The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady | Sunday 14 August 2022

Today is Sunday the 14th August, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.


The monks of the Abbey of Keur Moussa sing a litany to Mary, the Mother of God. O Mary, you have opened for us the gateway of paradise. O Mary, queen of glory, who share the joy of the angels.

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Today’s reading is from the book of the Apocalypse.

Apoc 11:19; 12:1-6, 10


Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming,
‘Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Messiah,
for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down,
who accuses them day and night before our God.

Today’s feast is the Assumption of Mary, called in the Orthodox tradition her Dormition or falling asleep. Ancient tradition teaches that Jesus’ mother enjoyed immediately at her death the full fruits of the Resurrection won by her Son. The heavenly voice proclaims God’s total victory over sin and death for us too. How do you feel when you hear this?

Have you ever witnessed a trial and listened to the prosecution? It’s a frightening ordeal for anyone. The heavenly voice rejoices in God’s power at work in the world despite all the deadly forces ranged against goodness and life. The woman giving birth is both Mary and ourselves, the whole Church. Do you have a sense of something coming to birth within the world or the Church at this time?

As we listen to the reading a second time, what images or feelings stay with you? How do you find yourself wanting to respond?

This scene is, quite literally, apocalyptic. Beneath it all is Christian faith in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. As you think about the state of your own life or of the world right now, what praise or petition do you wish to offer our saving Lord?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.