The Queen Stands At Your Right Hand, Arrayed In Gold.

Reading 1

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

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.”

Reading II
1 Corinthians 15:20-27

Brothers and sisters:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.

For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;

then comes the end,
when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father,
when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death,
for “he subjected everything under his feet.”

Gospel
Luke 1:39-56

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,

“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.

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The commemoration of the death of the Blessed Mother is known in the Churches of the East as the Dormition, or falling asleep of the Virgin, and in the Church of Rome as the Assumption, because of the belief that her body did not undergo corruption, but that at the end of her life on earth, she was raised, body and soul, into Heaven. This tradition was already current in the Sixth Century; by the beginning of the Twentieth Century, it was universal.

After consulting the views of the Bishops throughout the world, Pope Pius XII, on 1 November 1950, formally and infallibly declared that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was to be held as an authentic and ancient doctrine of the universal Church, a dogma of Catholic Faith. In the Dogmatic Constitutin Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council taught that “the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and was exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.”

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

The Assumption

Clear the way for the entrance
of the bold adventuress
who undoes injustice,
who smashes insults.

The sun’s rays are her
resplendent armor;
the stars her helmet,
the moon her boots.

On her shining shield
with which she dazzles hell,
a mountain is emblazoned
and golden letters: Tota Pulchra.

Celebrated for her beauty,
feared for her ferocity,
she is jaunty and valiant,
and angelic in her beauty …

She dispelled the charms
of the ancient serpent
whose conspiracy
set us under slavery’s yoke.

She avenges wrongs,
and annuls unjust laws,
gives refuge to orphans
and shelter to widows.

She liberated prisoners
from that prison where,
were it not for her daring spirit,
still they’d await their release.

All hell trembles at the mere
mention of her name.
and they say its very kings
fast on her vigil.

She is the one whose tread
no demon can endure.
When he sees her feet,
he takes to his heels.

Crowned with glory and honor,
the deeds that brought her fame,
since they cannot be contained on earth,
send her riding out of this world.

As knight errant of the spheres
on a new adventure,
she find the hidden treasure
sought by so many.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (+ 1695) was a Mexican nun, and a poet, dramatist, and spiritual writer.
MAGNIFICAT, August 2009