BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS, TOR - ECPv6.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS, TOR
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS, TOR
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260808
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260809
DTSTAMP:20170727T180836Z
CREATED:20170727T180836Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180836Z
UID:50834-1786147200-1786233599@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Dominic
DESCRIPTION:Image: Stained glass | St. Dominic sends out the Friars | photo by Lawrence\, OP | flickr\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Dominic\nSaint of the Day for August 8\n( August 8\, 1170 – August 6\, 1221)\n Saint Dominic’s Story  \nClick to hear audio clip ►\nIf he hadn’t taken a trip with his bishop\, Dominic would probably have remained within the structure of contemplative life; after the trip\, he spent the rest of his life being a contemplative in active apostolic work. \nBorn in old Castile\, Spain\, Dominic was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle\, studied the arts and theology\, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma\, where there was an attempt to revive the apostolic common life described in Acts of the Apostles. \nOn a journey through France with his bishop\, Dominic came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc. The Albigensians–or Cathari\, “the pure ones”–held to two principles—one good\, one evil—in the world. All matter is evil—hence they denied the Incarnation and the sacraments. On the same principle\, they abstained from procreation and took a minimum of food and drink. The inner circle led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism not shared by ordinary followers. \nDominic sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy\, and was commissioned to be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the preaching crusade was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the ascetical heroes of the Albigenses. Understandably\, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues\, stayed at the best inns and had servants. Dominic therefore\, with three Cistercians\, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for 10 years\, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders. \nHis fellow preachers gradually became a community\, and in 1215 Dominic founded a religious house at Toulouse\, the beginning of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans. \nDominic’s ideal\, and that of his Order\, was to organically link a life with God\, study\, and prayer in all forms\, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of God. His ideal: contemplata tradere: “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God.” \n\nReflection\nThe Dominican ideal\, like that of all religious communities\, is for the imitation\, not merely the admiration\, of the rest of the Church. The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God\, and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity. \n\nSaint Dominic is the Patron Saint of:\nAstronomers\nDominican Republic
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-dominic/2026-08-08/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260809
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260810
DTSTAMP:20170727T180839Z
CREATED:20170727T180839Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180839Z
UID:50838-1786233600-1786319999@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
DESCRIPTION:Image: Portrait of Edith Stein in the student chapel of the Hochschulgemeinde Wien im Edith-Stein-Haus | photo by Braveheart\nSaint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross\nSaint of the Day for August 9\n(October 12\, 1891 – August 9\, 1942)\n\n\n\nSaint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’ Story  \nClick to hear audio clip ►\n\n\n\n\nA brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14\, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated St. Teresa by becoming a Carmelite\, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. \nBorn into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau\, Germany–now Wroclaw\, Poland–Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen\, she became fascinated by phenomenology\, an approach to philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl\, one of the leading phenomenologists\, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922 when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis. \nAfter living for four years in the Cologne Carmel\, Sr. Teresa Benedicta moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt\, Netherlands\, in 1938. The Nazis occupied that country in 1940. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops\, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa\, also a Catholic\, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9\, 1942. \nPope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1987\, and canonized her 12 years later. \n\nReflection\nThe writings of Edith Stein fill 17 volumes\, many of which have been translated into English. A woman of integrity\, she followed the truth wherever it led her. After becoming a Catholic\, Edith continued to honor her mother’s Jewish faith. Sister Josephine Koeppel\, O.C.D. \, translator of several of Edith’s books\, sums up this saint with the phrase\, “Learn to live at God’s hands.”
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-teresa-benedicta-of-the-cross/2026-08-09/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260810
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260811
DTSTAMP:20170727T180841Z
CREATED:20170727T180841Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180841Z
UID:50842-1786320000-1786406399@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Lawrence
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Lawrence | Bernardo Cavallino\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Lawrence\nSaint of the Day for August 10\n(c. 225 – August 10\, 258)\nSaint Lawrence’s Story  \nClick to hear audio clip ►\nThe esteem in which the Church holds Lawrence is seen in the fact that today’s celebration ranks as a feast. We know very little about his life. He is one of those whose martyrdom made a deep and lasting impression on the early Church. Celebration of his feast day spread rapidly. \nHe was a Roman deacon under Pope Saint Sixtus II. Four days after this pope was put to death\, Lawrence and four clerics suffered martyrdom\, probably during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian. \nLegendary details of Lawrence’s death were known to Damasus\, Prudentius\, Ambrose\, and Augustine. The church built over his tomb became one of the seven principal churches in Rome and a favorite place for Roman pilgrimages. \nA well-known legend has persisted from earliest times. As deacon in Rome\, Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material goods of the Church\, and the distribution of alms to the poor. When Lawrence knew he would be arrested like the pope\, he sought out the poor\, widows\, and orphans of Rome and gave them all the money he had on hand\, selling even the sacred vessels of the altar to increase the sum. When the prefect of Rome heard of this\, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure. He sent for Lawrence and said\, “You Christians say we are cruel to you\, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold\, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups\, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now\, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. God does not cause money to be counted: He brought none of it into the world with him—only words. Give me the money\, therefore\, and be rich in words.” \nLawrence replied that the Church was indeed rich. “I will show you a valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.” After three days he gathered a great number of blind\, lame\, maimed\, leprous\, orphaned\, and widowed persons and put them in rows. When the prefect arrived\, Lawrence simply said\, “These are the treasure of the Church.” \nThe prefect was so angry he told Lawrence that he would indeed have his wish to die—but it would be by inches. He had a great gridiron prepared with coals beneath it\, and had Lawrence’s body placed on it. After the martyr had suffered the pain for a long time\, the legend concludes\, he made his famous cheerful remark\, “It is well done. Turn me over!” \n\nReflection\nOnce again we have a saint about whom almost nothing is known\, yet one who has received extraordinary honor in the Church since the fourth century. Almost nothing—yet the greatest fact of his life is certain: He died for Christ. We who are hungry for details about the lives of the saints are again reminded that their holiness was after all\, a total response to Christ\, expressed perfectly by a death like this. \n\nSaint Lawrence is the Patron Saint of:\nCooks\nPoor
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-lawrence/2026-08-10/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260811
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260812
DTSTAMP:20170727T180844Z
CREATED:20170727T180844Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180844Z
UID:50844-1786406400-1786492799@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Clare of Assisi
DESCRIPTION:Image: Saint Clare | original painting for the Poor Clares in Cincinnati\, OH\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Clare of Assisi\nSaint of the Day for August 11\n(July 16\, 1194 – August 11\, 1253)\nSaint Clare of Assisi’s Story\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nOne of the more sugary movies made about Francis of Assisi pictures Clare as a golden-haired beauty floating through sun-drenched fields\, a sort of one-woman counterpart to the new Franciscan Order. \nThe beginning of her religious life was indeed movie material. Having refused to marry at 15\, Clare was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide. \nAt 18\, Clare escaped from her father’s home one night\, was met on the road by friars carrying torches\, and in the poor little chapel called the Portiuncula received a rough woolen habit\, exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots in it\, and sacrificed her long tresses to Francis’ scissors. He placed her in a Benedictine convent\, which her father and uncles immediately stormed in rage. Clare clung to the altar of the church\, threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair\, and remained adamant. \nSixteen days later her sister Agnes joined her. Others came. They lived a simple life of great poverty\, austerity\, and complete seclusion from the world\, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order. At age 21\, Francis obliged Clare under obedience to accept the office of abbess\, one she exercised until her death. \nThe Poor Ladies went barefoot\, slept on the ground\, ate no meat\, and observed almost complete silence. Later Clare\, like Francis\, persuaded her sisters to moderate this rigor: “Our bodies are not made of brass.” The greatest emphasis\, of course\, was on gospel poverty. They possessed no property\, even in common\, subsisting on daily contributions. When even the pope tried to persuade Clare to mitigate this practice\, she showed her characteristic firmness: “I need to be absolved from my sins\, but I do not wish to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ.” \nContemporary accounts glow with admiration of Clare’s life in the convent of San Damiano in Assisi. She served the sick and washed the feet of the begging nuns. She came from prayer\, it was said\, with her face so shining it dazzled those about her. She suffered serious illness for the last 27 years of her life. Her influence was such that popes\, cardinals\, and bishops often came to consult her—Clare herself never left the walls of San Damiano. \nFrancis always remained her great friend and inspiration. Clare was always obedient to his will and to the great ideal of gospel life which he was making real. \nA well-known story concerns her prayer and trust. Clare had the Blessed Sacrament placed on the walls of the convent when it faced attack by invading Saracens. “Does it please you\, O God\, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children I have nourished with your love? I beseech you\, dear Lord\, protect these whom I am now unable to protect.” To her sisters she said\, “Don’t be afraid. Trust in Jesus.” The Saracens fled. \n\nReflection\nThe 41 years of Clare’s religious life are scenarios of sanctity: an indomitable resolve to lead the simple\, literal gospel life as Francis taught her; courageous resistance to the ever-present pressure to dilute the ideal; a passion for poverty and humility; an ardent life of prayer; and a generous concern for her sisters. \n\nSaint Clare is the Patron Saint of:\nEye disorders\nTelevision
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-clare-of-assisi/2026-08-11/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260812
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260813
DTSTAMP:20170727T180846Z
CREATED:20170727T180846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180846Z
UID:50846-1786492800-1786579199@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
DESCRIPTION:Image: Stained glass window in Église Saint-Honoré-d’Eylau\, Paris | photo by Mbzt’s\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Jane Frances de Chantal\nSaint of the Day for August 12\n(January 28\, 1572 – December 13\, 1641)\nSaint Jane Frances de Chantal’s Story\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nJane Frances was wife\, mother\, nun\, and founder of a religious community. Her mother died when she was 18 months old\, and her father\, head of parliament at Dijon\, France\, became the main influence on her education. Jane developed into a woman of beauty and refinement\, lively and cheerful in temperament. At 21\, she married Baron de Chantal\, by whom she had six children\, three of whom died in infancy. At her castle\, she restored the custom of daily Mass\, and was seriously engaged in various charitable works. \nJane’s husband was killed after seven years of marriage\, and she sank into deep dejection for four months at her family home. Her father-in-law threatened to disinherit her children if she did not return to his home. He was then 75\, vain\, fierce\, and extravagant. Jane Frances managed to remain cheerful in spite of him and his insolent housekeeper. \nWhen she was 32\, Jane met Saint Francis de Sales who became her spiritual director\, softening some of the severities imposed by her former director. She wanted to become a nun but he persuaded her to defer this decision. She took a vow to remain unmarried and to obey her director. \nAfter three years\, Francis told Jane of his plan to found an institute of women that would be a haven for those whose health\, age\, or other considerations barred them from entering the already established communities. There would be no cloister\, and they would be free to undertake spiritual and corporal works of mercy. They were primarily intended to exemplify the virtues of Mary at the Visitation–hence their name the Visitation nuns–humility and meekness. \nThe usual opposition to women in active ministry arose and Francis de Sales was obliged to make it a cloistered community following the Rule of Saint Augustine. Francis wrote his famous Treatise on the Love of God for them. The congregation consisting of three women began when Jane Frances was 45. She underwent great sufferings: Francis de Sales died; her son was killed; a plague ravaged France; her daughter-in-law and son-in-law died. She encouraged the local authorities to make great efforts for the victims of the plague\, and she put all her convent’s resources at the disposal of the sick. \nDuring a part of her religious life\, Jane Frances had to undergo great trials of the spirit—interior anguish\, darkness\, and spiritual dryness. She died while on a visitation of convents of the community. \n\nReflection\nIt may strike some as unusual that a saint should be subject to spiritual dryness\, darkness\, interior anguish. We tend to think that such things are the usual condition of “ordinary” sinful people. Some of our lack of spiritual liveliness may indeed be our fault. But the life of faith is still one that is lived in trust\, and sometimes the darkness is so great that trust is pressed to its limit.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/aint-jane-frances-de-chantal/2026-08-12/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260813
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260814
DTSTAMP:20170727T180849Z
CREATED:20170727T180849Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180849Z
UID:50847-1786579200-1786665599@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saints Pontian and Hippolytus
DESCRIPTION:Image: Diptych of Saints Pontian and Hippolytus | liturgies.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaints Pontian and Hippolytus\nSaint of the Day for August 13\n(d. 235)\nSaints Pontian and Hippolytus’ Story\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nTwo men died for the faith after harsh treatment and exhaustion in the mines of Sardinia. One had been pope for five years\, the other an antipope for 18. They died reconciled. \nPontian. Pontian was a Roman who served as pope from 230 to 235. During his reign he held a synod in Alexandria which confirmed the excommunication of the great theologian Origen. Pontian was banished to exile by the Roman emperor in 235\, and resigned so that a successor could be elected in Rome. He was sent to the “unhealthy” island of Sardinia\, where he died that same year of harsh treatment. With him was Hippolytus with whom he was reconciled. The bodies of both were brought back to Rome and buried as martyrs with solemn rites. \nHippolytus. As a priest in Rome\, Hippolytus–the name means “a horse turned loose”–was at first “holier than the Church.” He censured the pope for not coming down hard enough on a certain heresy—calling him a tool in the hands of one Callistus\, a deacon—and coming close to advocating the opposite heresy himself. When Callistus was elected pope\, Hippolytus accused him of being too lenient with penitents\, and had himself elected antipope by a group of followers. He felt that the Church must be composed of pure souls uncompromisingly separated from the world: Hippolytus evidently thought that his group fitted the description. He remained in schism through the reigns of three popes. In 235\, he also was banished to the island of Sardinia. Shortly before or after this event\, he was reconciled to the Church\, and died in exile with Pope Pontian. \nHippolytus was a rigorist\, a vehement and intransigent man for whom even orthodox doctrine and practice were not purified enough. He is\, nevertheless\, the most important theologian and prolific religious writer before the age of Constantine. His writings are the fullest source of our knowledge of the Roman liturgy and the structure of the Church in the second and third centuries. His works include many Scripture commentaries\, polemics against heresies\, and a history of the world. A marble statue dating from the third century\, representing the saint sitting in a chair\, was found in 1551. On one side is inscribed his table for computing the date of Easter; on the other\, a list of how the system works out until the year 224. Pope John XXIII installed the statue in the Vatican library. \n\nReflection\nHippolytus was a strong defender of orthodoxy\, and admitted his excesses by his humble reconciliation. He was not a formal heretic\, but an overzealous disciplinarian. What he could not learn in his prime as a reformer and purist\, he learned in the pain and desolation of imprisonment. It was a fitting symbolic event that Pope Pontian shared his martyrdom.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saints-pontian-and-hippolytus/2026-08-13/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260814
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260815
DTSTAMP:20170727T180851Z
CREATED:20170727T180851Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180851Z
UID:50848-1786665600-1786751999@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe
DESCRIPTION:Image: Stained glass in Our Lady of Czestochowa Grotto (Sorrowful Mother Shrine) | photo by Nheyob\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSaint Maximilian Mary Kolbe\nSaint of the Day for August 14\n(January 8\, 1894 – August 14\, 1941)\nSaint Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s Story\nClick to hear audio clip ►\n“I don’t know what’s going to become of you!” How many parents have said that? Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s reaction was\, “I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared\, holding in her hands two crowns\, one white\, one red. She asked if I would like to have them—one was for purity\, the other for martyrdom. I said\, ‘I choose both.’ She smiled and disappeared.” After that he was not the same. \nHe entered the minor seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Lvív–then Poland\, now Ukraine– near his birthplace\, and at 16 became a novice. Though Maximilian later achieved doctorates in philosophy and theology\, he was deeply interested in science\, even drawing plans for rocket ships. \nOrdained at 24\, Maximilian saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day. His mission was to combat it. He had already founded the Militia of the Immaculata\, whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of the good life\, prayer\, work\, and suffering. He dreamed of and then founded Knight of the Immaculata\, a religious magazine under Mary’s protection to preach the Good News to all nations. For the work of publication he established a “City of the Immaculata”—Niepokalanow—which housed 700 of his Franciscan brothers. He later founded another one in Nagasaki\, Japan. Both the Militia and the magazine ultimately reached the one-million mark in members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to Mary. \nIn 1939\, the Nazi panzers overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow was severely bombed. Kolbe and his friars were arrested\, then released in less than three months\, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. \nIn 1941\, Fr. Kolbe was arrested again. The Nazis’ purpose was to liquidate the select ones\, the leaders. The end came quickly\, three months later in Auschwitz\, after terrible beatings and humiliations. \nA prisoner had escaped. The commandant announced that 10 men would die. He relished walking along the ranks. “This one. That one.” \nAs they were being marched away to the starvation bunkers\, Number 16670 dared to step from the line. \n“I would like to take that man’s place. He has a wife and children.”\n“Who are you?”\n“A priest.” \nNo name\, no mention of fame. Silence. The commandant\, dumbfounded\, perhaps with a fleeting thought of history\, kicked Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek out of line and ordered Fr. Kolbe to go with the nine. In the “block of death” they were ordered to strip naked\, and their slow starvation began in darkness. But there was no screaming—the prisoners sang. By the eve of the Assumption\, four were left alive. The jailer came to finish Kolbe off as he sat in a corner praying. He lifted his fleshless arm to receive the bite of the hypodermic needle. It was filled with carbolic acid. They burned his body with all the others. Fr. Kolbe was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982. \n\nReflection\nFather Kolbe’s death was not a sudden\, last-minute act of heroism. His whole life had been a preparation. His holiness was a limitless\, passionate desire to convert the whole world to God. And his beloved Immaculata was his inspiration. \n\nSaint Maximilian Mary Kolbe is the Patron Saint of:\nAddicts\nDrug addiction
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/saint-maximilian-mary-kolbe/2026-08-14/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260815
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260816
DTSTAMP:20170727T180854Z
CREATED:20170727T180854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170727T180854Z
UID:50851-1786752000-1786838399@www.thefranciscanfriars.org
SUMMARY:Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary
DESCRIPTION:Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary\nSaint of the Day for August 15\nThe Story of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary\nClick to hear audio clip ►\nOn November 1\, 1950\, Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: “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 to heavenly glory.” The pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops\, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church. \nWe find homilies on the Assumption going back to the sixth century. In following centuries\, the Eastern Churches held steadily to the doctrine\, but some authors in the West were hesitant. However by the 13th century there was universal agreement. The feast was celebrated under various names–Commemoration\, Dormition\, Passing\, Assumption–from at least the fifth or sixth century. Today it is celebrated as a solemnity. \nScripture does not give an account of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless\, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as God’s people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testaments\, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the woman’s victory. \nFurthermore\, in 1 Corinthians 15:20\, Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. \nSince Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life\, it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to believe in Mary’s share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth\, she must be with him body and soul in heaven. \n\nReflection\nIn the light of the Assumption of Mary\, it is easy to pray her Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) with new meaning. In her glory she proclaims the greatness of the Lord and finds joy in God her savior. God has done marvels to her and she leads others to recognize God’s holiness. She is the lowly handmaid who deeply reverenced her God and has been raised to the heights. From her position of strength she will help the lowly and the poor find justice on earth\, and she will challenge the rich and powerful to distrust wealth and power as a source of happiness.
URL:https://www.thefranciscanfriars.org/event/solemnity-of-the-assumption-of-mary/2026-08-15/
CATEGORIES:Saint of the Day
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR