The Kings Daughter

A Rosary Meditation: The Fourth Glorious Mystery, The Assumption.

“All glorious is the kings daughter as she enters; her raiment is threaded with spun gold.” Psalms 44:14.

Like everything, excepting eternity and God and God’s love, the Assumption had its beginning and its end. In a way Mary’s Assumption had its beginning with her Immaculate Conception. Beyond this there were what we might think of as stages. The Annunciation, the Visitation, and etc. Of course breaking things down in this fashion is just a human way of understanding a thing, or an attempt at understanding. Time, and those of us who live in time, is (I think) a continuous flow. God, and those with Him, aren’t hampered by time and its limiting view. Anyway …

“All glorious is the kings daughter as she enters … ” Think about the word “glorious”. Compare it to, given Mary’s entry into Heaven, the word “ready”.

Do you think Mary was ready for the Assumption the day prior to it? We’d be tempted to say yes, and given her God-given perfection we could say she was always ready. But she wasn’t. Mary had given her heart and will over to God. Always. So she wasn’t ready the day before because He wasn’t. She was only ready in accordance with His timing. A “part” of her perfection (and I’m breaking things down here just for the sake of human understanding again, primarily my own understanding) is found in waiting on God.

Do we ever get ahead of God? Or do we try to hurry things up because that’s the way we want it or think it should be?

“Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.” Psalms27:14, Douay-Rheims.

Just a thought … There are, metaphorically speaking, a variety of assumptions. There’s an Assumption like Mary’s. It takes place in God’s time, not ours. And then there’s the all to human assumption of thinking that we know best when it comes to the timing of anything.

The Fiftieth Day

A Rosary Meditation: The Third Glorious Mystery, The Descent of the Holy Spirit.

“When the days of Pentecost were drawing to a close, they were all gathered together in one place.” Acts 2:1.

The word Pentecost comes to us via Middle English, from Old English pentecosten, from the Late Latin pentecoste, from the Greek word pentēkostē, which literally means “fiftieth day”, from pentēkostos fiftieth, from pentēkonta fifty, from penta- + -konta (akin to Latin viginti twenty). Short version: Pentecost means fifty days.

Jesus had told his faithful few to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit and they did. Can you imagine what that must’ve been like? You’re told to wait. OK, wait for how long? A week? A month? Years? These people had not the slightest glimmer of an idea. But they waited anyway. Obedience.

From the Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 5: “The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. This is the virtue of those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ; who, because of the holy service they have professed, and the fear of hell, and the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior, receive it as a divine command and cannot suffer any delay in executing it. Of these the Lord says, “As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me” (Ps. 17[18]:45). And again to teachers He says, “He who hears you, hears Me” (Luke 10:16).” There’s some more to the chapter. You might like to Google it.

Obedience regardless. It takes a lot of faith and trust. It takes a lot of love to be willing to wait, not knowing for how long. What do you think it was like at the end of week one? Or after twenty seven days? Or on the thirty ninth? Did anyone murmur? Was there fear or discontent? Did faith waver? Did Peter want to get back to his nets and boat and just go fishing? Maybe some of this, maybe all of this, maybe none of this. Any answer we come up with regarding these people and what their thoughts or attitudes may have been probably tells us more about ourselves than it does them. But whatever may or may not have happened they waited anyway, didn’t they?

Sometimes we’re faced with a “something”, it doesn’t matter what it is so you can pick one, that requires us to wait. Its hard. A child on Christmas eve wants morning NOW so they can unwrap their gifts. It doesn’t matter how hard they want they still have to wait. And sometimes so do we. So there’s obedience and patience as well. Its not an easy combination to muster. But its going to be that way, the wait will be there no matter what, so we may as well take a shot at being obedient and patient.

If the folks back then had given up in disgust on, oh, lets say the forty ninth day, where would God’s Church be now? Where would we?

“Be you therefore also patient, and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5:8, Douay-Rheims.

Just a thought … Don’t give up before the wait is over. The disciples waited and experienced the miracle of Pentecost. Don’t miss your miracle.

Monday, November 26

A Rosary Meditation … The Fourth Joyful Mystery, the Presentation. Have you ever wanted something REALLY bad? Maybe a B-B gun or Betsy-Wetsey for Christmas? Those were top priority back in the late fifties and early sixties. And now that we all know how old I am, with life span in mind, can you imagine waiting expectantly, in faith and with patience, for all your life? I don’t mean part of your life but all of it, right up to the point that you’re so old you know you won’t last much longer? Because that’s where Simeon was. He’d heard about the Promised One, Messiah, since childhood. Later God had promised him that he would live to see this One. For some the longer they wait the more disgusted they become. Just watch people in a long checkout line. But others, like Simeon, know that the longer you wait the closer you get. Anna was there waiting too. We aren’t told that God had promised her anything but, and this is just a thought, if she knew something as wonderful as seeing the Messiah was going to happen to Simeon, well, maybe she stayed close so that it would happen to her too. In today’s Gospel reading, Luke 21:1-4, a poor widow tosses all her money into the temples collection plate. In giving all she gave more than any other. Anna and Simeon, there in the temple, worshiping and serving God through sacrifice and prayer, were giving all they had, their very lives. Like good priests and nuns do today. People like the poor widow and Simeon and Anna and faithful religious are all rewarded. Ultimately they are all rewarded in the same way. They get to see Jesus. 1 John 3:2. Where are WE? We’re waiting whether we want to be or not, whether we know it or not. And it doesn’t matter if we’re a Simeon, poor widow, nun, Anna, or priest. Do we wait in faithful, patient expectation? And what is it that we give while we wait? Part of what we have, part of our self, reserving some for us? Look at the Babe in Simeon’s arms and at the happy mother with a heart so loving as to willingly be pierced. Fast forward, but go slow, 33 years. Think about their lives. Ask yourself one simple question. What did they hold back? Luke 10:37b. The faithful and patient will be presented with their reward in the end. Revelation 22.

Today … St. Basolus. Never heard of him? It’s no wonder. He lived as a hermit for 40 years, living on a hill near Reims, France. Forty years is a long time. Wait, sacrifice, pray, be faithful, be patient. Why? For the same reason Simeon and Anna did. He was waiting to see Jesus, waiting for the promised reward of the Beatific Vision. Revelation 22 again. And now, after forty years of faithfulness, a drop in the bucket compared to eternity, he enjoys Christ forever. “Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.” Matthew 5:12a. Remember that and wait with patient expectation. Even when you’re at the end of a long checkout line at Wal-Mart.

Colossians 1:11-12 … “Strengthened with all might, according to the power of His glory, in all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.”