“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.  From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name” (Lk 1:46-49).

I need Mary!

I have tendency to look at my life and my accomplishments and to exclaim: What a great job you’ve done! Like many Americans I validate my life by pointing to achievement.  This validation leads to self-affirmation and often to boastfulness and pride.

And this tendency is not bad as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. Influenced by American secularism and individualism, I tend to view my existence as independent from God. My tendency is to ignore God’s role and to see myself as a self-actualizing individual and to put myself -- not God -- at the center of the universe. And I become self-inflated -- and sadly am tempted to denigrate those I deem less successful.

Yes, influenced by an ever more dominant secular culture, I am tempted to ignore God’s role in my life. I ignore the God who knits me together in my mother’s womb, who gives me my talents, who sustains me in existence, and who showers me with the Holy Spirit enabling me to actualize these talents!

Then I look at Mary! This is Mary whom God blessed above all other human beings --  whom God chose to be at the center of salvation history and  who was faithful to Jesus  from Bethlehem to Calvary.

This is Mary who realized that the source of her blessings was the Almighty and not herself and whose blessings made her not proud but humble and grateful.

On this Feast of the Assumption of Mary, I pray for Mary’s intercession that I may become more acutely aware of the source of all my blessings and may join her in her humility, praise and gratitude to our God: “The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.”

I need Mary!