Assumption of Mary

God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

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.” Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab  

Meditation Based On the Intercessions for the 
Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Eternal Word, you chose Mary as the uncorrupted ark of your dwelling place.

+Free us from the corruption of sin.

You are our redeemer, who made the immaculate Virgin Mary your purest home and the sanctuary of the   

Holy Spirit.

+ Make us temples of your Spirit for ever.

King of kings, you lifted up your mother, body and soul, into heaven.

+ Help us to fix our thoughts on things above.

Lord of heaven and earth, you crowned Mary and set her at your right hand as queen.

+ Make us worthy to share this glory.

O God, who,

 looking on the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

 raised her to this grace,

 that your Only Begotten Son was born of her according to the flesh

 and that she was crowned this day with surpassing glory,

 grant through her prayers,

 that, saved by the mystery of your redemption,

 we may merit to be exalted by you on high.

 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.

– Amen.

It's Time - Light Your Lamps

Be Ready, Have Your Lamps Lit.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” LK 12:35-40

Some Points To Consider:

• What exactly is the service the Lord will expect to find you busy at when he comes?

• Everyone has the vocation to become saints by a holy life of grace and service.  

• Praying for others is a service in which we are expected to be engaged. "Stay awake and pray." "Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest."

• Praying for the youth of this generation is critical. The sleep of indifference has descended upon us. Let us shake the silence with the clamor of evangelism, to wake our sleeping age.

The Grace I Seek:

O Lord, help me to know my true calling - the service to which you have called me - the purpose for which you created me.

My Prayer Reviewed and Journal

• This meeting with the Lord, time and place.
• The scripture passage that was chosen.
• Presence - the character of your attentiveness - your sense of the Lord's presence.
• Did you come with certain questions, certain needs, 
• What was your state of mind?
• What in the scripture passage caught your attention? Why?
• How did you picture the scene in the scripture passage?
• Which characters did you identify with - inspired you, most resembled you?
• What images were you left with?
• Characterize the way your spirit is moving.
• What, if any, message were you left with?

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"Woman, Great Is Your Faith"

"Woman, 

Great Is Your Faith"

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour. Mt 15: 21-28

Some Points To Consider:

• Is the Lord's delay in responding to the woman intended for his disciples, to give them, through the example of the woman's perseverance, a lesson in how to prayer?

• Jews pejoratively referred to Canaanites as dogs. By juxtaposing this slander with the humility of the women, Jesus demonstrates who's prayers find God's favour.   

• Consider again, the quality of your own prayer, your trust, your perseverance, your humility.

The Grace I Seek:

Create in me O Lord, a truly trusting, humbled, contrite heart; that my prayer may be found worthy in your presence.

My Prayer Reviewed and Journal

• This meeting with the Lord, time and place.
• The scripture passage that was chosen.
• Presence - the character of your attentiveness - your sense of the Lord's presence.
• Did you come with certain questions, certain needs, 
• What was your state of mind?
• What in the scripture passage caught your attention? Why?
• How did you picture the scene in the scripture passage?
• Which characters did you identify with - inspired you, most resembled you?
• What images were you left with?
• Characterize the way your spirit is moving.
• What, if any, message were you left with?

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Storing Up Treasures

The Parable of the Rich Fool: Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”  Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Points To Consider: 

Jesus refuses to arbitrate. Something else must compel his brother's actions.

In the scriptures, an abundant harvest is considered a blessing from God.

Would not any prudent manager choose to expand their storage capacity?

Wherein lies the problem?

"Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."

God's blessings are entrusted, not possessed.

The Grace I Seek:

Lord, teach my heart to value wisely. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Mtt. 6:20

My Prayer Reviewed and Journal

• This meeting with the Lord, time and place.
• The scripture passage that was chosen.
• Presence - the character of your attentiveness - your sense of the Lord's presence.
• Did you come with certain questions, certain needs, 
• What was your state of mind?
• What in the scripture passage caught your attention? Why?
• How did you picture the scene in the scripture passage?
• Which characters did you identify with - inspired you, most resembled you?
• What images were you left with?
• Characterize the way your spirit is moving.
• What, if any, message were you left with?

+ + + + + + + 

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'… Mtt. 25:34