Matthew Monday: By the Beach on the Assumption of Mary

 Saturday, August 15^th, was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and there is a tradition of blessing of the ocean and sea on this day.  Catholic World Report explains it:

 

For hundreds of years, Catholic parishes in coastal cities have participated in the tradition of blessing the sea and praying for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Assumption.

 

While believers in landlocked areas may be unfamiliar with the practice, it is a longstanding tradition that provides an opportunity not only to pray for safe travel at sea during the coming year, but also to profess one’s faith outside of church walls, one priest told CNA.

 

This happens to be a traditions some five hundred years old.

 

The tradition of blessing of the sea dates back to 15th century Italy and has since become a custom in coastal cities throughout Europe and the United States.

 

According to the Trenton Monitor, the custom is believed to have begun when a bishop traveled by sea during a storm on the Feast of the Assumption. The bishop then threw his pastoral ring into the ocean and calmed the waters.

 

So I decided to take Matthew and we headed to the beach on Staten Island.  I snapped a picture from the sand bank—perhaps it’s called a “seawall”—that was built as protection from hurricanes. 

 

Matthew took his skateboard, which he didn’t use and I wound up carrying.  But we had a nice couple of hours, and I gave the ocean a blessing.  ;)

Faith Filled Friday: The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

From the Book of Revelations (12:1-6):

1 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. 

2 She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.   

3 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.   

4 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. 

5 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. 

6 The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.

This is the day we celebrate the bodily assumption into heaven of our Blessed Mother.  If you want to read a good piece on why the day is so important, read here from the Catholic news site, aleteia.  

The dignity of the Immaculate Conception is uniquely Mary’s; but the dignity of living body and soul with God, which the Assumption foreshadows, that can be ours. That is, in fact, the great promise Christ offers us; and Mary shows the fulfillment of this promise to us in her Assumption.

And I was directed to this blog, The Jagged Word, of a group of Lutheran pastors, where one of them, Graham Glover, wrote this post, “Protestantism’s Greatest Heresy – Ignoring the Blessed Mother.”  Glover laments the diminution of the Blessed Virgin in Protestant worship. 

Rather, we lump her together with the other saints of the New Testament. But the Blessed Mother is nothing of the sort. She is no ordinary saint. She is the saint of saints. She is the Theotokos – the Mother of God, a title given her at the Council of Ephesus in 431 and echoed in the Lutheran Book of Concord. The Blessed Mother is the example that all Christians should emulate. Her “Yes” to the angel Gabriel is an act of faith that sets the standard for all of the Church to follow.

And he concludes with one of the best homage to our lady that I have come across:

To ignore the Blessed Virgin Mary makes no sense. Without her our Christology is shot. Without her our hermeneutics are insignificant. Without her our understanding of sin and grace is incomplete. Without her we cannot call ourselves part of the Body of Christ. This woman is our Mother, commended to the Church by our Lord Himself. And to ignore her is something no Christian should ever do.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee;

Blessed art thou among women,

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.