THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Celebrated on August 28th

The Lord who on Mt. Sinai gave the commandment to honor thy father and
mother showed by his own example how one must reverence one's parents.
Even while hanging in agony on the Cross He remembered His mother, and
indicating the Apostle John said, "Woman, behold your son!" and to John,
"Behold your mother!"  With this concern for His mother, He breathed His last.
John had a home on Zion in Jerusalem where he settled the Mother of God
and where she passed the remaining days of her life on earth. By her
prayers, her kindly advice, her meekness and patience, she was of immense
help to her Son's apostles. She spent virtually the rest of her life in
Jerusalem, often going round the places that reminded her of the great
events and the great works associated with and performed by her Son. She
especially visited Golgotha, Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives. Of her
journeys farther her visit to St. Ignatius the God-bearer is recorded as are
those to St. Lazarus the four-days-dead. Bishop of Cyprus, to the holy
Mountain, to which she gave her blessing, and her stay in Ephesus with John
during a fierce persecution of Christians in Jerusalem. In old age she often
prayed to her Lord and God on the Mount of Olives on the spot from which
He ascended to take her from this world. One day the Archangel Gabriel
appeared to her and revealed that she would enter into rest in three days'
time. The angel gave her a palm branch to be carried in her funeral
procession. She returned home with great joy with the heartfelt hope that she
would see Christ's apostles once more in this life. The Lord fulfilled her desire
and all the apostles, brought by angels on the clouds gathered together at
John's house in Zion. It was with great joy that she saw the holy apostles and
she encouraged, advised and upheld them, then peacefully gave her soul
into God's hands without the slightest physical pain or struggle. The apostles
took the coffin containing her body, from which an aromatic fragrance arose,
and accompanied by many Christians, took it to the Garden of Gethsemane
to the grave of Sts. Joachim and Anna. It was left to the Apostle Thomas, who
was delayed, again by God's providence, to reveal a new and glorious
mystery about the Holy Mother of God. He arrived on the third day and
desired to embrace the body of the holy and most pure. When the apostle
opened her grave, he found only the winding sheet - the body was not in the
grave.
That evening she appeared to the apostles, surrounded by a multitude of
angels and said to them, "Rejoice, I will be with you always!" It is not known
exactly how old the Mother of God was at the time of her falling asleep. but
the prevailing belief is that she had reached the age of sixty.
Assumption of the Mother of God