On This Day O Beautiful Mother
I remember the days in my old hometown when people from about 20 houses in our block would pray the Rosary in our homes each night and then process, with lighted candles and singing of Marian hymns, to transfer a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to another home. Our Block Rosary was well attended. It made us closer to one another and to Mary and her Son.
Today, I went to Mass two times. The first was the early morning Mass in our parish church in Oxon Hill and the other the noon Mass at the Basilica named after Mary in Old Town Alexandria.
Today is a special day for Catholics. It is the Solemnity of the Assumption into heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the woman our Lord Jesus loved most, and the woman who loved Him most.
Today, I could not but also think of my own earthly mother, the mother God gave me. She brought me into this world and she took care of me with much love and sacrifice. She has been gone a long time now. My only regret is that it was not I but another brother of mine who had the opportunity and privilege of taking care of her in her old age. I love my mom. And with a son's heart and mind who knew his mom's love and caring, I would like to believe that the Lord has looked at this and brought her soul to her reward in heaven.
Our Lord Jesus loved His own mother. As God, from all eternity He chose her to be His own mother and endowed her with all beauty of soul and body, conceived without sin, full of grace, because it was in her womb that the Word would take on human flesh that would save mankind for heaven.
Mary is the woman that gave birth to the Incarnate Son of God. She took care of Him all the way at all stages of His earthly life and ministry up to His crucifixion and death on the cross. Through her intercession, Jesus performed His first miracle although He said it was not yet time for Him to do that. He loved His mother much much more than we can ever love her.
That is the reason why He assumed her into heaven without her body suffering from corruption to be together with Him in glory for all eternity.
Do Catholics worship Mary? No, we don't. But we love her. Because Jesus, our Lord loved her and He gave her to us from the cross to be our own mother. And although we love her, our love for her can never even come close to the love her Son had and has for her.
The Woman that would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15) . . . The Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (Revelation 12:1) This is the Woman that the Lord loves and wants us to love.
Mary points us to Jesus. "His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5)
Mary assumed into heaven, pray for us.#
