August 15, 2026 // Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Psalm: Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16

Reflect on the Word //

My longtime-favorite statue sits in a lovely stone chapel in West Point, NY. 

It’s of our Lady, draped head to toe in glorious gold, an intricate golden crown resting regally atop her head. She cradles a delicate gold scepter in her right hand and the Child Jesus in her left, dainty gold slippers on her feet. Lavish as it may sound, this statue is not ostentatious or overdone. It’s elegant and graceful enough to make the heart ache with both longing and satisfaction. 

Perhaps this is why today’s Psalm is one of my favorites: “The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold” (Psalm 45:10). I distinctly know and love this Queen in all her beauty, tenderness, and purity. Perhaps it’s also why I’ve long been drawn to gold: gold jewelry, gold accents throughout my home, the stunning golden tabernacle at my parish. I’ve spent hours gazing upon it, and I’m deeply struck whenever I reflect on the truth that traditionally, tabernacles are created to be even more beautiful inside than out. 

This began with the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant—covered in pure hammered gold—to house the presence of God, and was powerfully fulfilled in the New Testament through our Lady, the New Ark of the Covenant, created to carry the incarnate presence of Jesus to us. Her outward beauty, reflected in my favorite statue and Psalm, is but the dimmest glimpse of her infinite inner beauty and purity as the most glorious living tabernacle to ever exist. This purity, the sole purpose of which was to honor our Savior, made her too beautiful to ever see corruption; at the end of her earthly life God assumed (brought) her, body and soul, into heaven. 

We, too, are temples of the Lord; living tabernacles for His Majesty. 

We, too, are invited to embrace this transcendent beauty of our Lady. One that understands external beauty as a gift to honor our Creator, and one that strives to become more beautiful inside than out: through the help of grace, adorning ourselves with ever greater virtue and love, allowing ourselves to become eternally stunning, everlasting tabernacles for Almighty God. 

Relate to the Lord // Look upon a favorite image or statue of our Lady today. Contemplate her beauty.