When Meseret Defar won the gold medal in the 5000m race at the 2012 Olympic Games, she pulled out of her jersey an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary holdingthe baby Jesus.

I am reminded that when we cross our own finish  lines from this life into the next, I hope that we will have the Blessed Mother with us on the journey. I saw this prayer at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and jotted it down so I could think of it often.

There is no hound as fleet of foot,

nor young soul so quick to win the race,

nor horse to finish the course,

as the Mother of God to the death bed of one who needs her intercession.

Happy Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary!