Day 127: Reunion into Heaven
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I'm Fr. Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in Your Podcast. We're through prayer and meditation. The Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is Day 127.

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Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fourth glorious mystery, the Assumption of Mary, with help from a writing by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his work on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sermon 1. Now our reading. The glorious Virgin who mounts to the heavens today has without a doubt heaped joy upon joy for the citizens of the world above.

For it is she whose voice of greeting makes those whom the maternal womb still encloses leap with joy. And if the soul of an unborn child melted when Mary spoke, how great do you think was the joy of the citizens of heaven when they succeeded in hearing her voice, seeing her face, and enjoying her blessed presence. But what, dearly beloved, does this solemnity of her assumption hold for us? What is there for us to be happy about? What is the reason for our displays of joy?

The whole world has been made bright by the presence of Mary so that the heavenly country itself shines more brightly by the radiant light of the virginal torch. Thanksgiving and the voice of praise rightly resound in the heavens. Our earth today has sent to heaven a precious gift that by giving and receiving a happy bond of friendship, human affairs should be joined to the divine. The earthly should be joined to the heavenly and the highest to the lowest.

For the exalted fruit of the earth has gone up to the place from where all good and perfect gifts come down. Therefore the Blessed Virgin, when she goes up on high, will give gifts to humans. Why should she not? At least she will not lack the opportunity nor the will. She is the Queen of Heaven. She is merciful. She is the mother of the only begotten Son of God. Nothing can so commend the greatness of her power and holiness. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God.

One of my all-time favorite movies, maybe my one of one, it's a documentary about Mother Teresa. In this specific documentary, it follows Mother and it has some interviews of her and it shows her at work and some of the beautiful work of her sisters, the missionaries of charity. There's a handful of the scenes that will stick with me always and I think about often. But potentially the most powerful comes at the very end of the film.

Mother had been just like traveling a bit, visiting a number of missionary charity of convents, which by this point in her life were all over the world. And she's returning home to their mother house in India. And it's a convent which had hundreds of sisters, many of them novices. Novices are the sisters just beginning their formation. And as mother returned homes, as she enters the convent and the gates open, a bell is rung announcing her return.

And you see all of the sisters stream towards her to greet her. And it is just so incredibly moving and beautiful to see all of these sisters, particularly these young sisters, they come to mother with just love overflowing in their hearts and huge smiles on their faces and like girlish little giggles and laughs and joy. Some being moved to the point of tears.

And one by one, you see mother embrace each one with love and affection and shared joy. And it really, I just kind of like seeing it, like you can like feel the Holy Spirit and just like fills me with like goosebumps and tears and just this deep desire in my heart to be myself filled with the same love and holiness. And I really think that this is a great image of the assumption of Mary.

Too often the assumption, it just becomes like a theological truth, something that we talk about, discuss, like a matter of apologetics. But first and foremost, the assumption is best valued and seen and experienced from like the lens of love. The assumption of Mary, it is a joyous celebration of victory and reunion of love. And St. Bernard of Clairvaux, he gets it.

He writes in our reading today, "How great do you think was the joy of the citizens of heaven when they succeeded in hearing her voice, seeing her face and enjoying her blessed presence." Like this is it. Through love, this is a joyous moment. And in the Mother Teresa documentary, like you see the joy of the sisters when they hear her voice and when they see her face and when they enjoy her presence.

And how much more filled with love and song and joy was the encounter that the citizens of heaven had with Mary at the moment of her assumption, body and soul into heaven, voice and face and smile and presence into heaven. And I think we can only really scratch the surface of the joy of this moment, which we are praying with today with the fourth glorious mystery is

Yet the best news of this is that we are all invited one day to experience this for ourselves. We are all invited to share in the resurrection of the body and to in heaven encounter Mary, to hear her voice, to see her face, and to be greeted by her motherly embrace. Today as we pray, let's kind of maybe move more from the mind to the heart, kind of live this place of love and of joy.

And let us ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit to grow in love with Mary, to be moved with joy at the encounter between her and the citizens of heaven, and to ourselves be filled with a greater hope and a greater longing to one day experience this union ourselves with our Blessed Mother. And now with Mary, let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right. Poco a poco, friends. God bless y'all. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Rosary in a Year. If you've been enjoying this journey with me, I encourage you to check out my new book, Eight Promises of God, Discovering Hope Through the Beatitudes.

We all want to know, like, what can I expect my life to look like when I'm following Jesus? How do I know I'm doing it right? My brothers and sisters, I believe that the answer to these questions is found in the Beatitudes. In this book, we'll learn from the example of the truly blessed ones, our Lord and our Lady, and how they practiced and lived the Beatitudes. And all this is going to bear fruit with the deepening of our trust in God's promises in any and all circumstances.

You can get your copy today at ascensionpress.com forward slash promises.