The next day, at dawn, the Holy Family and their hosts went to the Temple. They first entered a courtyard near the holy place.
While Joseph placed the donkey under a shed, an elderly woman kindly welcomed the Blessed Virgin and led her toward the Temple through a covered passage. They had barely entered this passage when the aged Simeon came to meet Mary.
The words he spoke to her expressed the joy with which his soul was filled. He took the Child in his arms for a moment and then hastened to return to the Temple by another path. The angel's warning had inspired in him such an ardent desire to see the Child for whom he had so long yearned that he had gone there in advance to await His arrival.
He was clothed in the long robe that priests wore when they were not performing their functions. A priest himself, though of a lower rank, he was distinguished only by his simplicity, piety, and wisdom. The Blessed Virgin was led by her guide to the court where the presentation of the Child was to take place and where Anne and Noémi, her former mistress, awaited her.
Simeon, having hurried a second time to meet her, led her to the place where the redemption of the firstborn was performed; Anne, to whom Joseph gave the basket of offering, followed with Noémi. Joseph went to take his place among the men. It was known in the Temple that several women were to come to present their firstborn; everything was therefore prepared.
Lamps, lit and arranged in the form of pyramids, were suspended on the walls of the ceremonial place. They had golden spouts that shone almost as brightly as the flame issuing from them. Before a kind of altar, whose corners ended in horns, several priests had placed a quadrangular chest to serve as a table, with the aid of a large plate they placed on top.
They spread a red covering, then a transparent white covering, which hung down on all sides to the ground. At the four corners of the table, they placed candlesticks, and in the middle, a cradle with two oval dishes and two small baskets. To the right and left of this part of the Temple, two rows of stalls were visible, one higher than the other, where priests were praying.
Then Simeon approached the Blessed Virgin, in whose arms the Child Jesus rested, wrapped in sky-blue cloth, and led her to the offering table, where she placed the Child in the cradle. At that moment, the Temple appeared to me filled with a dazzling light: I saw that God was there and that above the Child, the heavens were opened up to the throne of the Holy Trinity.
Then Simeon led the Blessed Virgin back to the place reserved for women and enclosed by a grille. Mary wore a sky-blue robe, a white veil, and a long, light-yellow mantle that enveloped her entirely. Simeon and the three other priests dressed for the ceremony. They had what looked like small shields on their arms and a forked cap on their heads.
One of them stood behind the offering table, another in front, two others on each side, and all prayed over the Child. The prophetess Anne then approached Mary, gave her the basket containing the fruits and doves, and led her to the grille placed before the oblation table. Then Simeon, who was standing there, opened the grille, led Mary before the table, and placed her offering there.
The fruits were placed in one of the oval dishes, the coins in the other, and the doves were left in the basket. While Simeon stood with Mary before the offering altar, the priest who was standing behind the altar took the Child Jesus, lifted Him into the air, turning Him toward the four sides of the Temple.
After praying for a long time, he gave Him to Simeon, who placed Him back in Mary's arms and read several prayers from a scroll placed beside him on a lectern. Finally, Simeon led the Blessed Virgin back to the grille, from where she was taken back to the women's place by Anne, who was waiting there. About twenty mothers were also preparing to present their newborns.
Then the priests began a service of incense and prayers at the altar, to which those seated in the stalls joined with some gestures. After this ceremony, Simeon returned to Mary, received the Child Jesus from her own arms, and, radiant with joy, spoke of Him for a long time in very touching terms.
He praised God, who had fulfilled His promise, and said among other things:
"Now, Lord, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."
Joseph, after the presentation, had come to join Mary. Like her, he listened with profound respect to the inspired words of Simeon, who blessed them both and said to Mary:
"Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted—and you yourself a sword will pierce—so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
After Simeon, the prophetess Anne, also inspired, spoke at length about the Child Jesus and called His mother blessed. These things caused no disturbance; on the contrary, all present, including the priests, listened with great emotion. It seemed that these inspired prayers had nothing unusual about them and that everything was meant to happen this way.
All showed the deepest respect for the Child and His mother. Mary shone like a heavenly rose. Outwardly, the Holy Family had presented the poorest offering, but Joseph secretly gave several gold coins to Simeon and Anne, especially for the benefit of the poor virgins raised in the Temple who were unable to pay for their upkeep.
The Blessed Virgin, holding the Child Jesus in her arms, was led back by Anne and Noémi to the court, where they said farewell. Joseph was already there with his two hosts; he had brought the donkey on which Mary mounted with the Child.
They immediately left the Temple and crossed Jerusalem to go to Nazareth. I did not see the presentation of the other firstborn; but I am certain that all received special graces and that several of them perished in the massacre of the Innocents.
Simeon was related to Seraphia, who received the name Veronica, and also to Zechariah, through Seraphia's father. Having returned home after the presentation of Jesus, he immediately fell ill. However, he never ceased to show the greatest joy in his conversations with his wife and sons.
On his deathbed, he gave exhortations; he spoke to them, with touching gravity and joy, about the salvation of Israel and all that the angel had announced to him. He died peacefully, and his family mourned him in silence. Many priests and Jews prayed over his coffin.
Here is the vision I had concerning the feast of Candlemas. I saw a feast in the diaphanous church, hovering above the earth, which represents to me the entire Catholic Church, containing within it all particular churches.
It was full of choirs of angels surrounding the Most Holy Trinity. I saw the second person of the Trinity as the Child Jesus, presented and redeemed in the Temple, and at the same time also present in the Most Holy Trinity. I saw near me the apparition of the incarnate Word, the Child Jesus, but united to the Holy Trinity by a luminous path.
I cannot say that He was not there while He was near me; nor can I say that He was not near me while He was there; however, at the moment I keenly felt the presence of the Child Jesus near me, I saw the figure under which the Holy Trinity was shown to me differently than when it is presented to me as the image of the Divinity in ordinary circumstances.
I saw an altar appear in the middle of the church. It was not an altar like those we see in our churches, but an ideal altar. On this altar, I saw a small tree with broad, hanging leaves, of the kind of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was in Eden.
I then saw the Blessed Virgin, with the Child Jesus in her arms, rise from the depths of the earth before the altar, and the tree that was on the altar bow before her and wither. Then I saw an angel in priestly vestments, crowned with a simple ring, approach Mary. She gave him the Child, whom he placed on the altar; at the same instant, I saw the Child absorbed into the image of the Holy Trinity, which then appeared to me again in its ordinary form.
I saw the angel give the Mother of God a small shining globe, on which was the figure of a swaddled child, and Mary hovered with this globe above the altar. From all sides, I saw a crowd of hands coming to her with lights, which she gave all to the Child placed on the globe, and into which they were absorbed.
From all these lights, I saw a single splendid radiance form above Mary and the Child, illuminating everything. Mary's ample mantle spread over the whole earth. In the end, the image transformed into a festive celebration.
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I believe that the withering of the tree of knowledge, upon the appearance of Mary and the absorption of the Child on the altar into the Holy Trinity, was meant to be an image of the reconciliation of humanity with God.
This is why I saw all the particular lights presented to the Mother of God and handed over by her to the Child Jesus, the true light enlightening all men, and in whom all particular lights became one and the same light illuminating the entire world, represented by this globe.
The presented lights signified the blessing of candles on the feast of Candlemas.
Source: Visions of Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich – R. P. Joseph Alvare – 1922