Many people today when they read this story would immediately dismiss these two people, Simeon and Anna, as Holy Joes; but if we have an open mind to the word of God there is a very relevant message for our world today, in these two people. They discover Christ as the fulfilment of all-human dreams and expectations. Christ has come to accompany us on our pilgrimage through life. We like Simeon and Anna must undergo the same ordeal that they went through. It is pretty evident to all of us that the world we inhabit is becoming more and more secularised (material, less spiritual). We are living in a world that pretends it does not need God, a world that thinks it has all the answers, a world that is the object of its own fallacy, a deception that the world itself has created. Then we sit back in amazement and wonder and speculate what has gone wrong with the world? Where is it all going? Simeon and Anna recognized the great gift hidden in the bundled infant in Mary’s arms. But far from being sentimental Simeon knew that this baby would bring a challenge, greater than the world had yet known. He knew the price this child, and those who loved him, would pay in order to alter the life of the world. We like Simeon and Anna must experience Christ as the missing piece in the jigsaw of our lives. Many people shun and avoid a personal relationship with Christ, some fall by the wayside especially in their religious practice, simply because Christ is challenging, Christ is too demanding. Many times, we fall into the tendency to domesticate our faith. Some people have an ‘a la carte’ Catholicism. Some Christians today tend to cherry pick their commitments. I am follower of Christ, but I do what I want, we do what we feel like doing and we know how versatile feelings can be. This Christ child that is presented in the Temple today, challenges us to profess our faith and change our lives. Karl Rahner encapsulates this idea when he writes: ‘you are still the hidden child in a world grown old. But I, O hidden Lord of all things, boldly affirm my faith in you. I make this avowal (declaration) of faith, it must pierce the depths of my heart like a sword, I must bend my knee before you, saying, I must alter my life’. Am I willing to make this declaration of faith? Am I willing to profess my faith in Christ no matter what price I have to pay? The beautiful prayer that is recorded here is used by the priests in their breviary, liturgy of the hours, which is also called the universal prayer of the Church. This is how those of us who read the liturgy of the hours end our night prayers. Christ invites us to learn to pray this prayer with the Church each night. At the end of each day ask yourself: where have I seen glimpses of God in my life today? Have I been a light in this darkened world by my words and example? Let go of each day and rest in God’s peace. Leave the world in God’s hands while we sleep, and rise refreshed to do God’s works each day.