livingtheword

Download: 20th Sunday Yr C – The Assumption of Mary

The Assumption of Mary. Pope Pius XII asked all Bishops in 1950 if their congregations believed that Mary was assumed into heaven. 98 percent answered Yes. The Pope recognised that God was speaking through the Church and the sense of faith of the ‘faithful’. Mary’s assumption – being taken up – does not mean she did not die but after her ‘sleeping’ she was taken body and soul into heaven. We as Christian disciples hope to follow after her.

Reflection Question 4: The historical site of the Visitation is in the small village on the outskirts of Jerusalem called ‘Ein Karem’. In the Church of the Visitation there are large bronze figures of Mary and Elizabeth, their two pregnant tummies almost touching as they greet each other. A conversation happens between Elizabeth and Mary, but also between John and Jesus. The Old Testament is meeting the New Testament. Zechariah, the High Priestly family, the Jewish Priesthood, is meeting the New Priesthood of Christ. God’s promises of old, now fulfilled. The long waiting of the Old Testament is now turned to ‘leaping for joy’. The Ark of the Covenant which King David ‘leaped for joy’ before (2 Sam 6,5) is now fulfilled with John leaping for Joy before Mary, bearing Christ and the new covenant’. In the baby and disciple John we see our own leaping for joy in the Church before the Eucharist. What image strikes you the most? What could it teach you for your life?

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