It is Truly Right and Just! Our Duty and our Salvation
August 11, 2026
Hello! How is each and every one? What are we looking forward to this week? We hope for sunny days this week. On the 15th, we will be celebrating with the Church the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following from the Daily Roman Missal:
15 August
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.” The Pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the Pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church.
We find homilies on the Assumption going back to the sixth century. In following centuries the Eastern Churches held steadily to the doctrine, but some authors in the West were hesitant. However, by the 13th century there was universal agreement. The feast was celebrated under various names (Commemoration, Dormition, Passing, Assumption) from at least the fifth or sixth century.
Scripture does not give an account of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as God’s people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testament, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the woman’s victory.
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Since Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life, it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to belief in Mary’s share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth, she must be with him body and soul in heaven.
On this day, we consecrate ourselves to the heart of Mary:
O Most Holy Mary, who
conceived Jesus Christ in your virginal womb and thereby became for us mother
of grace and of life, of mercy and of pardon; graciously accept our
consecration to your Immaculate Heart.
We consecrate to you our being and our life, everything that is ours,
all that we love and all that we are.
Our bodies, our hearts, and our souls are for you; we and our apostolate
are yours. We want everything in us and around us to belong to you and to share
in your motherly blessings. And to make
this consecration truly effective and lasting, we renew today, at your feet, O
Mary, our dedication to God.
Holy Mary, our hope, Seat of Wisdom, handmaid of the Lord, Mother of Fair love, through your powerful intercession make this consecration pleasing toJesus. O heart of Mary, Mother of God and our mother, most sweet heart, perfect image of the heart of Jesus; hear the pleas that we address to you with filial piety.
Set our poor hearts on fire, so that we will love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with our whole being. Inspire us with a great Love for the Church and for the Pope, and make us live in full obedience to all their teachings. Make us faithful so that we may have a burning zeal for souls. Raise us, O Mary, to a state of perfect Love for God, and give us the gift of final perseverance.
And since your prayer
is all-powerful in the presence of God, allow us to choose you as special
protectress; so that, after having lived a holy life on earth, we may have the
joy of praising the most Blessed Trinity with you forever in heaven. Amen.
I continue to lean on your prayers for the book that I am working on and preparing to publish. I consider getting it done, a victory. My duty already done; results will be up to God. Oops, not really. I still have to continue working that the copies get into the hands of chosen ones.
Following is the last part of the third word of Christ from the Cross (From The Cries of Jesus from the Cross, A Fulton J. Sheen’s Anthology).
7 The Fellowship of Religion
Have you ever said; in order to justify your selfishness, “After all, I have my own life to live”? The truth is you have not your own life to live because you have to live it with everyone else. Religion is not what you do with your solitariness, but what you do with your relationships. You were born out of the womb of society, and hence, the love of neighbor is inseparable from love of God. “If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:20).
As danger multiplies, human solidarity becomes more evident. Human beings are closer to one another morally in a bomb shelter or a shell hole than they are in a brokerage office or at a bridge table. As sorrow increases, a sense of unity deepens. It is therefore only natural to suspect that the peak of tragedy in the lives of our Divine Lord and His Mother on Calvary should best reveal the communal character of religion.
It is particularly interesting to note that the word Our Lord spoke to His Mother from the Cross is prefaced by St. John, in His Gospel, speaking of the seamless garment that had been worn by our Blessed Lord and for which the soldiers were now shaking dice. “The soldiers, therefore, when they had crucified him, took his garments (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part) and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout” (John 19:23).
Why, out of all the details of the Passion, should St. John suddenly begin thinking about a robe? Because it was woven by Mary’s hands. It was such a beautiful robe that these hardened criminals refused to tear it apart. Custom gave them the right to the perquisites of those whom they crucified. But here the criminals refused to divide the spoils. They shook dice for it so that the winner had the whole robe.
After having yielded up His garments to those who shook dice for them, He on the Cross now yields up her who wove the seamless garment. Our Blessed Lord looks down to the two most beloved creatures He has on earth: Mary and John. He speaks first to His Blessed Mother. He does not call her “Mother,” but “Woman.”
As St. Bernard so lovingly put it, if He had called her “Mother,” she would have been just His Mother and no one else’s. In order to indicate that she is now becoming the Mother of all men whom He redeems, He endows her with the title of universal motherhood: “Woman.” Then indicating with a gesture of His head the presence of His beloved disciple, He added: “Behold thy son.” He does not call him “John,” for if He did, John would have been only the son of Zebedee; he left him unnamed that he might stand for all humanity.
Our Lord was equivalently saying to His Mother: “You already have one Son, and I am He. You cannot have another. All the other sons will be in me as the branches are in the vine. John is one in me and I in him. Hence I say not: ‘Behold another son!’ but ‘Behold me in John and John in me.’ ”
It was a kind of testament. At the Last Supper, He willed to mankind His Body and Blood. “This is my Body. This is my Blood.” Now He was willing His Mother: “Behold thy Mother.” Our Blessed Lord was here establishing a new relationship; a relationship by which His own Mother became the Mother of all mankind, and we, in turn, became her children.
This new bond was not carnal, but spiritual. There are ties other than those of blood. Blood may be thicker than water, but Spirit is thicker than blood. All men, whatever be their color, race, or blood, are one in the Spirit: “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:50).
Mary had seen God in Christ; now her Son was telling her to see her Christ in all Christians. She was never to love anyone else but Him, but He would now be in those whom He redeemed. The night before, He had prayed that all men might be one in Him, as there is but one life for the Vine and its branches. Now He was making her the custodian not only of the Vine but also of the branches, through time and eternity. She had given birth to the King; now she was begetting the kingdom.
The very thought of this Bride of the Spirit becoming the Mother of humanity is overwhelming, not because God thought of it, but because we so seldom think of it. We have become so used to seeing the Madonna with the Child in Bethlehem that we forget that same Madonna is holding you and me at Calvary.
At the manger, Christ was only a Babe; at Calvary, Christ was the head of redeemed humanity. At Bethlehem, she was the Mother of Christ; on Calvary, she became the Mother of Christians. In the stable, she brought forth her Son without pain and became the Mother of Joy; at the Cross, she brought us forth in pain and became the Queen of Martyrs. In neither case shall a woman forget the child of her womb.
When Mary heard Our Blessed Lord establish this new relationship, she remembered so well when this spiritual fellowship began. Her third word, as His, was about the relationship. It was a long time ago.
After the angel announced to her that she was
to be the Mother of God, which alone would have bound her to all humanity, the
angel added that her elderly cousin Elizabeth was now with child:
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath
conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is
called barren. Because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And
the angel departed from her.
And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she entered into the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord. (Luke 1:36–45)
It is rightly assumed that no one may more
justly claim immunity from service to others than a woman bearing a child. If
one adds to this, noblesse oblige, the fact that this woman bears within
herself the very Lord of the universe, then, of all creatures, she might rightfully
claim dispensation from social bonds and duties to neighbor. Women in that
condition come not to minister but to be ministered unto.
Here we have the spectacle of the greatest of all women becoming the servant of others. Not standing on her dignity, saying, “I am the Mother of God,” but recognizing the need of her aged cousin, this pregnant Queen, instead of awaiting her hour in isolation, like other women, mounts a donkey, makes a five-day journey over hill country, and with such a consciousness of spiritual fellowship that she does it, in the language of sacred Scripture, “with haste” (Luke 1:39).
Thirty-three years before Calvary, Mary recognizes that her mission is to bring her Lord to humanity; and with such a holy impatience is she filled that she begins it before her Son has seen the light of day. I love to think of her on this journey as the first Christian nurse, whose service to neighbor is inseparable from bringing Christ into the life of her patient.
There is no record of the exact words that Mary spoke. The evangelist merely tells us that she saluted Elizabeth. But notice that just as soon as she saluted her cousin, new relationships were immediately established. Elizabeth no longer addresses her as cousin. She says, “Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43).
Mary is now not just a relative or another
mother of another child. She is called the “Mother of God”! But that was not
the end of the relationship. Elizabeth’s own child in her womb, who was to be
called later by the Child in Mary’s womb “the greatest man ever born of woman,”
now stirs in His mother’s womb; we might almost say he danced to his birth in
salutation to the King of Kings! Two unborn children establish a relationship
before either had swung open the portals of flesh.
Notice how much Our Blessed Lady is made the link of bringing Christ to humanity. First of all, it was through her as a Gate of Heaven that He walked into this earth. It was in her as a Mirror of Justice that He first saw with human eyes the reflection of the world He had made. It is in her as a kind of living ciborium that He is carried to the First Communion rail of her cousin’s home, where an unborn babe salutes Him as the Host who is to be the Guest of the world. It is through her intercession at Cana that He brings His divine power to supply a human need. And it is finally at the Cross that she who gave Christ to the world now receives Him back again in us who have the high and undeserved honor to call ourselves Christian.
Because of this intimacy, I wonder if it is not true that as the world loses veneration for Christ’s Mother, it loses also its adoration of Christ. Is it not true in earthly relationships that, as a so-called friend ignores your mother when he comes to your home, sooner or later he will ignore you? Conversely, as the world begins knocking at Mary’s door, it will find that Our Lord Himself will answer.
If you have never before prayed to Mary, do so now. Can you not see that if Christ Himself willed to be physically formed in her for nine months and then be spiritually formed by her for thirty years, it is to her that we must go to learn how to have Christ formed in us? Only she who raised Christ can raise a Christian.
To develop that spiritual comradeship with Jesus and Mary, the Rosary is most effective. The word Rosary means a “garland of roses” culled from the Garden of Prayer. Each decade requires only two to three minutes; thus, the whole Rosary requires only a little over ten minutes.
If you do not say it all at once and on your knees, then say one decade when you arise in the morninganother decade on your way to work, another decade as you sweep the house or wait for your check at the noon lunch hour, another decade just before you go to bed; the last decade you can say in bed just before falling off to sleep.
When you are under twenty-five, you have time for only one decade before falling asleep; when you get to be forty, you will have time for two; and when you are sixty, you will have time for a dozen.
Because the Hail Mary is said many times in the course of a Rosary, do not think of it as a sterile repetition, because each time it is said in a different setting or scene, as you meditate, for example, on such mysteries as the Birth of Our Lord, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and so forth. You never thought, as a child, when you told your mother you loved her, that it had the same meaning as it did the last time you told her. Because the background of the affection changed, its affirmation was new. It is the same sun that rises each morning, but it makes a new day.
What are some of the advantages of the Rosary?
1. If, every day of your life, you say the
Rosary devoutly, and all that it implies, you will never lose your soul.
2. If you wish for peace in your heart and in
your family and an abundance of heavenly gifts on your household, then assemble
your family each night and say the Rosary.
3. If you are anxious to convert a soul to the
fullness of God’s love and life, teach that person to say the Rosary. That
person will either stop saying the Rosary, or he will receive the gift of
faith.
4. If a sufficient army of us said the Rosary every
day, the Blessed Mother would now, as in the past, obtain from her Divine Son
the stilling of the present tempests, the defeat of the enemies of human
civilization, and a real peace in the hearts of tired and straying men.
5. If the cooling of your charity has made you
unhappy on the inside and critical of others, then the Rosary, through your
meditation on Our Lord’s great love for you on the Cross and your Mother’s
affection for you on Calvary, will rekindle your love of God and of neighbor
and restore you to a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Do not think that in honoring Our Lady with the Rosary you are neglecting Our Lord. Did you ever know anyone who ignored you by being kind to your mother? If Our Lord said to you “Behold thy Mother,” it well behooves us to respect her whom Our Lord chose above all the creatures of earth. In any case, remember, even though you wanted to, you could not stop with her. As Francis Thompson put it:
The celestial traitress play,
With sacrosanct cajoleries
And starry treachery of your eyes,
Tempt us back to Paradise! (“The After Woman.”)
— Seven Words of Jesus and Mary
As expected lest you and I forget may I remind each one of us to go over the above thoughts and ideas during our moments of conversation with Jesus in our prayer of the day. When we do so, Jesus will surely give us more lights on the matter in such a way that will be more understandable and beneficial to each one personally.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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