August 14: Day 9 of the Novena for the Feast of the Assumption

HOPE

Mary’s path, especially after Pentecost, becomes a path of hope. It is a path taken essentially in the company of the Risen One.

From Pentecost, her path is that of silence and witnessing of the early Christian community until, tradition tells us, her peaceful dormition and glorious assumption into heaven. Here we behold the plenitude of the mystery of Mary: her Paschal mystery.

The mystery of the Assumption of Our Lady is essentially a mystery of hope, because it teaches us to look at and to ardently desire what is definitive. Our world needs hope  -- a hope that needs to move into what is truly good, towards God’s good pleasure, towards encounter and unchanging communion, towards the building of a truly new society, towards the possession of the new heaven and the new earth where justice reside. Mary accompanies us in our own journey of hope towards the encounter with the Lord. We are sure that she constantly gives us to Jesus, that she helps us to discover in our daily life the face of her Son and makes us count on his fidelity, that she prepares us in view of the encounter with Him and that she will show us at the end of our pilgrimage, the blessed Fruit of her womb.

(silent reflection)

Prayer

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.