Mary, who is a human creature, like one of us, reaches eternity in body and soul. we invoke her as the ‘Gate of Heaven’. There she awaits us, just as a mother waits for her children to come home. We are like pilgrims on our way home to Heaven. Seeing that in paradise, together with Christ, the New Adam, there is also Mary, the new Eve, who gives us comfort and hope in our pilgrimage here on earth. Today we reminded that we need to thank and praise God for the good things that God has done in our life just as the Virgin Mary did in the Magnificat, which became the source of her joy. In Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, we celebrate an infinitely greater conquest than the giant step for mankind when man first set foot on the moon. When the lowly Virgin of Nazareth set foot in paradise, body and spirit, it was the huge leap forward for humanity. This, gives us the hope that we are precious, destined to rise again. God does not allow our bodies to vanish into nothing. The feast of the assumption of our Blessed Mother retells that with God, nothing is lost! Mary’s lowliness magnifies God’s goodness The Magnificat is Mary's advice to us, in it she sings: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’. Mary glorifies the Lord: not problems, which she did not lack at the time, she does not allow herself to be overwhelmed by difficulties and absorbed by fears. Rather, she puts God as the first greatness of life, which becomes the source of her Magnificat. Her joy is born not from the absence of problems, which comes sooner or later, but from God’s presence, because He is great and he looks on the lowly ones. We are the weakness of God’s love. By her proclamation of the greatness of the Lord, she shows us that if we want our life to be happy, God must be placed in the first place, because He alone is great. Often, we get lost in the pettiness of life, chasing after things of little importance, like prejudices, grudges, rivalries, envy, and superfluous material goods. Mary, on the other hand, invites us to look upward at the great things the Lord has accomplished in her and in each of us. Mary acknowledges that she is small and exalts the “great things” that the Lord has done for her. She is grateful for the gift of life, she is a virgin yet she becomes pregnant, and Elizabeth, too, who was elderly, is expecting a child. The life of Mary teaches us that Lord works wonders with those who are lowly, who give ample space for God in their life. God works through those who do not believe themselves great but who give great space to God in life. He enlarges His mercy in those who trust in Him, and raises up the humble. Mary praises God for this. Let us ask Our Lady, the Gate of Heaven, for the grace to begin each day by raising our gaze to Heaven, to God, and to say to Him: 'Thank you!'