Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.
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."
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Mary our Mother was a mortal human being, like you and me. She was made for immortality and eternal life, like you and me. She was chosen for a particular vocation, like you and me. Yet, her vocation is utterly unique in that she was the only person chosen from all eternity to be the bearer of the most high God, and given a singular grace to preserve her from all sin. Mary is the Ark of the Covenant, the sanctuary and first tabernacle of the living God.
Mary is blessed not simply because she was chosen to be theotokos, or God-bearer, but more especially because she heard the word of God and observed it as the first disciple thus rendering her worthy of great veneration and imitation. By her powerful intercession, may we follow her into eternal blessedness where our mortal bodies will be resurrected into unimaginable glory. Amen.
—Emanuel Werner, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province currently studying philosophy and theology at Fordham University.
Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. 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.
—Collect prayer for the Solemnity of the Assumption
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Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God pursues us in the routines of our home and work life, and in the hopes and fears of life's challenges. The founder of the Jesuits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, created the Spiritual Exercises to deepen our relationship with Christ and to move our contemplation into service. May this prayer site anchor your day and strengthen your resolve to remember what truly matters.
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