Vessel & Altar

"Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." - Luke 1:45

Elizabeth praises the believing before she praises anything else - the believing that received the word and held it, not the womb or the willingness or the holiness. That is what she names when Mary walks through the door.

The Magnificat is what that believing sounds like when it is given a voice. Not a quiet interior assent. A proclamation: my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. He has cast down the mighty and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry. He has remembered his mercy. Mary is singing about what God has already decided to do, before it has happened, because she has staked her whole life on his word being true.

She went to Elizabeth in haste. The believing produced motion - not toward her own situation but toward someone who needed her.

The Assumption says the believing that was held the whole length - through Nazareth, through Calvary, through whatever the years between contained - arrived at its destination. What was spoken was fulfilled. The woman who believed was taken up.

Sister, what has been spoken to you by the Lord that you are still holding - the word received years ago that is still costing something, the yes that has not yet resolved into visible fruit, the believing that happens in the dark? Today is the feast of what that holding becomes.

Name what has been spoken to you that you are still holding. Say Elizabeth's sentence over it: blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. Say it today as a declaration, not a question.

Lord, let me hold what has been spoken until it is fulfilled. Let me be the woman who goes in haste, who sings the Magnificat before the evidence arrives, who carries the word through everything it requires. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Amen.