9781644135945

The Light of the World
sponsor of the compact between Him and our soul. The events related in the Gospel today are
repeated continually in the lives of all of us. The Church beholds Mary, the mother of Christ,
hastening into the hill country to bring salvation to the Precursor (to us), and she cries out in
joy: “Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For winter is now past; . . .
the flowers have appeared in our land; . . . the fig tree hath put forth her green figs, the vines in
flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come. . . . Show me thy face,
let thy voice sound in my ear” (Epistle). The Lord can hardly wait until He has reached John
and us to sanctify us. He is eager to cleanse us from our sins and to sanctify us with His grace,
to elevate us to the level of His divine life. He is eager to be the bridegroom of our soul, and to
share His gifts and His grace with us, and to make us the children of God and heirs of His eternal
inheritance. But He will do this only through Mary, only through her who brought Him into
this world, only through her who is a figure of His Church, only through Mary.
Happy are we who hear His voice in the teachings and doctrines of the Church, and blessed are
we if we follow them. “Blessed art thou, that thou hast believed.” We are blessed through Christ,
through the Church. We, too, may well lift our voices each day and exclaim: “Magnificat — My
soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior,” who wishes to
espouse us in love. He will be espoused to us through baptism and Holy Communion. Through
these we shall be united with Him who is our head, and later we shall ascend with Him into
heaven to share His glory and power. “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
All this we have received through Mary, the mediatrix of all grace. How precious she should
be in our sight, this most gracious virgin who bore a Savior for us. All these blessings we receive
through our membership in the Church, through our faith in Christ, through the liturgy of the
Church, through the sacraments and the Holy Sacrifice.
Prayer
Impart to Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of Thy heavenly grace, so that we
for whom the childbearing of the Blessed Virgin was the beginning of salvation, may receive
an increase of peace on this joyful festival of her Visitation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
August 6, The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ
“The exalted King of Glory, come let us adore Him.” With these words the Invitatory of the
Divine Office introduces today’s feast. The Transfiguration of Christ is a feast which celebrates
the exaltation of Christ the Lord. The patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament, represented
by Moses and Elias, give testimony on Tabor and confess Him to be the Messias predicted in
the Old Testament. The voice of the Father is heard from heaven saying, “This is My beloved
Son; . . . hear ye Him” (Gospel). Christ’s transfiguration on Mount Tabor assures us of His
divinity and confirms us in our faith and our hope.
We believe firmly in Jesus, the King of Glory, who will come again with power and glory
to judge the living and the dead. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we
made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ [His second coming
with great power]; but having been made eyewitnesses of His majesty [transfiguration].
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