Dear Friends in Christ,
Welcome to our weekly Sunday update. This Sunday (August 11, 2024) is the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. In the Gospel reading for the day, Jesus is confronted by “a certain lawyer [who] stood up, tempting Him, and saying: Master, what must I do to possess eternal life?” Jesus responds by asking what he had learned from the Law, and the man is ready with the right answer: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart . . . and thy neighbor as thyself.” But, harboring a narrow interpretation of the obligation to love others, he asks, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds by sharing His famous parable of the Good Samaritan in which a priest and a Levite – men obligated by religious vocation and social standing to care for others – display a notable lack of charity. It is left to a foreigner of dubious religious belief and practice to exert the love necessary to aid the wounded man. Jesus asks, “Which of these three . . . was neighbor to him that fell among robbers?” The lawyer can only answer, “He that showed mercy to him.” “Go,” says Our Lord, “and do thou in like manner.”
Calendar of Saints and Special Observances
Celebrations are those listed in the Roman Missal of 1962 and the Liturgical Calendar of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.
DAY, DATE – FEAST (CLASS)
Sunday, August 11 – Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (II)
Monday, August 12 – St. Clare, Virgin, Founder of the Poor Clares (III)
Tuesday, August 13 – Commemoration of Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Wednesday, August 14 – Vigil of the Assumption (II) [Commemoration of St. Eusebius, Confessor]
Thursday, August 15 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (I)
Friday, August 16 – St. Joachim, father of Our Blessed Lady (II)
Saturday, August 17 – St. Hyacinth, OP, Confessor (III)
Note: The commemoration of Ss. Tiburtius, Martyr, and Susanna, Virgin and Martyr, which usually takes place on August 11th, in accordance with the traditional Roman Calendar, is displaced this year by the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.
Feast of Saint
Philomena: Sunday August 11 is also the Feast of Saint Philomena the
Wonderworker, who although removed from the calendar in
1960 still has a popular devotion and many still seek her recourse. She
is believed to have been a 2nd
century martyr buried in the Roman catacombs. Centuries later in 1802
her remains were accidentally discovered during excavations and were
eventually interred in Mugnano, Italy, where many miracles occurred over
the years. St. John Vianney (whose feast day was last Thursday) had a
deep devotion to her. The Sanctuary Shrine of Saint Philomena in Mugnano is a wonderful resource on learning more about this recently discovered ancient saint.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
The links provided below can be used to download printable copies of the Proper Prayers for Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost with either English or Spanish translation. We also offer a link to a New Liturgical Movement article by Dr. Michael P. Foley entitled “Heavenly Liturgy and Earthly Compassion: The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.”
Latin Mass Schedule: Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (August 11, 2024)
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Latin Mass Schedule: Weekdays
(Special Latin Masses scheduled for the Feast of the Assumption on Thursday, August 15th, and the vigil of the feast on Wednesday, August 14th, are listed separately below. The Mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. is a regularly scheduled weekly celebration.)
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Note: Travelers are advised to contact parish offices to confirm weekday and Saturday Mass times, since local schedules are sometimes subject to change without notice, especially on or around holidays, holy days of obligation and other special feast days.
Latin Mass Schedule for the Feast of the Assumption
Charlotte Area Latin Masses
Other Diocese of Charlotte Latin Masses
Diocese of Charleston Latin Masses
Holy Face Devotions
Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus are offered each week at the following churches on the indicated days:
“Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth” (from Canticle to the Holy Face by Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, the 19th century Discalced Carmelite nun who took the name in religion, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face).
Latin Mass and Liturgical News
Saints and Special Observances
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared to be a dogma of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950. In his apostolic constitution entitled Munificentissimus Deus, the pope confirmed what Christians had believed for many centuries:
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.
Left unsaid by the pope was exactly what exactly the formula “assumed body and soul” involved. In choosing not to be more specific, he left unresolved a question about the Assumption that remains with us today: Did Mary, “having completed the course of her earthly life,” experience the separation of body and soul that is death – or was she, alone among all the men and women who have ever lived, spared death and transported directly to Heaven?
One answer to the question unposed by the pope would be that the Blessed Mother of Our Lord did, in fact, experience that separation universally associated with death, but that her body and soul were subsequently reunited in a resurrection, like that of her son, prior to being taken into Heaven. This has the appeal of recognizing that she was “only human” but like Jesus Himself was able to conquer death. Some have found a Scriptural basis for this view in what God said to the serpent in the Garden: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel (Genesis 3:15).
The other answer – that Mary did not die but simply went straight to Heaven when she had “completed the course of her earthly life” – may seem to be more consistent with another Marian dogma pronounced a century before that of the Assumption. In the papal bull, Ineffabilis Deus, issued in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the Blessed Virgin to be unique among all mankind:
We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
As the consequence of original sin, incurred by Adam and Eve and their progeny unto the end of time, was death, one might believe that because Mary was “preserved from all stain of original sin” she was singularly exempted from the consequence imposed on the rest of humanity.
What are we to believe, since the Church leaves the actual details of the Assumption to our discretion? An early legend held that Mary did in fact die in the presence of all the Apostles except Thomas. He, having missed the obsequies and perhaps even doubting her demise, insisted that her coffin be opened, so that he could view the remains. The others, choosing to indulge “doubting Thomas,” did as he asked, only to discover that the coffin, like the tomb in which Our Lord had been laid, was empty.
Pope St. John Paul II, who was greatly devoted to Our Lady, believed that, like Our Lord, she had risen from the dead before her Assumption into Heaven. The opinion of the faithful has been divided on the matter from the beginning and will presumably remain so until that day when our souls are reunited with our bodies at the Final Judgement. Nevertheless, there seems to be a growing consensus in favor of the idea that Mary died, as all of us will, but rose again, as Jesus had done – unlike the rest of us who will not rise in our bodies until that last day.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated by the Church each year on the 15th of August.
(Note: The article by David Clayton for New Liturgical Movement, linked below, presents one individual’s evolving view and includes photographs of a number of paintings that show the different ways the Assumption has been portrayed over many centuries. See also what Dom Prosper Guéranger had to say on the subject in the Closing Commentary that follows.)
[Reports of the Death of the Virgin Mary...Are True!]
Closing Commentary
In closing, we offer commentary on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary excerpted from The Liturgical Year of Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB, followed by a link to the full text.
August 15 – Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary
Today the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven; rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.” The Church will close her chants on this glorious day with this sweet antiphon which resumes the object of the feast and the spirit in which it should be celebrated.
No other solemnity breathes, like this one, at once triumph and peace; none better answers to the enthusiasm of the many and the serenity of souls consummated in love. Assuredly that was as great a triumph when our Lord, rising by his own power from the tomb, cast hell into dismay; but to our souls, so abruptly drawn from the abyss of sorrows on Golgotha, the suddenness of the victory caused a sort of stupor to mingle with the joy of that greatest of days. In presence of the prostrate Angels, the hesitating Apostles, the women seized with fear and trembling, one felt that the divine isolation of the Conqueror of death was perceptible even to his most intimate friends, and kept them, like Magdalene, at a distance.
Mary’s death, however, leaves no impression but peace; that death had no other cause than love. Being a mere creature, she could not deliver herself from that claim of the old enemy; but leaving her tomb filled with flowers, she mounts up to heaven, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved. Amid the acclamations of the daughters of Sion, who will henceforth never cease to call her blessed, she ascends surrounded by choirs of heavenly spirits joyfully praising the Son of God. Nevermore will shadows veil, as they did on earth, the glory of the most beautiful daughter of Eve. Beyond the immovable Thrones, beyond the dazzling Cherubim, beyond the flaming Seraphim, onward she passes, delighting the heavenly city with her sweet perfumes. She stays not till she reaches the very confines of the Divinity; close to the throne of honor where her Son, the King of ages, reigns in justice and in power; there she is proclaimed Queen, there she will reign for evermore in mercy and in goodness.
Here on earth Libanus and Amana, Sanir and Hermon dispute the honor of having seen her rise to heaven from their summits; and truly the whole world is but the pedestal of her glory, as the moon is her footstool, the sun her vesture, the stars of heaven her glittering crown. “Daugher of Sion, thou art all fair and sweet,” cries the Church, as in her rapture she mingles her own tender accents with the songs of triumph: “I saw the beautiful one as a dove rising up from the brooks of waters; in her garments was the most exquisite odor; and as in the days of spring, flowers of roses surrounded her and lilies of the valley.”
The same freshness breathes from the facts of Bible history wherein the interpreters of the sacred Books see the figure of Mary’s triumph. As long as this world lasts a severe law protects the entrance to the eternal palace; no one, without having first laid aside the garb of flesh, is admitted to contemplate the King of heaven. There is one, however, of our lowly race, whom the terrible decree does not touch; the true Esther, in her incredible beauty, advances without hindrance through all the doors. Full of grace, she is worthy of the love of the true Assuerus; but on the way which leads to the awful throne of the King of kings, she walks not alone; two handmaids, one supporting her steps, the other holding up the long folds of her royal robe, accompany her; they are the angelic nature and the human, both equally proud to hail her as their mistress and lady, and both sharing in her glory.
If we go back from the time of captivity, when Esther saved her people, to the days of Israel’s greatness, we find our Lady’s entrance into the city of endless peace, represented by the Queen of Saba coming to the earthly Jerusalem. While she contemplates with rapture the magnificence of the mighty prince of Sion, the pomp of her own retinue, the incalculable riches of the treasure she brings, her precious stones and her spices, plunge the whole city into admiration. There was brought no more, says the Scripture, such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Saba gave to King Solomon.