The link between the old stone Temple and the Ark of the New Covenant

The feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple, celebrated in the East since the sixth century, seems to be connected to the dedication of the New Church of St. Mary in Jerusalem (543). It became one of the twelve great feasts of the Byzantine liturgy: "After your birth, divine Bride, you were presented to the Temple of the Lord to be raised in the Holy of Holies as a sanctified Virgin" (Lucernaria).

Rome was more reserved with regard to the tradition according to which Mary, at the age of three, was presented to the Temple of Jerusalem to pray and serve God, and thus prepare for her great vocation. This hypothesis is proposed in the apocryphal Gospel entitled the Protevangelium of James, probably composed in Egypt in the middle of the second century. The Church does not regard this work as canonical, because of the late date at which it was composed and the abundance of the extraordinary facts it contains.

Introduced in Avignon in the 14th century, the feast of the Presentation was recognized by Pope Gregory XI in 1372. However, it was included in the Western liturgical calendar by Pope Sixtus V only in 1585, because of the symbolic interpretation one can read into it, namely that Mary is the model of the Church who, like her, serves God by a total gift of herself. The Virgin is also the true Temple where God established his dwelling at the time of the Annunciation, thus prefiguring the heavenly Jerusalem in which the Lamb, who dwells in its midst, is the only light (Rev 21:23).

This feast thus establishes a link between the ancient Temple of stone and the Ark of the New Covenant, which is the most pure womb of the Virgin, upon which the shekinah, the glory of the living God, would soon descend.

Homily of Bishop Emilius Goulet of Montreal (excerpt)

https://sulpc.org