Ask Mary to strengthen your hope

Today is Wednesday, the day in which we pray the glorious mysteries. Let us meditate on the second glorious mystery, the Annunciation, whose fruit is hope.

As St. Luke and the Book of Acts report, forty days after his Resurrection, our Lord ascended into Heaven. "For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf. " (Heb 9:24). Christ stands constantly before the Face of his Father, not only because he is the Son of God, equal to the Father, but also to exercise this right on our behalf. Indeed, the Ascension is one of the essential mysteries of salvation, in which we are all called to participate. Jesus is in Heaven, at the right hand of his Father, as our representative, pontiff, and mediator. He presents his merits to the Father on our behalf, and unceasingly communicates to our souls, in order to sanctify them, the fruit of all his mysteries: "He lives forever to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:25).

This gives us a great reason for hope. Let us ask Our Lady to strengthen this hope and confidence in knowing that Christ is alive, always interceding for us, and to make us long for Heaven where Christ awaits us and draws us: "If you have been raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; delight in the things which are above" (Col 3:1-2). By the grace of our baptism, may we truly dwell in heaven in spirit!

A Benedictine monk of Fontgombault Abbey