Meditation: The Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady: Homage and Thanksgiving: The Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady

The Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady

Homage and Thanksgiving

BEFORE the Blessed Virgin Mary leaves this earth to enter heaven, let us fulfil our final obligations to her.

The first duty is to prostrate ourselves at her feet, in the name of the whole human race, asking the angels and the saints to prostrate themselves with us to salute and honor her in all the states and mysteries of her life; to beg her pardon for the inadequate honor we have rendered during the course of the year, and for the little fruit we have gathered from her shining example. We must offer her, in place of our ingratitude and negligence, all the honor and all the praise accorded to her by the choirs of angels and by the vast company of saints in heaven and on earth.

The second duty is to give our Lady thanks from ourselves and from all men, begging also all the citizens of heaven to bless and thank her with us, for all that she thought, said, did and suffered i n this world to cooperate with her Divine Son in the salvation of mankind.

Reparation

Our third duty is to implore her pardon in the name of the whole world, for the countless injuries and offenses that she has received, and for all the pain, sorrow and anguish she has borne on account of our sins, on our behalf offering her in satisfaction and reparation the Adorable Heart of her Divine Son, together with all the service,

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praise and honor which have been and will ever be tendered to her by the whole Church, Triumphant and Militant. We must also offer her ourselves to do and suffer anything she pleases, affirming that we wish to do all that is possible to us to serve and honor her throughout our lifetime, and to cause her to be served and honored by everyone else.

Act of Oblation to Mary

The fourth duty is to present her with a gift, before she leaves the earth to go to heaven, as she is our sovereign Lady and our Queen. What gift shall we offer her? What can we give her when everything is already hers? It is true that all creation belongs to her, but it is, nevertheless, very pleasing to her to receive from us what is already hers, provided we offer our gift with the same affection with which we would make our offering if we could give our Queen something that is not already hers. Let us give her our hearts. Our Lady wants most of all the gift of each human heart that she may give it to her Divine Son. Let us each give his heart to her entirely and irrevocably, beseeching her to destroy anything in it displeasing to her, to detach it completely from all creatures and to unite it closely to her own most admirable Heart in order to enrapture our hearts and bear them upward with her own into highest heaven.

Ejaculatory prayer:

"We offer thee our hearts." Tibi cor nostrum offerimus.

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