Our Community Prayer for August
The Assumption of Mary and our renewed hope in Christ’s promise of eternal life
“The Assumption”, by Laurent de la Hyre (1653-55)
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Last month I offered a post on Mary Magdalene. She has always been a saint close to my heart, as her story was so human. An outcast because of the demons she suffered, a transformational encounter with Christ, and then a lifetime of glorifying the Lord by the way she lived her life as one of his disciples.
She was also a companion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through those difficult moments of suffering and grief through the passion and death of Jesus, her son.
Mother Mary is, of course, the greatest of the saints, and this is evident by the feast day we celebrate this month on August 15th – The Assumption of Mary. This is a solemnity, which is the highest order of feast day in the Church, and we will post more on this celebration on that day.
A Celebration of Hope
One of the most interesting facts about this special day in the Church calendar is that it is a relatively recent teaching – if you consider 1950 recent.
Another unique aspect of the day is that the Assumption is a dogma of the Church, formally proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus on November 1st, 1950, with these words:
We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.— Munificentissimus Deus, 44
When we were considering the “Community Prayer” for the Daily TV Masses during August, we decided to ask Mary, as we celebrate her Assumption into heaven, for her intercession with the following prayer:
“We pray this month that Mary’s Assumption renews our hope of one day sharing eternal life with her and her Son.”
The Assumption, above all, is a celebration of hope – more than hope, perhaps a celebration that the promise made to us in baptism—eternal life—is real, and in Mary we see one who has been reunited with Christ in heaven.
Join us for the Daily TV Mass in August and renew your trust in that promise made to us that one day we will join Jesus, who has prepared a room for us in his Father’s house.
Deacon Mike Walsh serves the Archdiocese of Toronto, leads the Daily TV Mass ministry, and writes about faith, service, hope, and discipleship.
Thank you very much for preparing us for this great feast, Deacon. Indeed: May the sacred festival of this day, on which the holy Mother of God endured temporal death, help us towards salvation. For the bonds of death could not detain her who bore our Lord, your Son incarnate: Who lives and reigns...(1967 English translation of the Dominican Breviary).
Thank you