Our Lady’s participation in the act of redemption gave her a unique role in the salvation of the human race. Although there has been a recent attempt to obscure or reduce this fact, that does not take away from the longstanding understanding that she is the queen of heaven. She has been divinely appointed to disperse the graces that can lead us to eternal beatitude.

Pride has plagued mankind from the advent of our creation. So often the devil invites us to seek after achievements that are an affront to Our Lord. In a time long past, our race thought they could attain to the heights of heaven by their own artifice. This sinful pride was met with the dispersion of tongues. Yet God, in His infinite mercy, bequeathed His Apostles with the known languages of man, so that those sheep once lost due their own sinfulness may find a way back to Him for everlasting life.

Following Our Lord’s Ascension, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, when the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost enters into the world to guide the Church and the faithful. Although the Holy Ghost did not become incarnate like God the Son, He appears throughout history in many forms. One of those forms is fire. For fire provides illumination, warms our otherwise cold hearts, and purifies us. The fire of the Holy Ghost is not provided to merely dispense pain. It is offered to consume our faults and transform us by God’s immeasurable grace.

The feast of Our Lord’s Ascension celebrates one of the greatest miracles in human history while also calling attention to the joy the Apostles felt when Jesus entered heaven. By entering heaven, Our Lord sets the path that we, too, must follow to be with Him for eternity. Christ is preparing a place for all of us in heaven, so long as we are willing to follow Him. Moreover, we know that after His Resurrection, Christ’s body was glorified. And through this glorification, the only natural place for Him to be is not on this earth, but in heaven until his glorious Second Coming. 

In this life, we keep our feet on earth, but keep our minds and hearts in heaven. By keeping our feet on earth, we mean that we must be realistic and confront the world as we find it. We must accept our reality, but we must not be overcome by it, particularly when confronted with everything from private desolations to the public crises in the Church and society writ large. However, the whole of reality is not just what we face on earth; it includes the supernatural realm and promise of heaven for those who part this life in God’s good grace. We must see the trials of this life as fleeting and affix our hearts and minds ever on the promise of eternal life with Our Lord.

What is heaven? It is being with God for all eternity. And though God is everywhere, heaven is not everywhere, for we cannot see Him in this life nor detect Him with our senses. Because we cannot perceive Our Lord, we need the light of faith to know that He is there always.

We often pray for things and God does not answer them in the way we desire. Why is that? Prayer is not a magic formula; it is a petition to God. However, the efficacy of our prayers depends on the disposition of our souls. Prayer must be a priority in our lives rather than a mere afterthought. This is distressing, since not only our salvation, but the salvation of others depends on prayer. Everything that is important in the universe depends on prayer. With this in mind, we must reflect on the place of prayer in our lives and whether we place it before the frivolities of this world.

St. James informs us in his epistle that faith without works is dead. One of the many works we can perform to demonstrate our faith is to use our tongues, that is, our speech in a Christlike manner. This is immensely challenging given how easy it is to sin with the tongue and how difficult it is to repair the damage caused by that sin. If one uses their tongue to detract or deride another, how does one make those who hear such derision “un-hear” it? This and numerous other sins of the tongue are made worse in the digital age where false or hurtful statements are issued with ease, and there is often no sense how many people have heard or seen them. This is why we must be particularly vigilant in moderating our speech lest we undermine our faith.

Our Father in heaven begets the human race. While we know that God has made all things, the act of begetting is distinct. The distinction lies in the fact that when something or someone is begotten, they are of the same nature as the begetter. Humans beget other humans; seals beget other seals. And so when we hear words in Scripture about Our Lord begetting us, it means much more than Him creating us: it means that we are made children of God. Though we are not divine, through both baptism and accepting the truth of Who God Is, we are given to share in the divine nature.