August 15

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Reflection by Olaf Valderrábano, on behalf of Fr. Jack Shrum

I seize the blessing of sharing with all of you this reflection. As I write, we are in the middle of our Vacation Bible School, with almost 200 children and youth and adult volunteers. Making VBS a week of learning, faith sharing, and joy implies a lot of work. However it is a work that gives us more joy.

We rejoice especially when a grandma shares with us that her kindergarten age grandchild got home last Monday, opened the Bible and started sharing the stories he learned at VBS, especially that "even when you are left out, Jesus loves you!"

During VBS we learned five crucial points for our life:

• Even when you are left out, Jesus loves you!
• Even though you are different, Jesus loves you!
• Even when you don't understand, Jesus loves you! [Note: this is my favorite one!]
• Even though you do wrong, Jesus loves you!
• Even when you are afraid, Jesus loves you!

Yes, Jesus loves you! What makes VBS a special moment to experience that truth is that we get the opportunity of watching how children already know, experience, and share the truth in unexpected ways for us.

Observing these young children grow in the knowledge and love of God during this week, I wonder if that is how Child Mary experience God's presence. She had a family, grandparents, parents, cousins, and more that tried to live close to God and their religious practices.

I wonder how deep must be the faith of moms and dads that dropped their kids in a hurry because they still need to get to work on time, but know that it is important for their children to experience the closeness of God.

We might think we are so far apart from Our Lady, Our Mother Mary, and we should not even dare to compare ourselves with her. After all, she was filled with The Grace. However, we can also be filled of The Grace, in sharing the Sacraments, in the Eucharist, and in listening to the deep, almost natural faith of our children.

Mary, Our Mother, thank you for leading us on the way to Heaven!