“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”

Today the Universal Church commemorates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary….On this day Our Lady assumed body and soul into heaven…She is our hope and the cause of our joy……..Why?…..Mary while born without sin was also born as a result of the union between a man and a woman - As we all were….She accomplished through God’s grace what we all HOPE to accomplish….To have our body and soul reunited again in heaven…This is the GOAL - Focus all your strengthen on it - Make it a priority!…..However, clearly we were not born without original sin like Our Lady, so our journey is a bit more “bumpy”…No matter! - We were given the tools to get it done!….Mary helps us along the way….God has given her a great task….She is the Mother of all mankind and like all good mothers, she never leaves a child behind…….

“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God………..Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.”

When I pray my Rosary on Wednesdays and Sundays, the fourth mystery I meditate upon is the the Assumption of Mary into Heaven…Over the years, my mind has gone in many different directions as I contemplate this great mystery…..One can argue during the three year ministry of Christ on the earth, the two closest people to him were his Mother and St John, known as the beloved apostle…..St John was very special…He was the youngest of the first disciples so my guess is, his heart was the purest….The world had not “soiled him” yet……St John was so special that Jesus gave him a great task, to care for his mother after his death…..”When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, Woman, behold, your son. Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home”…….Just think what it would have been like to live with Our Lady?!?…She was all holy….....She was PERECT….....St John lived with this woman for years up to and until she was assumed into heaven…....This is why St John’s Gospel stands out - In my humble opinion….His text goes far beyond just documenting what Jesus did and said, which is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke's Gospels…John’s writings provide a glimpse into both the past and the present…St John was a mystic…....I believe because of his time living with Our Lady after the death of Jesus - It was because of her influence on him, that we have both John’s Gospel written as it was and the Book of Revelation……(This is what I believe - This is not an “official” Church position - For the record)……No matter what you think about my "theory"......Clearly, Our Lady influenced John….Just think how she will influence us?….. If we stand with her…If we pray our Rosary daily and learn from her……No one understood Christ like Our Lady…Why?…Because she was PERFECT…She had no stain of sin on her soul…Because of that her heart resembled the heart of Christ…This is why we NEED to stay close to her…Think how she formed St John, who was given a Herculean task….She will also form us - That is what mothers do!…..Because we too have “something to do”….And Our lady will prepare us for that task, if we sit at her feet and learn from her

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”……….JMJ