The Assumption - She Will Crush the serpent's Head.

On August 15th, we have a great Marian feast in the Church's calender, The Assumption of Our Lady.

"A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown".

The first reading for the Mass on this day is from the Apocalypse. It strikes me for it's relevance for the pro-life cause. It describes a vision of a woman who is "pregnant and in labour and crying aloud with the pangs of childbirth", and the dragon who tries to eat the male child as soon as the woman gives birth.

The devil, the 'father of lies', hates all of God's creation, and attempts to destroy God's plan of creation, by attacking primarily the woman, and "the fruit of her womb". The sanctity of human life from the moment of conception is so under attack today through the evils of abortion and contraception. Many people today are blind to these evils. We must not lose hope, but trust in God's infinite mercy. God will destroy the lies surrounding abortion and contraception, through his Beloved Mother, the Virgin Mary. She is the new Eve, who "will crush the serpent's head", and who promised to the children at Fatima that "Her Immaculate Heart would triumph".

God has already won the Victory through His death on the cross and His defeat of death through His Resurrection. Let's take great courage from this reading, that God will destroy death forever through His Mother, and abortion and contraception will disappear from the world, because Our Lady will intercede and prevent the devil from causing anymore harm to God's children.

I invite you to entrust yourselves totally to Our Lord through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that we can be instruments for God's light and love to shine through us, enabling God to work miracles and replace our culture of death will a culture of Life.

James Coulborn