Dear Family,
Tomorrow, August 15th, the Feast of the Assumpon of the Blessed Virgin Mary is NOT a holy day of obligation. Nevertheless, it is a special me to honor Mary. She was assumed into heaven because she had been preserved from original sin. That’s what we celebrate on December 8th with the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
I don’t know how many years it took – and I’m not sure I should admit it, but one day it hit me that the effect of original sin is death of the body. From the fifth century the Church celebrated the “dormition” of Mary, her “falling asleep.” That’s why we celebrate her Assumption, precisely because her physical body wasn’t subject to the effects of original sin, the corrupon of her physical body through death of that body.
I’m sure we covered that somewhere in our Marian theology courses, but I guess I needed one of those “Duh” moments to connect the dots between original sin and death, and how that doesn’t apply to Mary.
Over the years I have definitely grown in my appreciation of Mary as a part of my own spiritual life. For many years I shied away from things that placed such an emphasis on Mary that it seemed to crowd out the Lord himself. The older I get, the more I begin to scratch understanding the kind of faith Mary had to have to speak her “Yes” and that at probably around age 15. Her ancitipated “yes” was what preserved her from original sin. But then she had to keep saying “Yes”, right up to wordlessly standing at the foot of the Cross. Her “Yes” stands as a powerful encouragement to try and say my own “yeses” to the Lord.
Our intrepid pilgrims to World Youth Day in Cracow, Poland have returned home. I’ve asked Marcus Mickey (who already has returned to UF) and Simon Rave to write us a little about their experiences. With luck you’ll see those reflections in this spot in the next couple of weeks. Let me just thank those of you who helped sponsor their trip. I think they’ll probably tell you that it was worth it.
Once again, I’m writing this Twitch 10 days before you read it. I can’t help but wonder what will have happened in the world, in the parish, between now and then. I think it might be a subconscious concern that by the me you do read this, whatever I’m writing will be totally irrelevant because of some event that has intervened. Now I’m laughing because it sure sounds like I think you won’t be able to deal with whatever may have happened without wise words from the sage of Marietta Drive.
For one thing, Mary will always be relevant. Our youth will also always be important to us – please God. (And perhaps in our parish we have even more reason to treasure our youth, considering our average age. Last Tuesday was #75 for me, and you’ll notice I got out of town.)
I need to go and pack and once again I will leave the rest of this space to Annie’s creative spacefilling. Once again – thank God for different reasons this me– I thank the priests who will fill in while I’m on vacaon. They have all been good friends to us.
With my prayers and the assurance that you’ll not be far from my prayers and my thoughts, Im yours as always
In Jesus,
