Vigil readings: 1Chronicles 15:3-16; 16:1; Ps 132 Lord, go up to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your holiness; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57; Luke 11:27-28
Readings during the day: Revelation 11:19-12:1-10;Ps 45 The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold; 1corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56
Don't shrug your shoulders; don't frown in sadness; don't give into despair; don't let the darkness entrap you; don't let the lie become truth.
Our God is fascinating; what he does always surpasses the impossible.
Let me repeat.
Our God is fascinating; what he does always surpasses the impossible.
God looked upon a woman, one from our race, one who belonged to the nameless, the humble, the forgotten; one who belonged to the exalted, famous, the renown; one who belonged to the faceless, homeless, exiled; one who belonged to the poor and the rich alike.
God looked upon a woman one like us and loved her, not for his sake, not for her sake, but for our sake.
God looked upon a woman and found such beauty amongst us.
That one who comes from us in time has now found favor in eternity.
Here is what the apostolic constitution that which pronounces, declares, and defines the Assumption to be a revealed dogma that Mary having completely the course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory states:
"The most bountiful God, who is almighty, the plan of whose providence rests upon wisdom and love, tempers, in the secret purposes of his own mind the sorrows of peoples and of individual men by means of joys that He interposes in their lives from time to time, in such a way that under different conditions and in different ways, all things may work together unto good for those who love him."
In order to temper our sorrows he gives us a reason to rejoice.
In Mary one like us has been exalted into heaven. In deed the door way to heaven has been unbound, loosed, set open for us.
St Paul tells us that as the Body of Christ we should rejoice with those who rejoice. The joy experienced by one member should be an occasion of joy for all.
Mary's joy is complete has she enters heaven and that joyful fulfillment reaches down and touches us here and now. The grace of redemption has brought her home and that grace that worked for her works for us.
The toil of our journey is not in vain. Mary surrender to God and that surrender has been turned into glory.
Our yes to God is not in vain. God who is fascinating. God who always surpasses the impossible and allows the impossible to be seen by all as Mary is assumed body and soul into heaven.
In the Assumption of the Blessed Mother the fruit of the resurrection is realized and its effects on us can now be fully anticipated.
We rejoice because we have a reason that cannot be denied.
As Jesus reminds us, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
To surrender is divine for it is traded for glory. As Paul reminds us, "when that which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: Death is swallowed up in victory...Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our lord Jesus Christ."
Mortality has been clothed in immortality.
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