August 11, 2026 • 29 mins
In our meditation of the week, Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and how she helps us to rise up to Heaven in our daily lives. For St. Josemaria, the Assumption or the Dormition of Our Lady played a vital role in his life as a young boy in Barbastro, Spain. St. Josemaria’s devotion to Our Lady became so great that he wished to “rise up” to Heaven with Mary by clinging to the tassel of her cloak in an effort to bring a piece of Heaven to Earth.
Fr. Javier invites us to look to Mary who teaches us that the essence of bringing Heaven to Earth lies in our ability to rise above challenges and adversities. By following her example, we can forgive even the unforgivable, serve others selflessly, and rise above our own tiredness and hardships. Mary's life exemplifies humility and the power of faith, showing us how to bring Christ's presence into our daily actions. As we emulate Mary's virtues and focus on the needs of others, we can transform our lives and actions, creating a piece of Heaven on Earth.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I beg your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
(00:30):
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
For today the Virgin Mother ofGod was assumed into heaven as
the beginning and image of yourchurch's coming to perfection,
(00:52):
and the sign of sure hope andcomfort to your pilgrim people.
Rightly you would not allow herto see the corruption of the
tomb, since from her own bodyshe marvelously brought forth
your incarnate son, the authorof all life.
Thus reads the preface oftoday's mass in this day of the
(01:19):
assumption of Mary, of our ownmother, who is in heaven, body
and soul.
This dogma that we profess witha Catholic and firm faith was
proclaimed by Pius XII onnovember first, nineteen fifty.
(01:45):
In this preface it isbeautifully summarized.
The Virgin Mother of God wasassumed into heaven as the
beginning and image of thechurch.
She is the first one to beredeemed in Christ.
And she was redeemed in themerits of Christ in a way that
(02:10):
was exceptional, because she didnot have original sin, and all
because of the mission that ourLord had in store for her from
even as Saint Paul says, evenbefore the foundation of the
world, to be holy, to be pure inhis sight and his love.
(02:36):
The dogma declares that itprofesses that she is there in
heaven with our Lord, with God,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in
body and soul, as Pius theTwelfth said, after having
(02:56):
completed the course of herearthly life.
Many artists have depicted thismystery, especially in medieval
times.
They they depict it depict it intwo scenes.
The first scene is when Marydies or she is dormant, she is
(03:23):
lying in state, as it were, andnext to her bed are the twelve
apostles.
And they are all sad becauseMary has left them.
But then Jesus is somehowdepicted in the middle, looking
(03:44):
straight with a little girl,kind of like a baby girl that he
has in his arms.
And that little girl representsthe soul of Mary that he has
come to pick up and take her toheaven.
And that represents the firststage of death, kind of the soul
(04:06):
that is redeemed and picked upby Jesus himself.
And then in another scene,artists usually depict the empty
tomb of Mary, perhaps withflowers, and with the twelve
apostles looking down at thetomb in awe.
(04:31):
And Mary's body taken up intoheaven with angels.
It really is a beautiful scenein body and soul.
And the angels, as SaintJosemaria had this insight in
his book, The Holy Rosary, whenhe contemplates the mystery of
(04:54):
the Assumption, he says that theangels are so impressed at her
beauty because she is arrayed inbeautiful garments with
beautiful virtues that they say,Who is she?
Who is she?
(05:16):
Another insight to explain thispoint of how beautiful Mary must
have been upon entering intoheaven, how beautiful she must
have been in her body and ofcourse in her soul to the
angels, because she is the queenof angels, she is higher in
glory, not in nature, but inglory, to all the angels.
(05:37):
And that must be amazing.
His insight was that incontemplating the scene of St.
Luke's gospel of the prodigalson, how the prodigal son is
given everything back.
He has sinned, he has wastedaway his inheritance, he has
(06:01):
desired even you could say thedeath of his father, after all,
that is what he implied when hesaid that he wanted his
inheritance at that point.
Well, when he comes back, he isarrayed with the best garment
(06:27):
that his father had.
He is given the ring, whichrepresents his affiliation to or
his belonging to the family.
He gets sandals for his feet, hegets the hug, he gets the kiss,
he gets everything back, thesymphony, the fatted calf, and
(06:50):
and the whole lot of being a sonwith all the rights and duties
that he would have otherwiseforfeited had he not come back.
Well, St.
Isama says in his homily on theassumption, in his book Christ
is passing by, if God does thatfor a sinner, if he arrays the
(07:17):
sinner in beautiful garments,basically the garment of the
virtues and you know theforgiveness of sins and mercy
and makes them come back to thestate of grace.
Well, how much more Mary, whodid not sin at all, would be
(07:40):
arrayed in the beauty of thevirtues of faith, hope, and
charity upon entering heaven.
Truly the title greater thanyou, no one but God belongs to
Mary.
Well, Saint Josemaria was veryfond of the Our Lady of the
(08:09):
Assumption ever since he was alittle kid.
He would go into the chapel ofthe cathedral in Barbastro, and
he would look at an image thereof Mary asleep, Mary of the
Dormition.
And he liked this image so muchthat he had the image replicated
(08:34):
in one of the chapels that heeventually built in Rome in
Villa Tevre, where he lived anddied, and very close to the
crypt where he is where he wasburied originally, and the
church where he is now buried.
The dormition is something thatfor St.
(08:55):
Jose Maria took him back to hisyouth, took him back to when he
was a little boy.
And that's why also in his book,The Holy Rosary, he has a
another insight of becoming achild and holding on to the
(09:16):
tassel of or the tail of Mary'scloak as she ascends into
heaven, so that we too can belifted up.
We too can rise with her, as itwere, if we are united to her by
holding on to the tassel of herblue cloak.
(09:39):
What a great image.
Why has Mary been raised to suchheights?
And we too, because we are herchildren.
Because this mystery is thetriumph of God's power in a
(10:04):
humble soul.
Today we are celebrating notwhat she has done, but what she
has let God do in her.
She is not the sun, but she isarrayed with the sun, as we read
in today's first reading fromthe apocalypse.
She is the woman clothed withthe sun.
(10:27):
And she reflects the image ofGod because she has let him do
in her.
That's in fact what she says inthe Magnificant, which we read
in today's gospel.
My soul magnifies the Lord, andmy spirit rejoices in God, my
(10:49):
Savior, because He has regardedthe lowliness of His handmaid.
The lowliness of Mary.
Mary does not consider herselfanything special.
She is a simple servant, theservant of the Lord.
But her greatness lies in thefact that she let God do.
(11:13):
She got out of the way and shegave him permission.
And that's why she is exaltedabove every other generation.
Henceforth, all generationsshall call me blessed.
That's not a statement of pride.
It is a statement of humility,confessing God's power and what
he can do in humble people.
(11:34):
Mary said fiat in Latin.
Let it be, not faciam, or I willdo it.
You know, I will do something.
As if it were up to her.
What great lessons we can learnfrom her, let it be done unto
me, you know, her expressionthat she used in order to let
(11:56):
God into her life.
Because it really is aboutChrist, not us.
This is all summarized in theletter of St.
John, the first letter of SaintJohn, where he says that love,
and he's referring to the loveof God, really does not consist
(12:17):
in what in that we have lovedGod, and we have done this and
we have done that, but in thatGod has first loved us.
It really is God's work in us,not our own.
Not our own.
(12:58):
She has basically brought heavento earth.
She has brought Jesus to earth.
And we could think that whatJesus would later say to the
apostles and to each one of usat the Last Supper, that Mary
(13:20):
said to Jesus first of all atthe Annunciation, I am going to
prepare a place for you so thatwhere I am you also may be.
Basically, that's what Marysaid.
I'm going to prepare, or I'mprepared, Lord, for you to come
into my heart, so that where Iam, you also may be.
(13:41):
I am going to make my littlehome, a little abode.
Prepare a place, prepare anabode so that you can you can be
here with me.
Not only in my mind, not only inmy heart, not only in my womb,
not only in the manger, but inmy very person, in every aspect
(14:06):
of my life.
And in you know, from now on,forever.
And that's exactly what Marydid.
That's what she did with herfiat.
She brought heaven to earth bypreparing this place for our
Lord in her heart.
Obviously, that is a grace, notsomething that she did
(14:28):
primarily, but something thatshe corresponded to.
That's with her fiat, but withGod's fiat, we could say.
Jesus brings earth to heaventoday.
And that's what he does at theAssumption.
He brings Mary, the lowlyhandmaid, you know, the humble
handmaid, basically earth,earth.
(14:51):
She is made out of earth, youknow, her body even to heaven.
And that little piece of earth,you know, that that he blew
into, as Genesis would describe,you know, the coming of life, of
mankind, is now gonna be inheaven.
(15:12):
There's a body, a human body,even in heaven today, with with
the Holy Trinity.
And that's and that's exactlywhat what uh what we celebrate
today.
It's this Jesus' power to bringearth to heaven and glorify it.
(15:32):
And all because of his almightypower and Mary's uh you know
getting out of the way andgiving him permission.
That's what we read in in theApocalypse, that the devil is
there waiting for the thedragon, waiting for the woman
(15:57):
who is arrayed with the sun,waiting for her to give birth so
that he can kill the child, andand you know, and and go after
the woman and fight with thewoman.
But the woman flees into thewilderness where she has a place
(16:21):
prepared by God that there maynourish her a thousand two
hundred and sixty days.
It's a symbolic number, but theimportant thing is that God
prepared a place for her, andthat's the place in heaven we
can think, that she now enjoysand that we now profess in this
(16:45):
dogma of faith that we arecelebrating.
Blessed truly is she whobelieved that the promises made
to her, this glorification,would come true, would be
fulfilled.
And the question I think that weobviously have to ask ourselves
is do we believe?
(17:08):
Do we believe that we are goingto share in the same glorious
fate as our very mother?
As our very own mother.
Which means that, you know, dwill we cling to her tassel, to
the tassel of her cloak?
(17:28):
Will we cling to that throughfaith?
So that we can be lifted up withher.
How do we do that?
How do we do what she did sothat Jesus can do what he did to
her?
In other words, how do we bringheaven to earth so that Jesus
(17:50):
can bring us earth, the poordust that we are?
You know, the same as you aredust, lowly and dirty, you know.
But if the Holy Spirit lifts youup with the with his wind and
makes you shine like gold orlike the sun with the rays of
the sun, that's because of hispower, not because of our own
(18:11):
power.
Well, how do we do that?
How do we bring heaven to earth?
Well, I'm thinking that, if Imay suggest, that that we can
rise above certain things withMary.
(18:32):
Can we rise above, for instance,humiliation?
You know, Mary was humiliated atthe foot of the cross.
Can we rise above that with Maryby forgiving?
You know, that truly is you knowclinging on to her tassel and
(18:56):
rising with her.
Which, you know, it it truly isbringing Jesus present with the
attitude that we have asChristians of forgiveness, where
no one thinks of ever forgivingbecause it's impossible to
forgive because they don'tdeserve forgiveness.
(19:16):
Well, that's precisely when weChristians can come in and
forgive.
Can we do that?
Can we rise above humiliations?
Can we rise above the hardjustice that is due to the
people that hurt us throughforgiveness?
(19:37):
Or for instance, can we riseabove another type of
humiliation?
For instance, serving, takingthe worst for ourselves, the
worst tasks at home.
You know, can we serve withoutwithout feeling like you know we
are not appreciated, or we are,you know, we are less than this
(20:03):
kind of service is less is lessthan our dignity, you know,
calls for, or why am I cleaninga bathroom, or why well can we
serve as a gift, with the logicof a gift, you know, at home?
This truly is bringing heaven toearth because when we keep a a
(20:23):
cheerful, a bright and cheerful,orderly home, and we order, not
because we we are maniacs oforder, but because we do it as
an act of love, then we truly bebring heaven to earth for
others.
We make we make an abode,literally, for our loved ones.
(20:48):
You know, or or cleaning atable.
We are not uh beyond these tasksever, ever, ever, ever.
Can we rise above our tiredness?
That's another another thingthat we see Mary do all the
time.
At the visitation, for instance,she she must have been tired,
(21:10):
she was pregnant, she but sheruns to visit her cousin
Elizabeth.
She doesn't care.
She's thinking about her, notabout her cousin, not her own
self and her own tiredness andher own thirst and her own
hunger, nothing.
It's I gotta go and serve.
Just like Jesus when, you know,uh St.
(21:32):
Mark says he didn't even havetime to eat.
An amazing line, you know, Jesusdidn't have time to eat.
Well, the thing is, Jesus couldhave at a snap of a finger, he
could have said, okay,everybody's cured right now
because I gotta eat.
I don't have time to impose myhands on each one of you, okay?
Because there are too many ofyou, there's thousands of you.
(21:54):
So just boom, you're all curednow.
And then I have half an hour toeat, you know.
No, he wanted to impose hishands on each one of them.
Why?
Why?
Because it's the human touch,it's that special human touch.
Touch where he notices everyperson.
It's not there's no cookiecutter kind of way of saving
(22:18):
people.
It's each one has his or hermoment with Christ, you know,
personal.
It's not okay, everybody is, youknow, collective absolution.
Everybody, okay, that's it.
No, everyone has the encounterwith Christ personally.
(22:41):
That's the the beauty of whatChrist does.
And he goes hungry.
You know, it really isinteresting.
He wants to go hungry because hewants to show how much he cares,
how much he loves.
And he rises above histiredness.
He rises above.
Can I rise above?
This is truly, you know,bringing heaven to earth.
(23:04):
And at the same time, we risewith Mary.
We are lifted up.
We are exalted.
Because we have chosen the wayof humility.
Taking care of people, beingthere for them, listening to
them, giving them our attention,our undivided attention, how
(23:25):
difficult that is sometimes.
Or another way that we can riseabove is rising above suffering,
like galumni.
Saint of Marisa is an example ofthis.
In fact, today, in 1951, he wasum he was suffering a lot.
(23:50):
He suffered a persecution.
Basically, somebody high up inthe Curia or people in the
Curia, good people, cardinals,ecclesiastics, they were
plotting against Opus Dei, forwhatever reason.
(24:11):
They wanted to get rid of SaintJosemaria as the head and divide
the men's branch and the women'sbranch into two separate
religious orders.
And of course, Opus Dei is not areligious order, but they didn't
understand that.
And they didn't understand howthere could be men and women
with complete separation ofapostolates and and day-to-day
(24:33):
living under the same head.
And Saint Osemaria was tippedoff by blessed Cardinal Schuster
of Milan, that there wassomething going on and that he
should watch out.
(25:06):
So I will turn to my mother inheaven.
And he went to Loreto in apilgrimage to consecrate Opus
Dei to her.
And then he wrote a letter tothe Pope, and the calumny
stopped.
And the Pope realized what wasgoing on and he stopped it.
(25:28):
This is rising abovecontradiction, setback with
faith.
Do you believe?
Do you believe this is rising,truly rising, uh, with Mary?
And it's not easy, you know.
I it's very impressive how Marynever complains with Joseph
(25:50):
about going to Egypt and comingback and doing this, and you
know, new language, new culture,new whatever.
No, she doesn't complain.
She rises above all thosecontradictions.
Can I do that?
Can I imitate her?
This is this is how we canparticipate in the assumption,
if there's any way, you know, isbe being more heavenly, being
(26:13):
more more concerned aboutheavenly things, about uh uh uh
about the needs of others andnot my own.
Mary dubbed that, you know, um,all the time.
And she's worried about even notonly the absolute needs of
others, but what they don'tneed.
And what could be kind of a nicegift for them, you know, like
(26:34):
the wine at Cana.
It's kind of running out.
Well, if they didn't have wine,you know, in the history of the
world, would it have made anydifference that they that one
party in Cana didn't have wine?
No.
No.
This is an extra, totallyquote-unquote useless.
(26:55):
You know, nothing would havechanged.
But Mary thinks it's importantbecause she needs to express her
love for people, and she bringsa little bit of heaven to them,
you know, by twisting Jesus' armand saying, Jesus, you know,
they have no wine.
You know, and telling servants,just do what he tells you.
(27:18):
And he just doesn't have achoice, he just has to do it.
You know.
Well, Mary rises above, youknow, the the the efficiency
syndrome of, you know, justdoing the bare minimum so that
people can can survive orwhatever.
(27:39):
No, she goes extra.
She goes way overboard.
And we have to learn that too,because we have we too have to
show our love in doing somethingmore than what is required.
Doing something extra.
That's how we rise above.
That's what heaven is like.
Everybody's concerned aboutothers and not about themselves.
(28:01):
Well, as we finish our prayertoday, let us turn to her and
ask her to take all our prayers,all our deeds, and bring them
and us, each one of us to heavenwith her son, so that all our
good actions and ourselves canbe transfigured.
(28:23):
And this can be done if webelieve.
Do you believe?
Do I believe?
Like our lady, blessed are we ifwe do.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations which you havecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help to put them intoeffect.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my father and lord, my
(28:46):
guardian angel, intercede forme.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, Amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I beg your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
(00:30):
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my Father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
For today the Virgin Mother ofGod was assumed into heaven as
the beginning and image of yourchurch's coming to perfection,
(00:52):
and the sign of sure hope andcomfort to your pilgrim people.
Rightly you would not allow herto see the corruption of the
tomb, since from her own bodyshe marvelously brought forth
your incarnate son, the authorof all life.
Thus reads the preface oftoday's mass in this day of the
(01:19):
assumption of Mary, of our ownmother, who is in heaven, body
and soul.
This dogma that we profess witha Catholic and firm faith was
proclaimed by Pius XII onnovember first, nineteen fifty.
(01:45):
In this preface it isbeautifully summarized.
The Virgin Mother of God wasassumed into heaven as the
beginning and image of thechurch.
She is the first one to beredeemed in Christ.
And she was redeemed in themerits of Christ in a way that
(02:10):
was exceptional, because she didnot have original sin, and all
because of the mission that ourLord had in store for her from
even as Saint Paul says, evenbefore the foundation of the
world, to be holy, to be pure inhis sight and his love.
(02:36):
The dogma declares that itprofesses that she is there in
heaven with our Lord, with God,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in
body and soul, as Pius theTwelfth said, after having
(02:56):
completed the course of herearthly life.
Many artists have depicted thismystery, especially in medieval
times.
They they depict it depict it intwo scenes.
The first scene is when Marydies or she is dormant, she is
(03:23):
lying in state, as it were, andnext to her bed are the twelve
apostles.
And they are all sad becauseMary has left them.
But then Jesus is somehowdepicted in the middle, looking
(03:44):
straight with a little girl,kind of like a baby girl that he
has in his arms.
And that little girl representsthe soul of Mary that he has
come to pick up and take her toheaven.
And that represents the firststage of death, kind of the soul
(04:06):
that is redeemed and picked upby Jesus himself.
And then in another scene,artists usually depict the empty
tomb of Mary, perhaps withflowers, and with the twelve
apostles looking down at thetomb in awe.
(04:31):
And Mary's body taken up intoheaven with angels.
It really is a beautiful scenein body and soul.
And the angels, as SaintJosemaria had this insight in
his book, The Holy Rosary, whenhe contemplates the mystery of
(04:54):
the Assumption, he says that theangels are so impressed at her
beauty because she is arrayed inbeautiful garments with
beautiful virtues that they say,Who is she?
Who is she?
(05:16):
Another insight to explain thispoint of how beautiful Mary must
have been upon entering intoheaven, how beautiful she must
have been in her body and ofcourse in her soul to the
angels, because she is the queenof angels, she is higher in
glory, not in nature, but inglory, to all the angels.
(05:37):
And that must be amazing.
His insight was that incontemplating the scene of St.
Luke's gospel of the prodigalson, how the prodigal son is
given everything back.
He has sinned, he has wastedaway his inheritance, he has
(06:01):
desired even you could say thedeath of his father, after all,
that is what he implied when hesaid that he wanted his
inheritance at that point.
Well, when he comes back, he isarrayed with the best garment
(06:27):
that his father had.
He is given the ring, whichrepresents his affiliation to or
his belonging to the family.
He gets sandals for his feet, hegets the hug, he gets the kiss,
he gets everything back, thesymphony, the fatted calf, and
(06:50):
and the whole lot of being a sonwith all the rights and duties
that he would have otherwiseforfeited had he not come back.
Well, St.
Isama says in his homily on theassumption, in his book Christ
is passing by, if God does thatfor a sinner, if he arrays the
(07:17):
sinner in beautiful garments,basically the garment of the
virtues and you know theforgiveness of sins and mercy
and makes them come back to thestate of grace.
Well, how much more Mary, whodid not sin at all, would be
(07:40):
arrayed in the beauty of thevirtues of faith, hope, and
charity upon entering heaven.
Truly the title greater thanyou, no one but God belongs to
Mary.
Well, Saint Josemaria was veryfond of the Our Lady of the
(08:09):
Assumption ever since he was alittle kid.
He would go into the chapel ofthe cathedral in Barbastro, and
he would look at an image thereof Mary asleep, Mary of the
Dormition.
And he liked this image so muchthat he had the image replicated
(08:34):
in one of the chapels that heeventually built in Rome in
Villa Tevre, where he lived anddied, and very close to the
crypt where he is where he wasburied originally, and the
church where he is now buried.
The dormition is something thatfor St.
(08:55):
Jose Maria took him back to hisyouth, took him back to when he
was a little boy.
And that's why also in his book,The Holy Rosary, he has a
another insight of becoming achild and holding on to the
(09:16):
tassel of or the tail of Mary'scloak as she ascends into
heaven, so that we too can belifted up.
We too can rise with her, as itwere, if we are united to her by
holding on to the tassel of herblue cloak.
(09:39):
What a great image.
Why has Mary been raised to suchheights?
And we too, because we are herchildren.
Because this mystery is thetriumph of God's power in a
(10:04):
humble soul.
Today we are celebrating notwhat she has done, but what she
has let God do in her.
She is not the sun, but she isarrayed with the sun, as we read
in today's first reading fromthe apocalypse.
She is the woman clothed withthe sun.
(10:27):
And she reflects the image ofGod because she has let him do
in her.
That's in fact what she says inthe Magnificant, which we read
in today's gospel.
My soul magnifies the Lord, andmy spirit rejoices in God, my
(10:49):
Savior, because He has regardedthe lowliness of His handmaid.
The lowliness of Mary.
Mary does not consider herselfanything special.
She is a simple servant, theservant of the Lord.
But her greatness lies in thefact that she let God do.
(11:13):
She got out of the way and shegave him permission.
And that's why she is exaltedabove every other generation.
Henceforth, all generationsshall call me blessed.
That's not a statement of pride.
It is a statement of humility,confessing God's power and what
he can do in humble people.
(11:34):
Mary said fiat in Latin.
Let it be, not faciam, or I willdo it.
You know, I will do something.
As if it were up to her.
What great lessons we can learnfrom her, let it be done unto
me, you know, her expressionthat she used in order to let
(11:56):
God into her life.
Because it really is aboutChrist, not us.
This is all summarized in theletter of St.
John, the first letter of SaintJohn, where he says that love,
and he's referring to the loveof God, really does not consist
(12:17):
in what in that we have lovedGod, and we have done this and
we have done that, but in thatGod has first loved us.
It really is God's work in us,not our own.
Not our own.
(12:58):
She has basically brought heavento earth.
She has brought Jesus to earth.
And we could think that whatJesus would later say to the
apostles and to each one of usat the Last Supper, that Mary
(13:20):
said to Jesus first of all atthe Annunciation, I am going to
prepare a place for you so thatwhere I am you also may be.
Basically, that's what Marysaid.
I'm going to prepare, or I'mprepared, Lord, for you to come
into my heart, so that where Iam, you also may be.
(13:41):
I am going to make my littlehome, a little abode.
Prepare a place, prepare anabode so that you can you can be
here with me.
Not only in my mind, not only inmy heart, not only in my womb,
not only in the manger, but inmy very person, in every aspect
(14:06):
of my life.
And in you know, from now on,forever.
And that's exactly what Marydid.
That's what she did with herfiat.
She brought heaven to earth bypreparing this place for our
Lord in her heart.
Obviously, that is a grace, notsomething that she did
(14:28):
primarily, but something thatshe corresponded to.
That's with her fiat, but withGod's fiat, we could say.
Jesus brings earth to heaventoday.
And that's what he does at theAssumption.
He brings Mary, the lowlyhandmaid, you know, the humble
handmaid, basically earth,earth.
(14:51):
She is made out of earth, youknow, her body even to heaven.
And that little piece of earth,you know, that that he blew
into, as Genesis would describe,you know, the coming of life, of
mankind, is now gonna be inheaven.
(15:12):
There's a body, a human body,even in heaven today, with with
the Holy Trinity.
And that's and that's exactlywhat what uh what we celebrate
today.
It's this Jesus' power to bringearth to heaven and glorify it.
(15:32):
And all because of his almightypower and Mary's uh you know
getting out of the way andgiving him permission.
That's what we read in in theApocalypse, that the devil is
there waiting for the thedragon, waiting for the woman
(15:57):
who is arrayed with the sun,waiting for her to give birth so
that he can kill the child, andand you know, and and go after
the woman and fight with thewoman.
But the woman flees into thewilderness where she has a place
(16:21):
prepared by God that there maynourish her a thousand two
hundred and sixty days.
It's a symbolic number, but theimportant thing is that God
prepared a place for her, andthat's the place in heaven we
can think, that she now enjoysand that we now profess in this
(16:45):
dogma of faith that we arecelebrating.
Blessed truly is she whobelieved that the promises made
to her, this glorification,would come true, would be
fulfilled.
And the question I think that weobviously have to ask ourselves
is do we believe?
(17:08):
Do we believe that we are goingto share in the same glorious
fate as our very mother?
As our very own mother.
Which means that, you know, dwill we cling to her tassel, to
the tassel of her cloak?
(17:28):
Will we cling to that throughfaith?
So that we can be lifted up withher.
How do we do that?
How do we do what she did sothat Jesus can do what he did to
her?
In other words, how do we bringheaven to earth so that Jesus
(17:50):
can bring us earth, the poordust that we are?
You know, the same as you aredust, lowly and dirty, you know.
But if the Holy Spirit lifts youup with the with his wind and
makes you shine like gold orlike the sun with the rays of
the sun, that's because of hispower, not because of our own
(18:11):
power.
Well, how do we do that?
How do we bring heaven to earth?
Well, I'm thinking that, if Imay suggest, that that we can
rise above certain things withMary.
(18:32):
Can we rise above, for instance,humiliation?
You know, Mary was humiliated atthe foot of the cross.
Can we rise above that with Maryby forgiving?
You know, that truly is you knowclinging on to her tassel and
(18:56):
rising with her.
Which, you know, it it truly isbringing Jesus present with the
attitude that we have asChristians of forgiveness, where
no one thinks of ever forgivingbecause it's impossible to
forgive because they don'tdeserve forgiveness.
(19:16):
Well, that's precisely when weChristians can come in and
forgive.
Can we do that?
Can we rise above humiliations?
Can we rise above the hardjustice that is due to the
people that hurt us throughforgiveness?
(19:37):
Or for instance, can we riseabove another type of
humiliation?
For instance, serving, takingthe worst for ourselves, the
worst tasks at home.
You know, can we serve withoutwithout feeling like you know we
are not appreciated, or we are,you know, we are less than this
(20:03):
kind of service is less is lessthan our dignity, you know,
calls for, or why am I cleaninga bathroom, or why well can we
serve as a gift, with the logicof a gift, you know, at home?
This truly is bringing heaven toearth because when we keep a a
(20:23):
cheerful, a bright and cheerful,orderly home, and we order, not
because we we are maniacs oforder, but because we do it as
an act of love, then we truly bebring heaven to earth for
others.
We make we make an abode,literally, for our loved ones.
(20:48):
You know, or or cleaning atable.
We are not uh beyond these tasksever, ever, ever, ever.
Can we rise above our tiredness?
That's another another thingthat we see Mary do all the
time.
At the visitation, for instance,she she must have been tired,
(21:10):
she was pregnant, she but sheruns to visit her cousin
Elizabeth.
She doesn't care.
She's thinking about her, notabout her cousin, not her own
self and her own tiredness andher own thirst and her own
hunger, nothing.
It's I gotta go and serve.
Just like Jesus when, you know,uh St.
(21:32):
Mark says he didn't even havetime to eat.
An amazing line, you know, Jesusdidn't have time to eat.
Well, the thing is, Jesus couldhave at a snap of a finger, he
could have said, okay,everybody's cured right now
because I gotta eat.
I don't have time to impose myhands on each one of you, okay?
Because there are too many ofyou, there's thousands of you.
(21:54):
So just boom, you're all curednow.
And then I have half an hour toeat, you know.
No, he wanted to impose hishands on each one of them.
Why?
Why?
Because it's the human touch,it's that special human touch.
Touch where he notices everyperson.
It's not there's no cookiecutter kind of way of saving
(22:18):
people.
It's each one has his or hermoment with Christ, you know,
personal.
It's not okay, everybody is, youknow, collective absolution.
Everybody, okay, that's it.
No, everyone has the encounterwith Christ personally.
(22:41):
That's the the beauty of whatChrist does.
And he goes hungry.
You know, it really isinteresting.
He wants to go hungry because hewants to show how much he cares,
how much he loves.
And he rises above histiredness.
He rises above.
Can I rise above?
This is truly, you know,bringing heaven to earth.
(23:04):
And at the same time, we risewith Mary.
We are lifted up.
We are exalted.
Because we have chosen the wayof humility.
Taking care of people, beingthere for them, listening to
them, giving them our attention,our undivided attention, how
(23:25):
difficult that is sometimes.
Or another way that we can riseabove is rising above suffering,
like galumni.
Saint of Marisa is an example ofthis.
In fact, today, in 1951, he wasum he was suffering a lot.
(23:50):
He suffered a persecution.
Basically, somebody high up inthe Curia or people in the
Curia, good people, cardinals,ecclesiastics, they were
plotting against Opus Dei, forwhatever reason.
(24:11):
They wanted to get rid of SaintJosemaria as the head and divide
the men's branch and the women'sbranch into two separate
religious orders.
And of course, Opus Dei is not areligious order, but they didn't
understand that.
And they didn't understand howthere could be men and women
with complete separation ofapostolates and and day-to-day
(24:33):
living under the same head.
And Saint Osemaria was tippedoff by blessed Cardinal Schuster
of Milan, that there wassomething going on and that he
should watch out.
(25:06):
So I will turn to my mother inheaven.
And he went to Loreto in apilgrimage to consecrate Opus
Dei to her.
And then he wrote a letter tothe Pope, and the calumny
stopped.
And the Pope realized what wasgoing on and he stopped it.
(25:28):
This is rising abovecontradiction, setback with
faith.
Do you believe?
Do you believe this is rising,truly rising, uh, with Mary?
And it's not easy, you know.
I it's very impressive how Marynever complains with Joseph
(25:50):
about going to Egypt and comingback and doing this, and you
know, new language, new culture,new whatever.
No, she doesn't complain.
She rises above all thosecontradictions.
Can I do that?
Can I imitate her?
This is this is how we canparticipate in the assumption,
if there's any way, you know, isbe being more heavenly, being
(26:13):
more more concerned aboutheavenly things, about uh uh uh
about the needs of others andnot my own.
Mary dubbed that, you know, um,all the time.
And she's worried about even notonly the absolute needs of
others, but what they don'tneed.
And what could be kind of a nicegift for them, you know, like
(26:34):
the wine at Cana.
It's kind of running out.
Well, if they didn't have wine,you know, in the history of the
world, would it have made anydifference that they that one
party in Cana didn't have wine?
No.
No.
This is an extra, totallyquote-unquote useless.
(26:55):
You know, nothing would havechanged.
But Mary thinks it's importantbecause she needs to express her
love for people, and she bringsa little bit of heaven to them,
you know, by twisting Jesus' armand saying, Jesus, you know,
they have no wine.
You know, and telling servants,just do what he tells you.
(27:18):
And he just doesn't have achoice, he just has to do it.
You know.
Well, Mary rises above, youknow, the the the efficiency
syndrome of, you know, justdoing the bare minimum so that
people can can survive orwhatever.
(27:39):
No, she goes extra.
She goes way overboard.
And we have to learn that too,because we have we too have to
show our love in doing somethingmore than what is required.
Doing something extra.
That's how we rise above.
That's what heaven is like.
Everybody's concerned aboutothers and not about themselves.
(28:01):
Well, as we finish our prayertoday, let us turn to her and
ask her to take all our prayers,all our deeds, and bring them
and us, each one of us to heavenwith her son, so that all our
good actions and ourselves canbe transfigured.
(28:23):
And this can be done if webelieve.
Do you believe?
Do I believe?
Like our lady, blessed are we ifwe do.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations which you havecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help to put them intoeffect.
My Immaculate Mother, SaintJoseph, my father and lord, my
(28:46):
guardian angel, intercede forme.
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