Mary's Assumption into Heaven and Her Message to Us Women

 Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother Mary.  I share with you one of my meditations on this feast in which I imagine Mary speaking to me, as follows:

I, Mary, truly am blessed among women but not above women.

I am God's handmaid, as are all women.

We've come to do God's will in the plan of salvation, as have all men as well.

And God accepted our surrender, and that of all persons,  to His will and to cooperate in the act of redemption.

And holy is His name!  

The lowly, God has raised up, making  us partners with Him in righting the wrongs done by Adam and Eve, our first parents' desire to do their own will and not submit to God's plan.

God raised us women from our lowly state to a state of dignity and honor:

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, bore Jesus, the Son of God, in my womb.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, gave birth to God made man.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, taught Jesus to walk and talk and pray.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, followed God's Son, and mine, to Calvary.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, stood beneath the cross, offering support in spite of the risk to my own life.

    And Mary Magdalen, a lowly woman, was the person God chose to proclaim Jesus' resurrection!

We, lowly women, discounted and miscounted in many cultures and by many people, especially in patriarchal religions, are lifted up by Jesus and for Jesus by God the Father and the Holy Spirit!

And holy is His name!