Through Our Lord . . .
 

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Luke 2:26

Simeon received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

POSTCOMMUNION

O Lord Our God, may this sacred rite, which You instituted to protect us in our new life of grace, bring us healing now and forever through the intercession of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. Through Our Lord . . .