Information: St. Tarsicius

Feast Day: August 15

Died: 3rd century

Major Shrine: San Silvestro in Capite, Rome

Patron of: altar servers and first communicants

How about a link instead of killing the comments page??

I will send your post to the Religion Moderator and he/she can help you.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3324914/posts?page=43#43

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Holy Spirit Interactive Kids: A Saint a Day

The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Feast Day: August 15

On this feast of Mary we celebrate a special favor that God gave to Mary, our Mother.

The Assumption means that Mary was taken up into the glory of heaven not only with her soul, but also with her body.

Jesus, the Son of God was born from Mary's pure womb. So when Mary died, God the Father and Jesus, would not let the body of the Mother of God be spoilt. This was her reward for her love of God and her years of faithful prayers and suffering.

Now Mary is in heaven. She is queen of heaven and earth. She is the Mother of Jesus' Church and queen of apostles. Every time Mary asks Jesus to give us graces, he listens to her request.

After the resurrection from the dead, we, too, can go to heaven with our bodies. Our bodies will be perfect. They will not suffer illness anymore. They will not need any more food and drink to keep alive. They will be beautiful and splendid!

If we use our bodies now to do good, those bodies will share in our heavenly reward.

As we celebrate the feast day of Mary, we can ask our Blessed Mother Mary to guide, protect and care for us.

CATHOLIC ALMANAC

Saturday, August 15

Liturgical Color: White

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate the taking
of Our Lady body and soul into heaven. In
1950, Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption
a Dogma of the Church to be believed by all
Catholics.

Day 227 - The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus // Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives

Today’s Reading: Luke 22:47-62
47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him; 48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” 49 And when those who were about him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and captains of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? 53 When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. Peter followed at a distance; 55 and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 Then a maid, seeing him as he sat in the light and gazing at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later some one else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

Today’s Commentary:
the power of darkness: The appointed time of Satan’s final attack on Jesus (4:13). Paul uses the same language (in Greek) to describe the devil’s dominion in Col 1:13.

looked at Peter: The gaze of Jesus brings shame upon Peter for his cowardice. The apostle’s bitter weeping (22:62) marks the beginning of his restoration (22:32).

Catholic Culture

Ordinary Time: August 15th

Solemnity of the Assumption

Daily Readings for: August 15, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

ACTIVITIES

PRAYERS

LIBRARY

Old Calendar: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Dormition of Our Lady (Eastern Rite); St. Tarcisius, martyr, (Hist)

On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption. Thus he solemnly proclaimed that the belief whereby the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the close of her earthly life, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, definitively forms part of the deposit of faith, received from the Apostles. To avoid all that is uncertain the Pope did not state either the manner or the circumstances of time and place in which the Assumption took place — only the fact of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, is the matter of the definition.

Please see this special section on The Assumption.

Historically today is the feast of St. Tarcisius, a young martyr of the Eucharist.

The Assumption
Now toward the end of the summer season, at a time when fruits are ripe in the gardens and fields, the Church celebrates the most glorious "harvest festival" in the Communion of Saints. Mary, the supremely blessed one among women, Mary, the most precious fruit which has ripened in the fields of God's kingdom, is today taken into the granary of heaven.

— Pius Parsch, The Church's Year of Grace

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated.

Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina in honor of Jupiter.

For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples.

After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived.

On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried.

At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption.

For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God.

Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)

At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven."

In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: "Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth."

All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior.

The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.

The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."

With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God.

Excerpted from Fr. Clifford Stevens in Catholic Heritage

Things to Do:

The Directory on Popular Piety talks about the deep significance of this feast day. It also refers to the custom of blessing herbs:

In the Germanic countries, the custom of blessing herbs is associated with 15 August. This custom, received into the Rituale Romanum, represents a clear example of the genuine evangelization of pre-Christian rites and beliefs: one must turn to God, through whose word "the earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seeds in their several kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seed inside in their several kinds" (Gen 1, 12) in order to obtain what was formerly obtained by magic rites; to stem the damages deriving from poisonous herbs, and benefit from the efficacy of curative herbs.
This ancient use came to be associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in part because of the biblical images applied to her such as vine, lavender, cypress and lily, partly from seeing her in terms of a sweet smelling flower because of her virtue, and most of all because of Isaiah 11, 1, and his reference to the "shoot springing from the side of Jesse", which would bear the blessed fruit of Jesus.

This Blessing of Herbs is included in the prayers library.
In an age of sensuality and materialism the Assumption points out the dignity and destiny of our human body, extols the dignity of womanhood, and turns our eyes to the true life beyond the grave. At Mass today ask Mary for the grace to keep your mind fixed on things above and to aspire continually to be united with her and to be brought to the glory of the Resurrection.

St. Tarcisius
Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the "Holy Mysteries" to those in prison.

On the way, he was stopped by boys his own age who were not Christians but knew him as a playmate and lover of games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something. Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and the small gang of boys, anxious to view the Christian "Mysteries," became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, and it is believed that a fellow Christian drove off the mob and rescued the young acolyte.

The mangled body of Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs, but the boy died on the way from his injuries. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite.

In the fourth century, Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this "boy-martyr of the Eucharist" and says that, like another St. Stephen, he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob rather than give up the Sacred Body to "raging dogs." His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola, in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death.

Tarcisius, one of the patron saints of altar boys, has always been an example of youthful courage and devotion, and his story was one that was told again and again to urge others to a like heroism in suffering for their faith. In the Passion of Pope Stephen, written in the sixth century, Tarcisius is said to be an acolyte of the pope himself and, if so, this explains the great veneration in which he was held and the reason why he was chosen for so difficult a mission.

Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Solemnity)

… a woman clothed with the sun. (Revelation 12:1)

Imagine how close the relationship is between Mary and her Son. To prepare her for her role as Mother of God, God freed her from the stain of original sin at her conception and laid on her heart an unswerving desire to love him and his people. Faithful to the end, Mary was even given a special participation in Jesus’ resurrection when, at the close of her life, she was assumed body and soul into heaven.

Her earthly life may have come to a close, but Mary continues to be the greatest example of the Christian life. Just as she took part in Jesus’ struggle with Satan, so she now shares in his triumph over the devil and death itself. Mary is the first Christian to experience what is destined for all Christians: the privilege of standing as a new creation before the throne of God and sharing fully in his divine life.

Mary’s place in heaven is a sign of hope to all of us who await our share in the resurrection. We, too, will reign with Christ. We, too, will gaze upon the beauty of God and the majesty of our Savior. We, too, will be surrounded by the heavenly host in all their glory and majesty. We’ll even outshine the angels because of our union with Christ!

Today, as you aim for the goal that Mary has already attained, try your best to live the kind of life she lived. Washed clean in the waters of Baptism, you can reject sin and every temptation the devil throws at you. Filled with the same Spirit that overshadowed Mary, you can embrace the Holy Spirit and find the grace you need to live by faith. Encouraged by Mary’s assumption, you can keep your heart fixed on loving and serving Jesus as you await his glorious return.

So let’s all imitate Mary. Let’s magnify the Lord and say yes to whatever he asks us to do.

“Lord Jesus, I pray for everyone who doesn’t yet hope for the resurrection. May each person come to know that you want all of us to live with you forever.”

1 Corinthians 15:20-27
Psalm 45:10-12, 16
Luke 1:39-56

Marriage = One Man amd One Woman Until Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for August 15, 2015:

Mary’s “Yes” of the Annunciation was the vehicle for God’s entry into human history. Her Assumption brought her closer to God, and thus closer to all of us. Ask her for help today.

A Christian Pilgrim

A PROOF THAT WE TOO CAN RISE AGAIN IN BODY AND IN SPIRIT

(A biblical reflection on the Solemnity of THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY – Sunday, 16 August 2015)

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:39-56

First Reading: Revelation 11:19;12:1-6,10; Psalms: Psalm 45:10-12,16; Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

The Scripture Text

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has regarded the low estate of His hand maiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm, He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home. (Luke 1:39-56 RSV)

“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45).

Today’s feast is not just a celebration of a glorious event in Mary’s life. It’s a celebration of the destiny that awaits all of us. Mary’s assumption proves that we too can rise again in body and in spirit – just as she was taken body and soul in heaven.

What did you get from a week-long Marian pilgrimage, after visiting shrines, daily Masses, enjoying beautiful scenery during our travels from one place to another place, the bus drive itself was colored by praying and joyfully praising God together as a group? One thing is sure: a deeper experience of God’s presence.

Once we arrived home, we returned to the pace of our everyday life. But the memory of God’s presence never left us. In fact, it became a reminder that just as Mary believed she would experience the fulfilment of God’s promises, so too will we share in those very same promises. We are all pilgrims on the way to the glory that Mary is now experiencing in heaven.

Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30″

Mary’s words of praise to God in the Magnificat reflect a rhythm of trust and obedience that resulted in a deeper life with the LORD. Pondering these words can help us join that rhythm. We can reread verses 51 to 55 and remember the times when God has kept these promises to each of us. Let’s recall those occasions when we put ourselves on a throne of some sort, and God’s goodness is gently “dethroning” us. What about the times He “exalted” us through a sincere compliment from a friend or through an opportunity to serve His people more fully? Just think: In both situations, God was being just as faithful to us as He was to Mary.

Through her unwavering trust in God, Mary shows us the way to heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “when the course of her earthly life was completed, [Mary] was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of His Body” (CCC, 974). Mary’s life is a constant reminder that we can trust in the Lord’s promise that we too will reign, body and soul, in heaven as beloved children of God.

Prayer: All glory and praise to You, loving Father. I know that Your promises will be fulfilled in my life and for eternity. I rejoice that You call me to be Your own. Amen.

A Christian Pilgrim

ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

16 Aug

We know of only one person besides Jesus who can enter into eternity without repentance. This is Mary, the ever-pure Virgin, the immaculate one. What our heart in its bitter experience can hardly believe has become true for one human being – Mary. She need not disclaim one moment of her life; no part of it has remained empty and dead. She can stand by each deed of her life: not one was dark; not one passed away without enklndling an eternal light, without shining with the luminosity that entirely consumes the moral possibilities of each moment.

Such a life did not come to an end with Mary’s death; when she died, only the transitory died, so that what was eternal in her life might be revealed – that eternal light from the many thousand candles enkindled by each moment of her life. Thus her whole life entered eternity – each day, each hour, each breaking of the waves of the life of her soul, every joy and every pain, the great and small hours. Nothing was abandoned; everything lives on in the eternal goodness of the soul that has gone home.

Source: Karl Rahner S.J., (Edited by Albert Raffelt. Translation edited by Harvey D. Egan, S.J.) The Great Church Year – The Best of Karl Rahner’s Homilies, Sermons, and Meditations, New York: Crossroad, 1995, page 345.

Insight Scoop

"The Assumption" by Monsignor Ronald Knox

The Assumption | Mgr. Ronald Knox | From Pastoral and Occasional Sermons | August 15th | Ignatius Insight

A cave Jeremias found there, in which he set down tabernacle and ark and incense-altar, and stopped up the entrance behind him. There were some that followed; no time they lost in coming up to mark the spot, but find it they could not.—2 Machabees 2:5-6.

After this, God's heavenly temple was thrown open, and the ark of the covenant was plain to view, standing in his temple.—Apocalypse 11:19.

The Son of God came to earth to turn our hearts away from earth, Godwards. The material world in which we live was, by his way of it, something immaterial; it didn't matter. We were not to be always worrying about our clothes being shabby, or wondering where our next meal was to come from; the God who fed the sparrows and clothed the lilies would see to all that. We were not to resent the injuries done to us by our neighbours; the aggressor was welcome to have a slap at the other cheek, and when he took away our greatcoat he was to find that we had left our coat inside it. Life itself, the life we know, was a thing of little value; it was a cheap bargain, if we lost life here to attaIn the life hereafter. There was a supernatural world, interpenetrating, at a higher level, the world of our experience; it has its own laws, the only rule we were to live by, its own prizes, which alone were worth the winning. All that he tried to teach us; and we, intent on our own petty squabbles, our sordid struggle for existence, cold-shouldered him at first, and then silenced his protest with a cross.

His answer was to rise from the dead; and then, for forty days in the world's history, that supernatural life which he had preached to us flourished and functioned under the conditions of earth. A privileged few saw, with mortal eyes, the comings and goings of immortality, touched with their hands the impalpable. For forty days; then, as if earth were too frail a vessel to contain the mystery, the tension was suddenly relaxed. He vanished behind a cloud; the door of the supernatural shut behind him, and we were left to the contemplation of this material world, drab and barren as ever.

What was the first thing the apostles saw when they returned from the mount of the Ascension to the upper room? "Together with Mary"—is it only an accident that the Mother of God is mentioned just here, by name, and nowhere else outside the gospels? The Incarnate Word had left us, as silently as he came to us, leaving no trace behind him of his passage through time. No trace? At least, in the person of his blessed Mother, he had bequeathed to us a keepsake, a memory. She was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, the new Eve of the new Adam. That body of hers, still part of the material order of things, had housed and suckled God. As long as she lived, there would still be a link, a golden link, between this lower earth and Paradise. As long as she lived; and even if it was God's will that she, Eve's daughter, should undergo the death that was Eve's penalty, the penalty she had never incurred, her mortal remains would still be left with us, an echo from the past, an influence on our lives.

Continue reading ""The Assumption" by Monsignor Ronald Knox" »

Regnum Christi

God Lifts Up the Lowly

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

August 15, 2015. Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Father Steven Reilly, LC

Luke 1: 39-56

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary´s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in your wondrous, shining glory, although this is hidden from my eyes. I hope in the peace and everlasting joy of the world to come, for this world is a valley of tears. I love you, even though I am not always able to discern the love in your intentions when you permit me to suffer. You are my God and my all.

Petition: Lord, help me to be humble!

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed: When Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption, it was a cause of great joy throughout the Catholic world. Believed for centuries, it entered the realm of official Catholic dogma. Our Lady is brought to heaven to share in the glory and joy of her Son and our Lord. We have always looked to Mary as our mother, and so the feast of the Assumption continues to fill us with happiness. She is with Christ, and she is our mother more than ever. We entrust ourselves to her in the same way that Pope Saint John Paul the Great did, “Totus Tuus.”

Scattering the Proud: Proud people are generally very focused on whatever serves their best interests. So “scattering” is a very good verb to use to indicate what happens to the proud when God goes into action. Mary rejoices in that “scattering,” but who are the proud? Maybe we don’t have to look any further than ourselves. How much we fight with that root sin of pride! Mary is happy when pride gets scattered and the perspective we have widens. Instead of just seeing things from our own myopic point of view, this scattering opens up the “thoughts of our hearts” to see others and their needs. Nothing is more Mary-like than that.

Lifting Up the Lowly: This feast of the Assumption is proof that God literally lifts up the lowly. Like her Son and his Ascension, Mary is lifted up by God into the realm of eternal life. Sometimes we cling to our pride out of a sort of instinct of self-preservation—“If I don’t look out for number one, who will?” But Mary’s humility is a lesson for us. Our true self-fulfillment lies in becoming everyday more filled with God; We can only do that if we are not filled with ourselves. Let’s ask Mary to help us to live more like her and experience the true joy—the lifting up—that there is in humility.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I thank you for giving us such a wonderful mother. She helps me to stay on the path of fulfilling your will. Help me to be able to sing a Magnificat in my own soul, “The Almighty has done great things for me!”

Resolution: I will be generous and joyful when I am asked to help out.

One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 31, Issue 5

<< Saturday, August 15, 2015 >>

Assumption

Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10
1 Corinthians 15:20-27
View Readings

Psalm 45:10-12, 16
Luke 1:39-56
Similar Reflections

ARKS AND COVENANTS

"God's temple in heaven opened and in the temple could be seen the ark of the covenant." —Revelation 11:19

After the original sin, God started again with humanity by telling Noah to build an ark (Gn 6:14). Inside the first ark, Noah's family escaped the destructive flood (1 Pt 3:20). God then established a covenant with His chosen people (Gn 9:9, 12, 13, 15, 16).

Humanity again fell into sin. God started over again by forming a new people and making a covenant with them (Ex 24:8; 34:10). He also made a better ark, "the ark of the commandments" (Ex 25:22). Later, this ark would be called "the ark of the covenant" (Nm 10:33). The second ark contained the tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments (Ex 24:12; 25:16). This ark was accompanied by God's special presence on earth (Ex 40:34).

Humanity once again fell into wickedness and sin. God started over by making the best ark and the best covenant of all. Mary is the new ark of the new covenant. As the third ark, Mary carried in her womb Jesus, God Himself, Who established a new covenant with us in His blood (Mt 26:28). Therefore, Mary is "a sign of sure hope" for us (Lumen Gentium, 68, Vatican II).

The whereabouts of the first two arks are unknown (see 2 Mc 2:5-6), and people still search for them . However, Mary, the third ark, is easy to find. She's always with Jesus (Catechism, 964). Search diligently for Mary, the new ark, and find new hope in Jesus.

Prayer: "O Mary, assumed into heaven, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

Promise: "Blest are you among women and blest is the Fruit of your womb." —Lk 1:42

Praise: "God Who is mighty has done great things for Me, holy is His name" (Lk 1:49).