.
Near the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Amen.
Our Lady, Ark of the Covenant.
Amen.
Saint Joseph.
Amen.
Saint Scholastica.
Amen.
Our patron saints and guardian angels.
Amen.
Near the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Today in the first reading, we hear about Solomon
after building this glorious temple
that he was assigned by God.
His father was not, King David was not permitted
to build it, but Solomon was going to be given the task
to build this glorious dwelling place for the Lord.
But the Temple, even though it was a beautiful
and glorious building did not yet have the presence
of God there until the Ark of the Covenant was brought there.
And that's why with great ceremony, they enthroned,
you might say, the Ark of the Covenant
and the Holy of Holies.
And now God came in his dwelling, truly the Temple
became the dwelling place of the Lord.
So you could say that the Ark of the Covenant was the dwelling,
dwelling place of the Lord, even before the temple. And that's why the Ark of the Covenant
was such a sacred relic, you might say, for the Jews, because it was, as God told them,
he would dwell there. He would dwell above the mercy seat that was on top of this Ark,
this sacred vessel that they were told to construct through Moses. So, you could say
in this first reading, we have a, since the Ark is a type of Our Lady, which was the true
dwelling place of the Lord, where God came and made his presence among men, that in this
first reading from the Old Testament, we have the combination of Lot,
and Hyperdulia. For the Ark was also considered to be, not just the fact that it represented
the dwelling divine presence among them, but God even exacted a certain reverence for the
Ark. Because remember, one time they went to move the Ark, and it started to kind of
shake. It was going to, it seemed to be losing, it was becoming unsteady. And one of the priests
said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark.
And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark.
And the priest reached out to steady it, and he was struck dead, because God did not want, you know,
this sacred vessel to be profaned. And it was a very startling thing to David when this happened,
when the priest was struck dead for just touching the Ark, we might say without permission or
whatever, that he said, I don't think we should proceed any further. And that's when he had
the Ark taken to the Ark. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well,
I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well,
I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And he said, well,
he did that. And he said, well, I'm going to move the Ark. And it was a very significant
attack, a very major defeat, some very severe defeats. And David was the first priest that
this vessel was considered to be held in high regard.
And we know that it did.
When they took the Ark with them into battle,
they were successful only one time when,
because the Jews were not faithful to God,
the Ark was taken by their enemies
and then their enemies suffered so terribly
while the Ark was with them that they gave it back.
It's probably the first time
that anybody ever surrendered booty given
or taken in battle back to their enemy
that they had won in the battle over
because they didn't want it.
It was causing them so many terrible afflictions and deaths
because they were not the chosen people.
They were not the ones who should have this vessel with them.
So in the Old Testament,
there was a certain already typology,
certain representation,
of the fact that since the Ark of the Covenant
was a type of Our Lady,
we see already symbolized in typology,
veneration of Our Lady and the hyperdulia
being given to the Ark as the dwelling place of the Lord
and the mighty deeds that were worked for the Jews
because of the Ark and that they really
held it in great reverence
because it was for them, God's dwelling among them.
And even more so, we should have devotion to Our Lady
because she does represent that God did come
and dwell among us because he had a human mother.
A mother who said to yes to being the mother of God.
And so we hold her in high esteem.
She truly did contribute to God's being.
being among men and that she gave him a human nature that he could
speak and work miracles
by touching people. These are all
important reasons why Our Lady is held in high esteem
by the faithful and should be.
In the Gospel today we see where
another sign of sacramentals being used where
the people knew that they didn't have to even
ask Our Lord to speak to them or touch
them. All they had to do was touch the tassel of his cloak
and they would be cured. God didn't
require them to
do any more than that. Just to manifest enough faith to know that all we have to do is
just touch his garment and we will be given
the healing that we desire.
This is something that
you know they weren't, they didn't see power in that
tassel or that garment but they knew that it was something that was
associated with God.
It was his garment, his tassel
that he had, that they just showed enough
love and faith to touch it and touch him in one sense
that they would receive the blessing that he had given them.
That's what we see in the Gospel today.
That's what we see in the Gospel today.
That's what we see in the Gospel today.
that they were looking for.
This also
leads us to Saint Scholastica who we celebrate today,
the great virgin
of the church,
the sister of Saint Benedict.
You might say not only were they brothers and sister
in the flesh but even more so in the Lord.
For they would
gather once a year
and to speak about spiritual things late into the night
and it talks about in the
writings in the office of
the church today that they were up late one night speaking and it got too late and Saint Benedict
said to his sister it's time for us to go we have to we have to stop and she begged him to
to stay and he said no no sister we have to go and so she put her head bowed her head on the table
with with her hands folded and just remained silent all of a sudden great peals of thunder
and lightning and a downpour of rain came and Saint Benedict said to his sister sister what
have you done and she said well I asked you and you would not listen so I asked God and he did
listen you can see the power of someone who the power of prayer of someone who loves God
someone who you might
say the reason why God listened to her is because she listened to God she did the will of God and if
we want God to hear our prayers then the best way that we can might say bring God bring God's
attention to our prayers is that we're doing his will that we're attentive to doing everything that
he asks of us and if we have that fidelity to his will then we're doing the will of God and if we
do that then our prayers will be very powerful he will hear us it says that God governs the world
and prayer governs God because prayer from someone who is truly attentive to doing his will God will
be attentive to them look at our lady who was the most perfect disciple of our Lord and the
handmaid of the Lord who showed forth that perfect fidelity so therefore her prayer would not require
Him to practice partners etc. and so we need to think about how can God do so no matter how foul a desire to
prayers are most powerful before God. And those who like, who follow Our Lady in that example,
like Saint Scholastica, their prayers also are very powerful before the Lord because
they love him so much that they're attentive to everything that he asks of them.
So if we look at our prayer life and we look at not only as individuals, but as a church,
to the degree that we're faithful to what God is asking of us, to the degree that we're faithful
to all that he requires, you know, fulfilling the Ten Commandments, fulfilling all that the church
teaches, if we are attentive to that, and we're attentive, of course, mainly to fulfilling the
law of love that God has asked, that we love him with our whole hearts, our whole soul, our whole
strength.
And our neighbors, ourselves, then our prayer will be heard.
And that's not just as individuals, but maybe local churches, to the degree that the church
in the United States is attentive to fulfilling and doing God's will and proclaiming the truth
and being faithful to that, whether it be bishops, priests, the lay people, then our
prayers will be much more pleasing to God because they'll say, yes, they are.
They are.
They are listening to me.
They are doing my will.
Therefore, I will bless them and I will give them what they ask.
To the degree that we do that, then our prayers will be most powerful and effective.
So when we look at our prayer life, the thing we want to look at is seeing, is am I doing what God
asks of me?
If I want him to do something for me, I have to be attentive to fulfilling his will.
And when we do that,
it says that the prayer of a just man is most powerful before the Lord.
And we see that even in such a little thing as St. Scholastica today in the readings,
you know, she just wanted to talk longer about spiritual things to her brother.
And God even listened to that little, you might say, insignificant among all the things
that God has to, prayers that he has to answer every day, that he even,
that was,
that was attentive to that.
And it is truly shows the great kindness, the great love of God for us, that he listens to even
the littlest things that we ask of him, because they are all important to him, because we are
truly, as he says, the apple of his eye, that he loves us so much that he will even hear the least
request that we make of him.
If we are truly doing his will and serving him.
As we ought, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.