NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 15, 2024
SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN (Holy Day of Obligation)
Greetings beloved family. Happy Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother Mary!
On this special feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother Mary, as our children and children all over the world begin the new school year, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for their safety and well-being, especially those beginning the new school year. May God grant them the courage to face new challenges and wisdom to make good choices. We pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and for God’s guidance and protection upon them during this school year and always. We pray for safe travels, to and from school. We also pray for all teachers, staff and parents, and guardians. May the good Lord provide for those in need. And we continue to pray for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world. May God keep us all safe and well. Amen 🙏
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” ~ James 1:5
We continue to pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we pray for the repose of their gentle souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯
PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏
Watch “Holy Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary” | LIVE from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception | August 15, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary” | EWTN | August 15, 2024 |
Watch “Angelus with Pope Francis on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary” | LIVE from the Vatican | August 15, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 15, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | August 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 15, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |
Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |
Today’s Bible Readings: Thursday, August 15, 2024
Reading 1, Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 45:10, 11, 12, 16
Reading 2, First Corinthians 15:20-26
Gospel, Luke 1:39-56
FEAST & SAINTS OF THE DAY: AUGUST 15TH | SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY | MEMORIAL OF SAINT TARCISIUS, MARTYR (PROTECTOR OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST)
Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this special feast day, we also celebrate the Memorial of Saint Tarcisius, Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Tarcisius on this special feast day, we humbly pray for our families and families all over the world, we pray for peace, love, justice and unity in our families and our world. We pray for all Altar Servers and those who serve the Lord, may God grant them His divine grace and mercy. We pray for the poor and needy, for the sick and dying, especially those who are suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏
SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: On this great feast day the Church commemorates the happy departure from mortal life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Her translation into the kingdom of Her Son, where He crowned Her with immortal glory and enthroned Her above all the other Saints and heavenly spirits. The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most important feast days of the year and a Holy Day of Obligation on the official Roman Catholic Church calendar. However, when the feast day falls on a Monday or Saturday, the obligation to attend Mass is dissolved. The Feast of Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, an ancient feast of the Church, celebrated universally by at least the 6th century but we don’t know how it first came to be celebrated. According to tradition, all of the Apostles were present when Our Lady came to the end of her earthly life and peacefully went to be with Christ in Heaven, an event also known as the “Dormition of Mary.” The tomb where her body was laid was found empty, her body being taken up into heaven a short time after she passed into eternal life. The Church’s historic belief that the Virgin Mary is presently in heaven reigning as the Queen of Heaven and Earth, in body and soul, next to her Divine Son, was pronounced as infallible dogma in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. The bodily Assumption of Jesus’ mother into heaven is a foretaste of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time.
On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption. Thus he solemnly proclaimed that the belief whereby the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the close of her earthly life, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, definitively forms part of the deposit of faith, received from the Apostles. To avoid all that is uncertain the Pope did not state either the manner or the circumstances of time and place in which the Assumption took place — only the fact of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, is the matter of the definition. With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God. Today’s feast of the Assumption declares that the end of Mary’s earthly life was really a beginning, the beginning of her powerful intercession in heaven for all of us. Her Assumption is the beginning of an era when all generations would call her blessed, in the words of Mary’s Magnificat. The Assumption completes God’s work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God Himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God’s crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over. Jesus and Mary both passed through the gate of death into heaven. In her own way, Mary was crucified with Jesus. She patiently stayed on earth, after His Ascension, so long as God willed. From her place in heaven she still abides invisibly with us, ever our refuge, our comfort, our hope. Through the Communion of Saints, of which she is the Queen, we share in the joy and glory of her Assumption, to which the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass of August 15 gives us the key. “Let us rejoice in the Lord and celebrate this feast in honor of the Virgin Mary, at whose Assumption the angels rejoice, giving praise to the Son of God.”
HAIL MARY: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.🙏
THE MEMORARE: Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen 🙏
PRAYER: Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen🙏
SAINT TARCISIUS, MARTYR: St. Tarsicius or Tarcisius (d. 3rd to 4th century), known as the a young martyr of the Eucharist, was a martyr of the early Christian church who lived in the 3rd century. He was very holy and died when he was 12 years old. He prayed always and always would pray the Holy Rosary two times a day. The little that is known about him comes from a metrical inscription by Pope Damasus I, who was pope in the second half of the 4th century. St. Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte, a special assistant to the local priests and deacons in his local area within the Roman Empire during the reign of Valerian, one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the “Holy Mysteries” to those in prison. On the way, with the Body of our Lord carefully wrapped and hidden in his tunic, he was stopped by some boys his own age who were not Christians, were pagans but knew him as a playmate and lover of games. He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something. Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and the small gang of pagan boys, anxious to view the Christian “Mysteries,” became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, as he fought to protect Jesus. St. Tarcisius and the Holy Eucharist were saved by a Christian passerby who stepped in, drove off the mob and rescued the young acolyte but by that time, it was too late, and St. Tarcisius died in his rescuer’s arms, a young martyr for Jesus Christ. The mangled body of St. Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs, but the boy died on the way from his injuries. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite.
In the fourth century, Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this “boy-martyr of the Eucharist” and says that, like another St. Stephen, he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob rather than give up the Sacred Body to “raging dogs.” His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola, in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death. St. Tarcisius, one of the patron saints of altar boys, has always been an example of youthful courage and devotion, and his story was one that was told again and again to urge others to like heroism in suffering for their faith. In the Passion of Pope Stephen, written in the sixth century, Tarcisius is said to be an acolyte of the pope himself and, if so, this explains the great veneration in which he was held and the reason why he was chosen for so difficult a mission. St. Tarcisius is the Patron Saint of Acolytes; Altar Servers; First Communicants and his feast day is August 15.
The poem written on the catacombs in Rome by Pope St. Damascus (366-383) commemorating the martyrdom of St. Tarcisius: “When a wicked group of fanatics flung themselves on Tarcisius who was carrying the Eucharist, wanting to profane the Sacrament, the boy preferred to give up his life rather than yield up the Body of Christ to those rabid dogs.”
SAINT TARCISIUS PRAYER: O God, You have graciously called me to serve You upon Your altar. Grant me the graces that I need to serve You faithfully and wholeheartedly. Grant too that while serving You, may I follow the example of St. Tarcisius, who died protecting the Eucharist, and walk the same path that led him to Heaven… Amen🙏 St. Tarcisius, pray for me and for all Altar servers🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ Luke 1:39-56
“The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His Name; He has raised up the lowly”
“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior for He has looked upon 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. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.” Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home”
Today’s Gospel reading details the Blessed Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Today’s Gospel describes a visit that left both the visitor and the one visited greatly blessed. As a result of Mary’s visit Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and because of the way Mary’s visit was received by Elizabeth, Mary herself was filled with the spirit of prayer and praise, the Holy Spirit. Luke describes a visit that was truly life-giving for both women. Elizabeth addresses Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. She recognized that in welcoming Mary she was welcoming the Lord whom Mary was carrying. Elizabeth was aware that the Lord was visiting her through Mary, and so she declared Mary blessed. That is why we too honour Mary. We recognize that it was through her that the Lord visited us. Later on in Luke’s Gospel the crowds come to say of the adult Jesus, ‘God has visited His people’. The really significant visitation is God’s visiting us in the person of Jesus, and it was through Mary that this visitation came about. It was through this woman of Nazareth that the Lord visited His people and having visited us remains with us until the end of time. In the words of our Blessed Mother Mary’s prayer in the Gospel reading, ‘the Almighty has done great things for me’. This feast also reminds us that the Almighty wants to do the same great things for all of us. Our Blessed Mother Mary was a woman of prayer as well as a woman of loving service. Her loving service of others flowed from her life of prayer. Whenever we give time to God in prayer, God’s good work is finding expression in our lives. Our calling is to keep opening ourselves up to God’s good work in our lives, expressed in loving service of others and in prayer to God, so that God can do for us what he did for Mary, bringing his good work to completion in our lives, by leading us to share fully in Christ’s risen life.
In our first reading today from the Book of Revelations, St. John saw a vision of a Woman in heaven crowned with crown of twelve stars, radiantly clothed with the Sun and the Moon below her feet. This vision is immersed with symbolisms that depending on those who listened to them, revealed to them the Lord’s intentions and truth. Today’s reading speaks of the woman who brought into the world the son who was to rule all nations. We honour Mary because she was the gate through whom the Lord came to us. That is why, as she sings in her Magnificat, all generations have called her blessed. Because she is the gate through whom the Lord first came to us, Mary has a unique relationship with the Lord. It is because of that special relationship with the Lord that she shares uniquely in his risen and glorious life. That is what we celebrate today on this feast of the Assumption. We celebrate Mary’s complete sharing in her Son’s triumph over death. In the words of Paul, in today’s second reading, she has been brought to life in Christ because she belongs to Him in a special way. What Mary has become, we hope to be. The great things that God has done for Mary is a pointer to the great things that God wants to do for all of us. She is, therefore, a sign of hope for us on ‘our pilgrim way’, as today’s Preface puts it. Mary’s life also indicates how we are to travel that pilgrim way. Like her, we are called to be channels of the Lord’s visitation to others. As Mary brought the Lord to Elizabeth, and to all of us, we are called to bring the Lord to each other, so that those who meet us might come to say, ‘The Lord has visited His people’. This is the best way to honour Mary and how she would want to be honoured. If we honour Mary in this way, we can be assured that, at the end of our pilgrim journey, the Lord will honour us as He honoured her. He will do the same great things for us that He has done for her. Like her, we too will come to share fully in Christ’s risen life.
As we reflect on the Words of the Sacred Scriptures on this special feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother Mary into Heaven, we are given a glimpse of our own fate in the end, if we choose to remain faithful to God, just as our Savior’s Transfiguration had shown us as well. In the end of time, after the Final Judgement, all of us will rise up body and soul to be reunited with God, and to enjoy forever an eternity of true bliss and happiness. However, we have to be faithful to God and to be judged worthy of Him, or else we will end up in the eternity of suffering instead in the eternal damnation. The Lord has given us many opportunities and chances, and He has reached out to us generously with love, so that we may find our way to Him, and His blessed Mother Mary has shown us the most direct and surest path to Him. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary has shown us all how to be the worthy and faithful Christians, to be God’s holy and worthy disciples, in obeying His will and carrying out His Law and commandments, and in being ever constantly filled with His grace, empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In each and every moments of our lives we should always be strengthened and filled by the Spirit of God and filled with the love and devotion that we all ought to have for Him, our Lord, God and Master. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary is our perfect example and role model, and through her, we have also seen a glimpse of our own future selves, glorified and free from the taint and corruption of sin. Let us all therefore strive to do our best in following God at all times and in doing whatever He had called and entrusted to us to do. Let us all be exemplary in all of our works and actions, in our every interactions and endeavours so that we may truly be the missionary and evangelising disciples and followers of Christ in our every efforts and good works, at all times. May all of us draw ever closer to God, in each and every moments and opportunities available to us. May He empower each one of us to live ever more faithfully and with greater conviction and commitment from now on, following the examples of Mary, the Blessed Mother of God, who we remember today in her glorious Assumption into Heaven. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to celebrate our Mother Mary as the pilgrim who shows us how to journey towards that destiny. May the Lord be with us always, and may His mother Mary, gloriously assumed into Heaven, our greatest help and intercessor, continue to pray for us all sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen 🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST:
MONTH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the foreseen and infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and treasured the sacred events from the life of Christ in her holy heart, as attested in Scripture, her pure heart was recognized as something to be imitated. Devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower—so much so that in the 17th century, St. John Eudes promoted it alongside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion rose to a new level after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, when Mary revealed an image of her Immaculate Heart to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST – FOR POLITICAL LEADERS: We pray that political leaders be at the service of their own people, working for integral human development and for the common good, especially caring for the poor and those who have lost their jobs.
https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2024
PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen 🙏🏾
During this Ordinary Time, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, Nigeria, the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏🏾
Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/
PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this season of the Ordinary Time, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we pray for their health, safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those who have no one to care for them and those who are terminally ill, we pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. We pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle soul of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. We pray for Vocation to the Priesthood and Religious life. We particularly pray for all Youths and all Seminarians, with special intention for those Seminarians who will be ordained into Priesthood. For the Church, for persecuted Christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen 🙏🏾
Let us pray:
Dearest Mother, Most Glorious and Ever-Virgin Mary, I rejoice today with you and with the whole Church for the most glorious things that God has done for you. You are beauty beyond beauty, Immaculate in every way, and worthy of our deepest love. As you now share body and soul in the glories of Heaven, please pray for me and for all your dear children on earth. Cover us with your mantle of love and pour forth the mercy of God upon us always. Mother Mary, assumed into Heaven, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Tarcisius ~ Pray for us🙏
Thanking God for the gift of this day and praying for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all. Have a blessed, safe and fruitful week🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖