OUR LADY’S ASSUMPTION

Sunday August 15

OUR LADY’S ASSUMPTION   

Mary’s Song Is Also Ours

Greeting

Glory and honor to our risen Lord,
whose victory over death
was shared first by her
who was closest to him,
his Mother, the Virgin Mary.
May her Son, the Lord Jesus, be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

Today we rejoice for one of us who has reached her destination. It is Mary’s great feast, the feast of her Easter, Our Lady’s Assumption. On earth she went the way of Jesus, she lived the beatitudes wholeheartedly, and now she shares in Jesus’ glory. The Assumption is for us a sign of hope. It reminds us that we too are called to share with her in Jesus’ victory if we are willing to share with her in the humble faith and service of the poor and the lowly in the kingdom of God. Let us celebrate!

Penitential Act

Let us ask the Lord to forgive us our sins
that we may one day share with Mary
in the resurrection of her Son.
                        (pause)
Lord Jesus, your mother, God's humble servant,
was kept free from all sin:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, great things were done to Mary
when she was taken up into heaven:
Christ. Have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, your Mother served you
with her whole heart and person
and she lives now forever in your joy:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord,
liberate us from all sin

and lead us in faith and hope
to the joys of everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us thank God with Mary
and ask him for the strength of her faith
                        (pause)
Lord our God,
you took Mary up into heaven
with her body as well as with her soul,
to share in the definitive triumph over death
of Jesus, your Son,
because on earth she humbly served your plans
as the first of those who believe.
Grant us her attitude
of trusting openness to your will,
that you may overcome evil and death in us,
and lead us safely, with Mary,
into your everlasting joy.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: Mary Sums Up the Church

Christ is victorious over evil and is taken up into heaven. The woman of our text is the Church, but as Mary was eminently all that the Church is called to be, the liturgy applies the text to her. She is victorious with her Son.

Reading 1: RV 11:19A; 12:1-6A, 10AB

God's temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky;
it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,
and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,
to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed One."

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16

(10bc) The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.
R. The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear,
forget your people and your father's house.
R. The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
So shall the king desire your beauty;
for he is your lord.
R. The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
They are borne in with gladness and joy;
they enter the palace of the king.
R. The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

Second Reading: Christ, Cause and First fruits of the Resurrection

Christ overcame death by his resurrection. He was the first to rise from the dead, but we shall follow him and rise because of him. This is why Mary, who shared in his life, his mission and suffering, could follow him in heaven, even bodily. 

Reading 2: 1 COR 15:20-27

Brothers and sisters:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;
then comes the end,
when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father,
when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death,
for "he subjected everything under his feet."

Alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia.
Mary is taken up to heaven;
a chorus of angels exults.
R.Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: God Exalts the Humble

Mary fully responds in humility and service to the plans of God. She recognizes that her greatness comes from God. It is God who exalts her and who will lift her up into heaven at her assumption. She sums up a humble and serving Church. 

Gospel: LK 1:39-56

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 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.
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 has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever."

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.

Intercessions

With the help of Mary, our mother, let us pray together to our Father in heaven that he may look with favor upon us, his servants, and do great thing in us. Let us say:

R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord may show his love to all those who try to serve him well, and that he may show his forgiving mercy to those who have failed him and one another, let us pray:

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord may show his power and defend the humble people who are trampled upon, and dispose us all to respect and love them, let us pray: 

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord may give us the will and the strength to accomplish his word in our life, day after day, single-mindedly and joyfully, let us pray: 

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord, make us aware of the poverty of our heart, so that he can  fill us with his gentleness, his acceptance of people, and his care for the poor, let us pray:

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord may help us see to it that the hungry are fed, and dispose all people and the mighty of the world to give everyone a fair share in the earth’s goods, let us pray:

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

–   That the Lord may take up all our beloved dead into his home of everlasting joy, let us pray:

     R/ Lord, hear your people.

Lord our God, on the feast of Mary’s Assumption we pray: fill us with all good things, that we may bless your holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord.  R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
you let your Spirit come down on Mary

and made her the mother of Jesus, your Son,

yet you waited for her humble yes.

Let your Spirit come down with power

on our humble gifts of bread and wine

and let them become your Son.

Let your Spirit inspire us

to seek your will in all we do

and to make Jesus known to the world.

We ask you this through Christ our Lord. R / Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

With Mary, we thank the Father today for the great things he has done in her and which he keeps doing for us through Jesus our Lord.

Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer

In the words of Jesus
we pray to our Father
that his will may be done in us. R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
and from the ultimate enemy, death.
Let your compassion and faithful love
reach from age to age,
and fill the hungry with good things,
as we wait in joyful hope for our resurrection
at the full coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus, the Lord, who said:
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
will live for ever,
and I will raise them up on the last day.
Happy are we to be invited
to eat the Lord’s body,
and to share in his victory. R/ Lord, I am not worthy....

Prayer after Communion

God, you lift up the humble;
in Mary you have given us a vision
of a Church that knows how to serve
and to hold on to you in life and in death.
With Mary, and in the strength of her Son,
may we be poor and humble enough
to listen to your word and to live by it,
to visit our neighbor in need,
and to be to the world the body of your Son,
until you let us share in your glory for ever. R/ Amen.

Blessing

What Mary was on earth,
we the Church are called to be:
believing in God’s ways and guidance
even without knowing what the future will bring,
open to one another’s needs,
serving with all that is in us.
May God give you this strength and bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go in peace
to love and serve God in people. R/ Thanks be to God

Commentary

The Almighty has done great things for me

On 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII promulgated the dogma: "The immaculate Mother of God, always virgin, at the end of the earthly life, was assumed to the heavenly glory in soul and body."

In the account of the Acts of the Apostles, when Jesus entered into the glory of the Father,
the disciples returned to Jerusalem joyful and happy, not because Jesus was gone, but because Jesus is now in a condition in which he is always close and always in the midst of the community of his disciples. In the same way, Blessed Mother has not abandoned the community, the Church after her life on this earth. She simply changed the way of being with us. ‘Heavenly glory’ is not a place but the new condition where our Mother has entered from this world into the world of God. She is always near to the believing community.

What had happened to Jesus, has happened to Mary. And so happens also with every
one of us who enters the world of God when we finish our pilgrimage on earth. Every child of God, at the time of death, is immediately received with the whole of his or her person into the world of God. The Assumption of Mary brings us this joyful God-news: Death is not a thing to be afraid of; rather it is the glorious moment of our entry into the world of God.

This solemnity of the Blessed Mother presents to us our destiny – a live in the World of God together with Jesus and Mary, Our Mother. That is why the joyous cry of our Mother becomes our own prayer of thanksgiving: "The Almighty has done great things for me.” This expression: 'great things' is used in the bible to present the extraordinary interventions of God, the one who is able to defeat death.

On this day, together with Mary, we thank God, for 'He has shown the strength of his arm'—only his arm could bring down the monster of death. 'He has scattered the arrogant'—the arrogant are those create a world of death. God of life has scattered them and made them disappear.

The Church invites us to join Our Mother in her proclamation of salvation. The ancient world, the world of death is defeated. The Lord's powerful arm has created a new world in which death is eliminated and we too are promised to be received into the Heavenly Glory.