Today we celebrate the feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, and I can just picture Mary running to embrace her loving son again! How blessed she is! And we come upon that word, blessed, four more times in the reading from Luke’s Gospel today (1:39-56)..

Elizabeth says Mary is “blessed among women” and that the baby in Mary’s womb is “blessed.” She points out also that Mary is “blessed” because she believes in the fulfillment of the Lord’s words to her.

Then Mary acknowledges that she will be called “blessed” by all generations henceforth. The whole room is filled with joy and gratitude for God’s blessings! Can you remember a time you were so joyful?

Let’s look at Mary’s beautiful “Magnificat” and pick out the blessings mentioned in the poetic prayer. Right away, we consider God’s abundant mercy for those who obey and acknowledge Him. We are reminded of God’s strength which he uses to lift up the lowly and to fill the hungry. By his actions, he directs us. He keeps his promises, so He teaches us about faithfulness. We remember the importance of humility and of what it really means to be “rich.” God is a very loving Father and his name is truly holy and should be revered as “holy.”

We can almost feel the leaping of John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb. Mary’s spirit, she says, is rejoicing. Perhaps we can remember when we have felt our spirits rejoicing. We know we have been blessed over and over. We can prayerfully savor those blessings and share our joyful gratitude without necessarily writing such lovely poetry. It is a good idea, though, to acknowledge God’s goodness and generosity. While not bragging to others, we certainly can share how blessed we are and point out others’ blessings as well. It is so easy to complain. How much better to proclaim the greatness of the Lord! (v. 46)

Let us add our own personal memories in the following prayer of thanks:

Dear Loving Father, I trust in your unending mercy. Forgive me for (       )
and for times I have wavered in my faithfulness.
Thank you for giving me hope.

Lord of Strength, I trust you will lead me to new blessings, as you show me how

   to help (       ) and others who may need assistance.

Ever-present Lord, show me how to keep loving promises to (       ) and others.
Give me perseverance and belief in the talents you have given me.

Lord, give me gentle reminders to be humble and to be aware of what is truly

valuable and important, especially in the areas of (       ).

You know me and I am so glad You do!

Your name is holy. Thank you for your beautiful name. May I use your name only in a loving way.

Sincerely,

Your oh so blessed follower,

Amen.  

The other evening I saw a local news story about a tractor-trailer that collided with a train. There are photos of the badly damaged truck. Maybe it was too early to report all the details of the incident, but I was waiting to hear about the condition of the truck driver. I never did. That was an important detail about the story, but it was not in the report.

We can learn a lot from details. In the gospel reading in the liturgy today, the detail about Jesus having heard about the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, reminds us of the humanity of our Savior. He withdrew by himself, to be alone, probably to grieve, but the crowd of followers wanted his attention. How generous he was to be solicitous of them! His grief and his solitude did not come first.

We read another detail—that Jesus unselfishly reached out to the sick and healed them. He also paid attention to what time of day it was and was concerned about the hunger of the crowd. Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish, but we read the detail that he said a blessing first. Does that remind us to give thanks for our food, or do we save grace before meals for special family gatherings?

One more detail that is important is that the disciples picked up the leftovers after the crowd was satisfied. Do we waste food? Do we get careless about leftovers or too busy to plan well? Do we consider donating to our local food pantries or organizations that help to feed impoverished people? It is so easy to read or hear again about Jesus feeding the multitude and miss some of the subtle messages.

In order to notice and get the benefit of details, we have to try to be fully aware of what we hear or read. That is difficult sometimes, because we are often distracted or just too busy. In today’s world, it is hard to be in the moment and our best selves. I doubt we will have five thousand people to worry about at once!

Let us pray:

     Jesus, help us to be aware of the needs of the people we encounter and give

     us generous hearts. Make us aware of the details that suggest opportunities to

     spread your healing compassion. Send Your Holy Spirit to enlighten our busy

     minds so that we can be more like you. May we use our giftedness to exemplify

     grateful servitude and gentle love. We ask all this in your precious name. Amen.

Recently, a friend of mine gleefully shared that her Christmas shopping was done already, and she has even wrapped all the gifts. Have you ever thought about why we wrap all those presents? Wouldn’t it still be a surprise if we just said, “Here, I bought this for you because I care?” There is something to be said for the experience of wrapping, I guess; we humans seem to enjoy the anticipation, and the fancier the better. Besides, retailers make more money by selling us the fancy wrapping paper. 

One year, I decided to decorate the outside of my wrapped packages with designs made with ribbon—that is, spelling out the recipient’s name with ribbon, making the bows the flower-blossom tops of ribbon stems on the package front. It was fun for me, but quite time-consuming, and all to be ripped apart in the speedy opening of the gifts. 

I suggest to you today that we each have certain personal gifts we should unwrap during this Advent season. Let’s talk about a few of them. We are blessed to have the gift of faith in God; that we all know and are very thankful. How about the gift of gab? Some of us are easy conversationalists. It might be a good idea to strike up a cheerful conversation with a person doing a repetitive, mundane job during this busy season, just to put a smile on his or her face. It could even be a two-word opener, like: “Nice tie!” or “Lovely blouse!” I saw a store clerk the other day and remarked, “Pretty eyelashes!” She was pleasantly surprised that I had noticed. 

We could phone someone who is stuck at home during this pandemic and just share some kind thoughts or listen to that person’ s news. We might unwrap our gift of a sense of humor and share a few corny jokes or humorous anecdotes.