Dear Folks,

With the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption, I invite you to consider three things:

— Have you noticed that this feast has an octave of sorts?

The eighth day after the Assumption is the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Imagine the scene: Mary arrives in heaven to great celebration, then settles into her heavenly home to prepare for her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth a week later!

— Do you ever wonder how Mary can pay attention to all of her children? I think anxieties like this may stem from a lack of imagination. Scripture says, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what has not entered the human heart, what God has ready for those who love Him. ” (1 Cor 2:9)

Our imaginations about what is fitting or possible must not—and cannot—limit the Lord’s plans! These feasts invite us to stretch our imagination heavenward.

— Sometimes people pull back from the practice of the faith with the phrase, “I’m spiritual, not religious.”

But this misunderstands what religion truly is: the rendering to God what is His due—thanksgiving and worship. Thanksgiving, because everything we have and are is a gift from Him. Worship, because to worship God is to acknowledge His excellence and perfection, and to render Him the honor due as the Author of all things.

To refuse Him thanks and worship is to refuse to respond rightly as a creature to the Creator. We cannot fashion the universe according to our own design; that kind of mysticism makes no demands on us.

But the Gospel does make demands—on how we live, act, and love. So live in wonder and awe at the mysteries He has revealed.

pax,

Father John Mosimann