Pope Francis prays Angelus for Solemnity of the
Assumption
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis reflected on
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at
the Angelus on Tuesday.
The feast of the Assumption, also known as Ferragosto,
is an important religious and civil holiday in Italy, and thousands of faithful
were present in St Peter’s Square to celebrate with the Holy Father.
In his remarks, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel
reading, which relates the meeting of Mary with Elizabeth, and records Mary’s
triumphant song of praise, the Magnificat. “The greatest gift that
Mary brings to Elizabeth,” the Pope said, “is Jesus, who already lives within
her – not in faith and hope, as in so many women in the Old Testament: Jesus
has taken human flesh from the Virgin, for His mission of salvation.”
Elizabeth, the Pope said, had already received the joy of
pregnancy, after having felt for so long the sorrow of not having a baby. Now,
at the arrival of Mary, her joy “overflows and bursts from her heart, because
the invisible but real presence of Jesus fills her senses.” That joy is echoed
by Mary in the Magnificat, a song of praise for God, who accomplished His plan
of salvation through the poor and humble.
God is able to do great things through the humble because,
the Pope said, “humility is like an emptiness that leaves room for
God.” The humble person “is powerful because he is humble, not because he is
strong.” He challenged the faithful to reflect on their own efforts to foster
the virtue of humility.
In the house of Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, the
Pope continued, “the coming of Jesus through Mary creates not only a climate of
joy and fraternal communion, but also a climate of faith that leads to hope, to
prayer, to praise.”
And we too, Pope Francis continued, desire these things for
our homes. “Celebrating Mary Most Holy, Assumed into Heaven,” he said, “we
would like her, once more, to bring to us, to our families, to our communities,
that immense Gift, that unique Grace that we must always seek first and above
all other graces that we have at heart: the grace that is Jesus Christ!”
Mary, the Pope said in conclusion, “is the model of virtue
and of faith. In contemplating her today assumed into heaven, at the final
completion of her earthly journey, we give thanks that she always goes before
us in the pilgrimage of life and of faith.” And, he said, “we ask that she
protect and sustain us; that we might have a strong, joyful, and merciful
faith; that she might help us to be saints, to meet together with her, one day,
in Paradise.”
Following the Angelus, Pope Francis entrusted to Mary,
as Queen of Peace, “the anxieties and sorrows of peoples who, in
many parts of the world, are suffering on account of natural calamities, of
social tensions or of conflicts.” He prayed, “May our heavenly Mother obtain
consolation for all, and a future of serenity and of concord.”
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