Divine Providence has permitted for our instruction, that Our Lady should renew in her Presentation the sacrifice which she had made of her whole self at the moment of her Immaculate Conception. Do you, then, religious souls, make this renewal in imitation of her, and do it with great fervour of spirit, with profound humility, and ardent charity. Place your hearts, your souls, and your entire being in the hands of this Holy Virgin; she will present you to the Most Holy Trinity, and you will obtain a thousand blessings in this life, and will be enabled to arrive at eternal glory in the next. [1] It is an ancient and well-grounded tradition that Mary was led to the Temple to be presented to the Lord at three years of age, and that she dwelt in that sacred abode until the age of fourteen that is to say, as long as was permitted by the laws of the Sanhedrim. St. Bonaventure relates to us the life led by the Most Holy Virgin in that voluntary retirement. 'We may learn,' says this Father, 'what Mary did in the Temple from her own revelations to one of her faithful servants, supposed to be St. Elizabeth.' Amongst other things we read as follows: 'As soon as I was left in the Temple by my parents, I determined in my heart to look upon God as my Father. I often considered what I could do to merit His grace, and I began to instruct myself in His holy law. But of all the Divine precepts, these three principally occupied my attention: (1) Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength; (2) thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; (3) thou shalt hate thy enemy. 'I kept the commandments in my heart, and I quietly embraced all the virtues that they contain. It is thus that I wish you to conduct yourself. In fact, the soul can possess no virtue whatever if it do not love God with all its powers, because it is from this love alone that the fulness of grace (without which virtue will never be preserved in the soul) descends to us; but it will pass like running water and vanish if the _soul hates not its enemies_, which are _sin and vice_. He who desires to acquire and preserve grace must accustom his heart, then, to the exercise of this love and of this hatred, and it is in this that I wish to be imitated by you.'