" Our Queen went ahead of us "

The glorious Virgin ascending to heaven undoubtedly added abundantly to the joy of those above.

Indeed, a simple word of greeting from her made even an unborn child leap with joy! If the soul of an unborn child melted with love as soon as Mary spoke, can we imagine the joy of heaven's citizens when they heard her voice, saw her face and tasted the happiness of her presence?

And for us, my very dear ones, what an occasion for celebration in this Assumption of the Virgin, what a source of joy, what a cause for rejoicing! Through Mary's presence, the whole universe is illuminated, and the heavenly homeland itself now shines even more brightly, irradiated as it is by the radiance of this virginal lamp. And so it is with good reason that thanksgiving and praise resound up there.

As for us, it seems that we should be groaning rather than applauding. Is it not logical that the extent to which heaven rejoices in Mary's presence should be the very extent to which our lower world should mourn her absence? No, we must stop complaining! For us too, this world is not our homeland (...).

Our Queen has gone ahead of us! She took the lead, and the welcome she received was so glorious that the young pages can confidently follow their lady and cry out to her: "Lead us by your footsteps; we will run in the fragrance of your perfumes" (Ct 1: 4).

She is an advocate that our caravan sends ahead; an advocare who, as mother of the judge and mother of mercy, will handle the matter of our salvation with insistence and success. It is a precious gift that today our earth has sent to heaven, so that, giving and receiving, a happy alliance of friendship now unites the human with the divine, earth with heaven, abysses with peaks.

Saint Bernard

Sermon 1 on the Assumption