The
Assumption
Fruit Of The Mystery:
Grace Of A Happy Death
The
following meditations are provided to assist you
while praying the Holy Rosary. It is offered in a
format where a question is posed to lead the
meditation and then is followed by an answer below
it. It
may be more helpful to grow in your meditation
skills if you try to contemplate the question while
praying this decade of the Rosary, and view the
possible answer upon completing the prayers for the
Mystery.
The
meditations below offer possible answers to
questions regarding these Mysteries.
Because the Wisdom of God is infinite, there
are limitless insights that one may gain from
meditating repeatedly upon the questions surrounding
these Mysteries.
There are no wrong or right answers when
praying the Holy Rosary in this way.
We are simply seeking to be inspired in our
understanding of who Jesus is and how much He loves
us, as the Holy Spirit gently guides us through
reflective prayer.
For
many reasons it may be difficult to engage our minds
to enter into meditating on the Mysteries at hand.
An alternative option is to simply meditate
upon the meaning of the core prayers of the Holy
Rosary as you are praying them.
You may find these reflections on the Our
Father, the Hail
Mary and the Glory
Be prayers to be helpful during these times.
The Grace
of a Happy Death
1.
How great is your love for Mary?
How much do you believe the truth that she
loves you as if you were her only child?
When
we truly believe that Mary was Assumed into Heaven
and accept Mary as our most loving and benevolent
Mother, we can trust perfectly that she will be
beside our bed at the hour of our death with tender
love and perfect intercession to obtain Heaven for
us. Can
there be any happier death?
2.
How did Mary experience the grace of a happy
death?
What
joy and happiness was there in death for Mary.
Finally, she would be with her Father,
reunited with her Blessed Son, and consummated
eternally to her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, in the
perfect union of the bridal celebration of eternity.
3.
What was Mary’s life like after the death of
her Son?
As Jesus conquered satan by His Precious Blood
and the power of the Cross, the enemy’s next
attack would be on the Blessed Mother.
As the Mother of the Son of God, and the
source and pillar of prudence, strength, and wisdom
for her children who were forming the foundation of
the Church for the ages to come, Mary would be a
primary target of assault.
Aside from living the tortures of her Son’s
Passion and death over and over again in her mind,
what trials and burdens of helping direct and form
the early Church must our Mother of the Sorrowful
Heart had to bear?
How happy must that day have been when she
was welcomed home by her Heavenly Father, her Son,
and her spouse the Holy Spirit.
4. How is the Assumption related to the
Beatitudes?
The Beatitudes speak of a heavenly vision, which
begins to come to fruition on earth as we surrender
ourselves into a life of selfless love.
This is true of the fruit of this Mystery,
when we consider the grace of a happy death to refer
to our goal on earth as well.
In both cases, the process of dying to our
selfish will and desires, enables us to be enlivened
by God’s infinitely superior will for us to know
His love. This
mourning is turned into joy as we turn to our
Heavenly Mother to help us to die to ourselves, and
to live alone to follow Jesus in virtue as she once
did.
5.
How does the Assumption help us personally to
die a happy death?
Our
Blessed Mother has been Assumed into Heaven by God,
and remains intimately united with the Sacred Heart
of her Son. She
invites all of her children to take refuge in her
Immaculate Heart and dwell in paradise with her
beside her Son.
We accept this invitation by remaining
completely abandoned to the Divine Will, which is
the essence of the Immaculate Heart.
It is in this way that we reject the
temptations of the world, and remain humbly obedient
to God’s plan for our lives.
His plan is none other than to make choices
that draw us into a close relationship with Him now,
that we might reign in the freedom of His love for
all eternity. As
we look forward to this, truly we come to embrace
death with a joyful heart.
The
Assumption
1.
What’s the difference between Ascension and
Assumption?
Ascension
indicates that Jesus was raised to Heaven by His own
power. Whereas
Assumption indicates that Mary was raised to Heaven
by the power of God.
These differences assert the Catholic belief
that Mary’s honor resides in the power of God
alone.
2. Why was Mary Assumed into Heaven?
Mary
is known as the Immaculate Conception because she
was conceived in her mother’s womb without the
stain of original sin.
Her body and soul remained wholly pure
throughout her life, as she never committed a single
sin. It
is fitting then, that the one who’s beginning was
the Immaculate Conception, should be the first to be
Assumed into Heaven to reign beside her Son with an
incorrupt body and soul.
3.
Why does Mary die if she was not subject to sin?
Tradition
holds that Mary chose death to be in conformity with
her Son, who willingly experienced suffering and
death for mankind.
Mary’s Assumption is a great sign of the
impact Jesus had on death.
Because Jesus conquers sin, death no longer
has dominion over human life.
Jesus makes all things new, including death,
which would now become a permanent means of leaving
our sins behind with our earthly bodies.
Because the Blessed Virgin Mary never saw the
corruption of sin, her body and soul were assumed
into Heaven after her death.
As the first disciple of Christ to be raised
to Heaven with their body, Our Blessed Mother
remains a sign of the glory which awaits all
Christian believers.
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