Eventide & Altar

In Adam all die. So in Christ shall all be brought to life - but each in proper order. Christ the firstfruits. Then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

The Assumption places Mary next in this sequence. Not ahead of the line by privilege but as the first of those who belong to him to receive what he promised in its fullness. The process Paul describes is already underway. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. In her, it has been.

Elizabeth names the reason before Mary says anything about herself: blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. The believing preceded the going, made the going haste rather than hesitation, produced the Magnificat before any of it was visible. Mary sang about what she knew God had already decided to do because she had staked her life on his word.

The Assumption is that stake honored. The believing that began at the annunciation has arrived at what believing of that quality arrives at.

At this point in life, the catalog of what God has spoken to you - what you believed without being able to see it, what you held through the years when there was no evidence, what you kept saying yes to when the cost was real - is substantial. The feast names where that believing goes. Not nowhere. Not forgotten. Into what Paul describes: each in proper order.

The Glorious Mysteries - the whole arc from the tomb to the crown. Tonight they trace the path Mary walked before us. Pray them in gratitude for the woman who went before, and as hope for where you are going.

• In gratitude for the woman who believed and was taken up - for the proof she provides that the sequence Paul describes is already in motion, we pray to the Lord.
• For those for whom believing what has been spoken has become hard - that the feast would reach them as evidence, not only as doctrine, we pray to the Lord.
• As Our Lady's Thirty Days begins, for Mary's intercession across this whole season - for the households that will pray the Rosary tonight and every night until September 15, we pray to the Lord.

Pray the Magnificat tonight - Mary's song at the Visitation. Say it slowly, as the prayer of someone who believes what God has said before the evidence arrives. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. This is what the believing that was taken up sounds like.