From the Gospel acclamation: “Mary is taken up to heaven; a chorus of angels exults.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 1:39-56)
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.”
After Mary travels quickly to visit her cousin Elizabeth, when Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting, the baby leaps in her womb. What she says to Mary becomes part of a prayer spoken by countless pilgrims on earth for the intercession of the Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth is in awe that the mother of her Lord comes to visit her. She tells Mary that she is blessed by believing that what the Lord speaks to her—and to all of us—will be fulfilled. God keeps his promises, and nothing is lost that he brings into existence. Mary, conceived without sin, was assumed body and soul into heaven, a hint of the glory that is to come to us through God’s love for the poor and the humble, who will see justice through his grace. In her Magnificat, or Song of Mary, she proclaims for all generations that through the Son of God and the Son of Mary, God’s salvation and redemption is for all people: “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.”
God, every good gift you gave to Mary she attributed to you. “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.” Give me the grace of conviction that your Name is holy and that for those who fear you, you have shown your mercy in every generation. Thank you, Lord, for every good gift you give me. Help me turn unreservedly and in confidence to the Mother of the Word Incarnate for her intercession and assistance in giving you all thanks and praise, trusting in your mercy. “Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Mary, Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.