On this Feast, this Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– this HOLY Day –
I’m struggling with the weight of my sin and the sins of the world.
Sometimes, the recognition of how much I’ve fallen presses in on me.
Today was such a day.
At times the truth of who I am on my own overwhelms me as I recognize the depth of my sin…
in both what I have done
and in what I have failed to do…
And…
I realize how much I continue to fall and fail.
with such tremendous evil being exposed both in the Church and without…
weighs heavily upon me.
How heavy is the sin…
how overwhelming …
how depressing…
how sorrowful it makes me …
and how crushing, if I allow it to be…
the renewed realization of it all pierces my heart and mind and soul.
To combat it, I go about my daily activities and I pray…
it is in prayer that peace, healing, and understanding comes.
The despair begins to lift and be transformed into glimmers of hope…
as I spend time in prayer.
Considering Christ.
Contemplating Him.
and the Great Mystery of the Cross,
through the Stations and Divine Mercy Chaplet,
my mind is directed toward Him …
Toward Truth
Toward Beauty
Toward Goodness
until I remember and recognize again…
That Jesus,
by every breath,
every act,
every thought,
every Word,
every Divine Institution He established
has CONQUERED SIN AND DEATH AND EVIL!
and for we, who are in Christ,
He is WITH US,
INSIDE OF US,
FULFILLING HIS PLAN in and through us…
A plan that mysteriously allows the weed to grow up fully along with the wheat.
This weed of corruption, of lust and evil and darkness that is so evident and is being exposed and brought to the light ever more in these days.
Yet, it is good to remember that these weeds
are being brought to the light of God’s justice,
where these perpetrators of such great evil – if there is no repentance –
will be gathered up and trampled
consumed in unquenchable fire and everlasting torment.
God will not be mocked.
Evil will not prevail!
“God is in His Heavens and All is well with the world” as St. Julian of Norwich proclaims..
for He is holding us —
living inside us,
filling us with His Presence, His Life, His Truth and His Glory
with each Sacrament,
with each drop of grace,
with each prayer,
with each miraculous intervention by Our Blessed Mother.
now
with each of Mary’s comings…
with each of her visitations…
God’s plan is working toward fulfillment!
God does not react, but IS only and always LOVE,
who’s very purpose is LIFE, MERCY, AND SALVATION.
weak, frail and even sinful as we are!
Though sin and evil can manifest itself in our fallen human nature …
for although people choosing against God brings injustice, sin and death.
Yet,
people choosing for God,
and living in Him,
bring about incomparable good — with Mary as our greatest example.
There has been none greater than Mary,
who freely and fully chose God,
with her whole person.
Her life was so completely given over to God,
that a DIVINE PERSON,
Jesus,
the Savior,
the Christ,
the Anointed One,
the Son of God and the Son of David
was conceived and was born of her!
the Savior and Son of Man – who alone can save us!
To consider how God desired to utilize a young girl… a simple soul… to give HIM flesh and bones… to incarnate Him!
Again and again in history, saints have understood it is part of God’s plan for Mary to continue to give birth to Jesus in our lives.
And that she is also the surest and easiest path to God and of staying united to Him.
All the saints had a devotion to Mary, but St. Louis de Montfort exemplified this devotion to Jesus through Mary in an extraordinary way, and gave us the Treatise True Devotion to Mary, which has been instrumental in forming great saints such as St. John Paul II. This can be seen as confirmation of the prophesy St. Louis gave:
“Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs … filled with grace and zeal … chosen to oppose the enemies of God”…
They will “be exceptionally devoted to her, strengthened by her, guided by her, supported by her, sheltered by her….fighting with one hand and building with the other …. by word and example drawing all men to true devotion … bringing about victories and much glory to God alone.” 1 (Cf. True Devotion to Mary. See paragraphs 47 and 48 below).
So, it is also wondrous to think that WE, too, are called to be part of saving the world.
What wonders God can work in our souls, in our lives, in our families if we are but open to Him and to His Holy Spirit — not only in the abstract, but if we give Him our whole being — so that He can be born again in us!
But, He does so only to bring about a greater good.
And He allows it, because it is only in freedom that we can freely choose Him and also allow ourselves to be freely chosen and used by Him.
Mary coming to us and praying with us and for us,
helps us choose Him…
She reminds us that God exists…
and helps us to give ourselves over to His plan for our lives and to allow Him free reign.
Her prayers help us to achieve heights of holiness that we could never achieve on our own.
And her messages are a school of prayer…
to help us enter more deeply into the mystery of God,
while stripping ourselves of things that keep our mind, hearts and wills occupied, busy and filled with things other than Him.
She is the best of teachers as well as the best of mothers.
So she continues to come to help us be set free…
Free to live in God and with God even in the midst of the evil of our age.
So it is wondrous to consider…
That although Free Will brought about the fall,
even more wondrously it brought about our redemption.
Mary, then, is not only our Mother, but our example and our hope!
She is the archetype of humanity.
As she goes before us…
what happens with her, in her and through her
is meant to give us hope.
Her being assumed into heaven is a great sign of our own calling.
For we, too, are called to live in heaven forever, body and soul, in glory!
For Mary being assumed into heaven is part of the fulfillment of God’s plan:
“a perfect victory over sin and death…
just as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part of this victory and its final trophy,
so the struggle shared by the Blessed Virgin and her Son was to end in the glorification of her virginal body….
When this mortal body has clothed itself in immortality…
Death is swallowed up in victory.” 2
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever” as she proclaimed in her Magnificat!
we, who love Christ and cling to Him have nothing to fear,
for Jesus is ruler of heaven and earth.
And, if we are humble enough to accept His Mother as our own,
She holds us safe in her mantle as she, herself, becomes the place of refuge prepared for us by God. (cf. Rev. 13).
O Mary, assumed into heaven, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
© Janet Moore 2018. All Rights Reserved.
1. Paragraphs 47 and 48 of True Devotion to Mary:
“… this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs…
These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her food, guided by her spirit, supported by her arm, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Fathers of the Church the Temple of Solomon and the City of God. By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her and though this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories and much glory to God alone…
… This city around which men will roam at the end of the world seeking conversion and the appeasement of the hunger they have for justice is the most Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Holy Spirit the City of God.”
2. From the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus by Venerable Pius XII, pope (AAS 42 [1950], 760-762, 767-769)
“…Scripture portrays the loving Mother of God … as most intimately united with her divine Son and always sharing in his destiny.
Above all, it must be noted that from the second century the holy Fathers present the Virgin Mary as the new Eve, most closely associated with the new Adam, though subject to him in the struggle against the enemy from the nether world. This struggle, as the first promise of a redeemer implies, was to end in perfect victory over sin and death, always linked together in the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Therefore just as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part of this victory and its final trophy, so the struggle shared by the Blessed Virgin and her Son was to end in the glorification of her virginal body. As the same Apostle says: When this mortal body has clothed itself in immortality, then will be fulfilled the word of Scripture: Death is swallowed up in victory.
Hence, the august Mother of God, mysteriously united from all eternity with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a virgin inviolate in her divine motherhood, the wholehearted companion of the divine Redeemer who won complete victory over sin and its consequences, gained, at last the supreme crown of her privileges—to be preserved immune from the corruption of the tomb, and, like her Son, when death had been conquered, to be carried up body and soul to the exalted glory of heaven, there to sit in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the ages.”