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The Fourth Glorious Mystery - The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
CHAPTER 10
How Incomparable Was Saint Marys Triumph When She Was Assumed into Heaven
Our Lord was thus pleased to call Mary to Paradise. But if it was His will that
the ark of the old
dispensation should
be brought with great pomp into the city of David - And David and all the house
of Israel brought
the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, and with sound of
trumpet (2 Kings 6:15)-
with
how much greater and more glorious pomp did He ordain that His Mother should
enter Heaven! The
whole court of Heaven, headed by its King, came forth to meet and accompany Her.
Our Savior said to His Mother, "Arise, make haste, My love, My dove, My
beautiful one, and come,
for winter is now past and gone (Cant. 2:10). Come, My own dear Mother, My pure
and beautiful dove;
leave that valley of tears in which for My love Thou hast suffered so much."
Then all the blessed spirits, and particularly the Archangel Gabriel, began to
bless and praise
Her, singing with far more reason than the Hebrews did to Judith: "Who is this
that cometh up from
the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon Her Beloved?" (Cant. 8:5). "Thou
art the glory of
Jerusalem; Thou art the joy of Israel; Thou art the honor of our people" (Judith
15:10).
Likewise did all the saints of Paradise welcome Her and salute Her as their
Queen - our first
parents, Adam and Eve; all the holy patriarchs and prophets; all the holy
virgins, confessors, and
martyrs; St. James, the only one of the Apostles who was yet in Heaven; St.
Simeon, who had
received the Infant Jesus from Her hands; Saints Zachary and Elizabeth, whom She
had visited with
such great humility and charity; St. John the Baptist, whom She had sanctified
by Her voice; and
Saints Joachim and Anne, Her holy parents.
But who can ever form an idea of the affection with which