From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   We have been bought at a great price   
      
      Let us rejoice that we have been bought at a great price, the price   
   of the Lord's own blood, and that because of this we are no longer   
   worthless slaves. For there is a freedom that is baser than slavery,   
   namely, freedom from justice. Whoever has that kind of freedom is a   
   slave of sin and a prisoner of death. So let us give back to the Lord   
   the gifts he has given us; let us give to him who receives in the   
   person of every poor man or woman. Let us give gladly, I say, and   
   great joy will be ours when we receive his promised reward.   
   —Paulinus of Nola   
      
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   August 15th - The Assumption of Our Lady   
      
   One often hears meditations on the sorrows of Our Lady, but people   
   from times past, unlike contemporary men, also used to speak often   
   about the joys of Our Lady. For this reason, one of the most famous   
   sanctuaries in Brazil is the Church of Our Lady of the Pleasures, on   
   Guararapes Mount, erected in honor of her joys.   
      
   Today, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, let us consider her   
   pleasures. There is a good reason to do this. St. Thomas Aquinas   
   sustains that no one can subsist on earth in complete unhappiness. To   
   support the suffering of life, a person needs to have some pleasure,   
   even if small; otherwise a constant and intense sorrow is   
   insupportable. He was not speaking of pleasures as the world imagines   
   them, but about the good Catholic pleasures and joy.   
      
   Our Lady had many joys. The Magnificat is the expression of the   
   supreme one, the Incarnation, but there are others, such as those   
   celebrated in the joyful mysteries of the Rosary. None was greater, in   
   a certain sense, than that of the Assumption. . .   
      
   Now, let us consider the Assumption of Our Lady. After her most serene   
   death and resurrection, Our Lady knew that she would be taken to   
   Heaven. She knew because she had reached the summit of her sanctity   
   and wisdom, which communicated to her that the hour of her   
   glorification had come. Also her love of God had never been so intense   
   and she felt that the moment of the Beatific Vision was near. So,   
   Angels from the highest Choirs came down to bring her solemnly to   
   Heaven.   
      
   I imagine that her angelic carriage, to use a metaphor, was preceded   
   and followed by a cortege of selected Angels, perhaps warrior Angels   
   with many victories against the Devil, like the military cortege of   
   the Queen of England. Then she arrived at that most solemn place in   
   Heaven where the inhabitants were gathered to pay her homage. She was   
   received by her chaste spouse St. Joseph and together, as in a   
   cathedral, they processed down an aisle among the ordered ensemble of   
   Saints.   
      
   As she passed and moved toward the throne of the Holy Trinity, Who   
   awaited her, she received the reverence of all the Saints and Angels.   
   In this cortege of honor, she not only received the homage of each   
   one, but she had a perfect understanding and discernment of what each   
   homage represented. To each Saint or Angel, whom she personally   
   recognized, she gave the proportionate retribution of affection and   
   admiration. She took great joy in this hyperdulia of the inhabitants   
   of Heaven honoring her because she was the Mother of Our Lord Jesus   
   Christ and the creature most faithful to Him.   
      
   As the procession came to an end, the feast of the Assumption reached   
   its apex. For the first time Our Lady experienced the Beatific Vision;   
   at that same moment she was received by the Divine Word, the Holy   
   Ghost, and God the Father. They solemnly welcomed her, greeting her as   
   the most beloved Daughter of the Father, the most admirable Mother of   
   the Son, and the most faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Then they   
   proclaimed her Queen of Heaven and Earth. After this proclamation, the   
   Three crowned her as such.   
      
   All the preceding steps of her Assumption led up to that stupendous   
   end. She ardently desired that end and it enormously pleased her. This   
   hypothetical description gives you a faint idea of the ensemble of   
   joys Our Lady experienced that day.   
      
   I want to stress that this is not a hyperbole, an exaggeration. I   
   think that a feast like this actually took place in Heaven as part of   
   the Assumption of Our Lady. Her assumption, her glorification, and her   
   coronation were three things that came together in a grand ceremony in   
   Heaven.   
      
   A similar glorification will take place at the end of History after   
   the Last Judgment. Following the supreme glorification of Our Lord as   
   King of History and the solemn recognition of His victory over Satan   
   and his cohorts and armies, it is probable that Our Lord will pay a   
   final homage to Our Lady, and again the Holy Trinity will confirm her   
   sovereignty over Heaven and Earth--the glorified Earth at the end of   
   the world.   
      
   It is my opinion that this glorification of Our Lady at her   
   resurrection and assumption had an effect on earth and nature. As at   
   Fatima when the sun changed its colors and danced, twirling toward the   
   earth to confirm the words she spoke to the children, on the day of   
   her Assumption, I imagine the sun was shining with a special glorified   
   light, the air was exceptionally pure, and all nature was immensely   
   joyful.   
      
   The face of Our Lady before the Assumption would have shined with   
   increasing brilliance expressing the great love of God she was   
   feeling, her eagerness to be with Him, and a presentiment of the joys   
   she would shortly have. I think that the last day of Our Lady on earth   
   in a certain sense represents the transfiguration of Our Lady; it was   
   her Tabor. The persons who were with her and saw her would never   
   forget that day for the rest of their lives.   
      
   I think that she will communicate to us and to the entire earth some   
   of the joy she had on the day of her Assumption and that she now has   
   in Heaven when the Reign of Mary predicted in Fatima will be solemnly   
   established.   
      
   There is an invocation in a Litany to Our Lord in which we ask: ut ad   
   celestia desideria erigas, te rogamus, audi nos--That our souls be   
   raised to the desire for celestial things, we pray Thee, hear us. This   
   invocation should be the conclusion of our meditation on the   
   Assumption of Our Lady. We should ask that we may love the celestial   
   happiness of Our Lady in order to give her glory and that we may one   
   day be with her in Paradise. We should also love and meditate on her   
   joys as a way to accept with peace and resignation the sorrows and   
   sufferings God sends us so we might prove our love for Him.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)