A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
One just never knows who one will run into in Mecosta! At the annual tea at the Village Church in Mecosta yesterday evening, I shared a cup with none other than Mr. Benjamin Franklin. His real-life daughter, pictured with us here, is the proprietor of Hearthside Teas and Goods in Midland, Michigan. She was the perfect candidate to give the gathering a presentation on the Boston Tea Party and colonial America's serious tea habit.
Liturgical: Readings for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
"And Mary said:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation."
Bishop Barron's reflections today.
Sanctoral: Catholicculture.org's page on today's feast and saints, as well as their page dedicated to the Assumption.
From early centuries the Feast of the Assumption was a day of great religious processions. This popular custom seems to have started with the ancient Roman practice, which Pope Sergius I (701) inaugurated, of having liturgical prayer processions (litaniae) on the major feasts of Mary. In many places of central Europe, also in Spain, France, Italy, and South America, such processions are held. In Austria the faithful, led by the priest, walk through the fields and meadows imploring God's blessing upon the harvest with prayer and hymns.
In France, where Mary under the title of her assumption is the primary patron of the country, her statue is carried in solemn procession through the cities and towns on August 15, with great splendor and pageantry, while church bells peal and the faithful sing hymns in Mary's honor.
The Italian people, too, are fond of solemn processions on August 15, a custom also practiced among the Italian-Americans in the United States. In the rural sections outside Rome the so-called "Bowing Procession" (L'Inchinata) is held, the statue of Mary being carried through the town (symbolizing her journey to Heaven). Under a gaily decorated arch of branches and flowers (representing the gate of Heaven) it is met by a statue of Christ. Both images are inclined toward each other three times as though they were solemnly bowing. Then "Christ" conducts his "mother" back to the parish church (symbolizing her entrance into eternal glory), where the ceremony is concluded with a service of solemn benediction.
In Sardinia the procession is called Candelieri because they carry seven immense candlesticks, each supporting a torch of a hundred pounds of wax. The procession goes to the church of the Assumption, where the candles are placed beside Mary's shrine. The origin of the Candelieri dates back to the year 1580, when a deadly epidemic suddenly stopped on August 15 after the town had vowed to honor Mary by offering these candles every year.
FOLKLORE — In pre-Christian times the season from the middle of August to the middle of September was observed as a period of rejoicing and thanksgiving for the successful harvest of grains. Many symbolic rites were aimed toward assuring man of prosperous weather for the reaping of the fall fruits and for winter planting. Some elements of these ancient cults are now connected with the feast and season of the Assumption. All through the Middle Ages the days from August 15 to September 15 were called "Our Lady's Thirty Days" (Frauendreissiger) in the German-speaking sections of Europe. Many Assumption shrines even today show Mary clothed in a robe covered with ears of grain. These images (Maria im Gerteidekleid, Our Lady of Grains) are favored goals of pilgrimages during August.
Popular legends ascribe a character of blessing and goodness to Our Lady's Thirty Days. Both animals and plants are said to lose their harmful traits. Poisonous snakes do not strike, poison plants are harmless, wild animals refrain from attacking humans. All food produced during this period is especially wholesome and good, and will remain fresh much longer than at other times of the year.
An ancient custom in England, Ireland, and sections of the European continent is the traditional bathing in ocean, rivers, and lakes on August 15 ("Our Lady's Health Bathing") to obtain or preserve good health through her intercession on whose great feast all water in nature is considered especially blessed.
Italian: Premuroso (thoughtful / caring / attentive)
Etc.: "Pranzo di Ferragosto" movie ("The Mid-August Lunch") set in Trastevere, Rome
Quote: "Mary is assumed into heaven: small and humble, she is the first to receive the highest glory. She, a human creature, one of us, attains eternity in soul and body. And there she awaits us as a mother waits for her children to come home."
--Pope Francis
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