Daily meditation in preparation for the Feast the Assumption ( Dormition )

All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption.

The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior.
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.
( taken from The Assumption of Mary: A Belief since Apostolic Times , written by Father Clifford Stevens )

Daily meditation in preparation for the Feast the Assumption ( Dormition )

Almighty and everlasting God,
You have taken up body and soul
into the heavenly glory the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of Your Son: Grant, we beseech You,
that, ever intent upon heavenly things,
we may be worthy to be partakers of her glory.
Through Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever. Amen.
( From the Roman Missal )

"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 to heavenly glory." With these words, Pope Pius XII officially and infallibly declared the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God (theotokos), to be dogma in 1950. In this pronouncement, Pope Pius was simply stating dogmatically what the Church, East and West, had believed for many thousands of years ago.
The Catholic Catechism further explains:
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians (966).
The Catechism then quotes from the Troparion of the Feast of the Dormition from the Byzantine Liturgy:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. (966)
Thus, the Assumption of Mary is not only a participation in her Son's resurrection, but a preview of our future resurrections. As such, the dogma of Mary's Assumption is firmly rooted in the actions and person of Christ, and in the virtue of Christian Hope.

Our Lady of the Snows Feast~~ August 5 ~~

Devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Snows dates back to 352 A.D.
In that year a rectangle of snow was discovered on Mount Esquiline, one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome .
According to tradition, on the night of August 4th, a childless aristocratic Roman couple dreamed that the Blessed Virgin Mary instructed them to go to the Esquiline Hill in the morning where they would find a plot of land covered with snow.
Mary told them that a church consecrated to her should be built on the snow-covered plot of land.
On this same night, She also appeared to Pope Liberius in a dream telling him of her desire.
The next morning the couple went to Pope Liberius to tell him about their dream.
The pope then led a procession to the spot indicated in the dream and discovered that snow had indeed fallen on the Esquiline Hill.
Snowfall of any sort was unheard of in Rome at that time of year.
People crowded to see the patch of snow, which persisted despite the heat, amazed that it had fallen in only one place. All of Rome proclaimed the summer snow a miracle, and the couple accepted this as a sign that hey were to use their wealth to help build the church.
As soon as the plot for the building had been staked out the snow melted.
On that site, the pope built a shrine to the Holy Virgin. Originally the church was called Santa Maria ad Nives (St. Mary of the Snows).
Later known as Santa Maria Liberiana and then as Santa Maria ad Praesepe, because relics of the manger of Bethlehem had been brought to the church, the basilica eventually became known as Santa Maria Maggiore St. Mary Major because it is the largest of all the churches in Romededicated to the Blessed Mother.
Construction on the current church structure began in the 5th century. Pope Sixtus III wished to build a church to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary after the Council of Ephesus (AD 431) had solemnly declared her to be the Theotokos, Mother of God .
The Basilica contains the Salus Populi Romani "Protectress of the Roman People" an ancient miraculous image of the Madonna and Infant Jesus composed in the Byzantine style. The image is also known as the Madonna Santa Maria ad Nives.Salus Populi Romana [Salvation of the Roman People] is the title of this famous painting and it is rightly named because for centuries the people of Rome have prayed before it in times of famine, war and national crisis.

The Protectress of the Roman People has saved Rome from numerous afflictions and dangers throughout the city’s history. Many popes and saints have been profoundly devoted to Salus Populi Romani - Madonna Santa Maria ad Nives -Our Lady of the Snows. Far from Rome, in Belleville, Illinois, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate built a shrine to Our Lady of the Snows. The Oblates have missions in Alaska and Canada.
The present-day church is one of the largest basilicas in the world and its Patronal Festival is held on August 5 in remembrance of the miracle of the snow.
During this celebration hundreds of white blossoms are showered from the dome of the chapel.

Prayer to Our Lady of Snows:



Mary, Mother of God, it is our Christian belief that all who fashion their lives in imitation of your Son, Jesus Christ, and have placed their hope in Him are gathered together in a communion of saints. Those who have gone before us live in intimate communion with Christ. You are the most eminent of them, for you were drawn into His life and being as no other. You who gave Him human life followed Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Mary, look at us. Look at all who are centered on your Son. At the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating 'in full light, God Himself Triune and One, exactly as He is. All of God's people hunger to be intimately one with Him.
Mary, we are the wayfarers and we hunger for this exchange of spiritual goods with you who were so intimately close to Jesus Christ. Your image, as protectress of the Roman people, reminds us that you invite us to center on Christ. Your arms embrace Jesus fully, effortlessly. Jesus, whose burden is light and yoke is easy, wishes to be as close to every individual as He is to you. You are both wayfarer and guide to us wayfarers on our pilgrimage of faith.
Teach us, Mary, to embrace Christ fully, to make Him our Way, our Truth, our Life. Teach us, Mary, to carry Christ to the world, and, each in our own way, to give Him birth in the hearts of many. Protect your people, Mary; protect your Church.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel ( July 16 )

O, most beautiful flower of Mount Carmel,
Fruit of the Vine, splendorous of Heaven.
Blessed Mother of the Son of God,
Immaculate Virgin,
assist me in this my necessity.
O, Star of the Sea, help me
and show herein you are my mother.
O, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth,
I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart
to succour me in my necessity.
There are none that can withstand your power,
O, show me here you are my mother.
O, Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to Thee.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands.
Amen.

O Mary, Immaculate Queen of Carmel, Mother of God, and my Mother, the wearing of thy holy Scapular signifies that I am entirely thine. Assist me this day, and obtain for me the grace to live faithfully my Scapular Consecration, whereby my heart, my mind, my body, my whole being, is thine without reserve, forever. Amen.

According to the most ancient Carmelite chronicles, the Order has its origins with the disciples of the prophets Elias and Eliseus. They lived in caves on Mount Carmel. They honored the Queen of Heaven as the Virgin who is to give birth to the Saviour. When the reality replaced the symbol, the pious ascetics of Carmel were converted to the Christian Faith. In the 12th century, many pilgrims from Europe who had followed the Crusaders came to join the solitaries. A rule was established and the Order began to spread to Europe.

Amid the many persecutions raised against the Order of Mount Carmel, newly arrived in Europe, Saint Simon Stock, General of the Order, turned with filial confidence to the Blessed Mother of God. As he knelt in prayer on July 16, 1251, in the White Friars’ convent at Cambridge, She appeared before him and presented him with the well-known brown scapular, a loose sleeveless garment destined for the Order of Carmel, reaching from the shoulders to the knees. It was given as an assurance, for all who died wearing it, of Her heavenly protection from eternal death. An extraordinary promise indeed, but one requiring a life of prayer and sacrifice.
Devotion to the blessed habit spread quickly throughout the Christian world. Pope after Pope enriched it with indulgences, and innumerable miracles put their seal upon its efficacy. The first of them was worked at Winchester on a man dying in despair, who when the scapular was laid upon him by Saint Simon Stock at once asked for the Sacraments.

In the year 1636, a certain gentleman, member of a cavalry regiment, was mortally wounded at the battle of Tehin, a bullet having lodged near his heart. He was then in a state of grievous sin, but he had time to make his confession. Afterwards a surgeon probed his wound, and the bullet was found to have driven his scapular into his heart. When it had been withdrawn he soon expired, making profound acts of gratitude to the Blessed Virgin who had prolonged his life miraculously, thereby preserving him from the irremediable death of his soul.

At Lourdes in 1858, the Virgin chose to make Her last apparition on July 16th, feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the day the Church commemorates Her apparition to Saint Simon Stock. And at Fatima on October 13, 1917, it is as Our Lady of Mount Carmel that Mary appeared when She said farewell to the three children. Throughout the ages, the Queen of Carmel has always kept a faithful watch over the destinies of Her cherished children on earth.

(Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin )

Lent prayers together with Our Sorrowful Mother

Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows , comforter the afflicted


Most holy Mother of Sorrows, by that soul-piercing martyrdom thou didst undergo at the foot of the Cross during the three hours' agony of Jesus, deign to assist me also, who am the child of thy Sorrows, in my agony, so that by thine intercession I may be found worthy to pass from my deathbed to thy blessed society in Paradise.

From a sudden and unprovided death,
Deliver us, O Lord.
From the snares of the devil,
Deliver us , O Lord.
From everlasting death,
Deliver us , O Lord.

Let us pray.
O God, Who for the salvation of mankind hast made for us in the most bitter death of Thy Son both an example and a refuge; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may be found worthy to obtain the fruit of His great love in our final peril at the hour of death, and to be made partakers of our Redeemer's glory. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Daily Prayer to Sorrowful Mother

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God
and our most compassionate Mother,
we present ourselves in thy sight in all humility,
and with full confidence we implore thee for thy maternal patronage.

Thou hast been proclaimed by Holy Church
the Comforter of the Afflicted,
and to thee constant recourse
is had by the sorrowful in their afflictions,
the sick in their maladies, the dying in their agony,
the poor in their straitened circumstances,
those who stand in all manner of need in both public
and private calamities;
and from thee they all receive consolation and strength.

Our dearest Mother, turn upon us also,
wretched sinners that we are, thy merciful eyes,
and graciously accept our humble and confident prayers.
Aid us in all our spiritual and temporal necessities;
deliver us from all evil, and especially from sin,
which is the greatest evil, and from all danger of falling into it;
obtain for us from thy Son Jesus
every blessing of which thou seest we stand in need,
both in soul and in body, and especially the greatest blessing of all,
which is Divine grace.
Comfort our spirits, troubled and afflicted
in the midst of the many dangers that threaten us and
in the countless miseries and misfortunes that beset us on every side.
This we ask through that immense joy
which filled thy pure soul in the glorious Resurrection of thy Divine Son.

Obtain tranquility for Holy Church,
help and comfort for her visible Head, the Roman Pontiff,
peace for Christian princes,
refreshment in their pains for the Holy Souls in Purgatory;
for sinners, the forgiveness of their sins, and for the just,
perseverance in well-doing.
Receive us all, our most tender Mother,
under thy loving and mighty protection,
that we may be enabled to live virtuously,
die holily and attain to everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.
(~~ (Rac., No. 419)