THE SOLEMNITY of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thursday, August 15th

Holy Mother Mary, we all rejoice with you today on the feast of your glorious Assumption into heaven. Long ago in the Garden of Eden, our first parents, Adam and Eve, were told that they would have to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow and that the earth would be cursed, bringing forth thorns and thistles.
Now, after Christ our Redeemer has come, and taught us how to make use of the thorns and thistles of this life, and turn them into blessings, you, like Him, have been taken up body and soul into heaven. There, with your Divine Son, you await our coming, and prepare a place for us.
Mother Mary, it is a great comfort to us to realise that your precious body, the tabernacle of the infant Christ, is now in heaven with Him. Your being taken into heaven is also, like the resurrection of Christ's body, a pledge to us of the resurrection of our own bodies.
It is wonderful to think that these hands, with which we earn our bread now by the sweat of our brow, will, because of the merits of Christ, one day, with our bodies, be glorified forever in heaven.
O most pure Virgin Mary, help us to realize this as we go about our work from day to day. Help us to have great respect for these bodies of ours, and for those of others because we recognize in them the temple of the Holy Spirit, and because we look forward to seeing each other, body and soul, with you and your Son Jesus Christ forever in heaven. Amen