Awesome story of St. Simeon

[Madaglan]

I found this story on a yahoo groups site to which I belong. I have never heard it before, and I hope that others who have not heard it before enjoy it as much as I did in reading it the first time.

One of the 72 translators of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek for King
Ptolemy was the righteous elder, St. Simeon, who sought to “correct” what
he believed to be a mistake in the text – that “A Virgin shall conceive
and bear a Son.” (Isaias 7:14)

As he attempted to erase that “error” with his stylus, he was stopped from
doing so by an Angel of the Lord, who informed him that he would not die
until such time as he saw this prophecy fulfilled in his own sight.

And so, worn out by some 300 years of life, St. Simeon was finally
“released” from his burden of old age upon seeing the Christ-Child brought
to the Temple for His circumcision. It was then that the elderly St.
Simeon took the Child from His Mother, and, holding Him in his arms, exclaimed:

“O Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, in accordance with
Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared
before the face of all men; a Light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the
Glory of Thy people Israel.”

– GeoS

Did you like the story? :yup:

 

[Joysong]

Dear Madaglan,

I have always loved the account of the Presentation, but the stylus story was new to me, and not as important a detail to me as this:

The part of your story that is not apparent is the interior knowledge that was manifested to Simeon, enabling him to recognize the Savior. It was a special touch of the Holy Spirit, for we know that Mary was not accustomed to go about announcing to others the true identity of her child.

I would suspect that he spent many years in holy prayer, and had learned to hear the Spirit when He spoke to his heart. How else can we account for this beautiful prophecy? Again, it did not come from Mary. Simeon had what many might call, a word of knowledge, or simply, prophecy.

Thanks for sharing your story.