FOURTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASSUMPTION

                        August 18

                         Gospel

                      Luke 1:41-50 

At that time, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, the moment that the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who has believed, because the things promised her by the Lord shall be accomplished. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid; for, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; because He Who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name; and His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him.

             FOURTH DAY WITHIN 

   THE OCTAVE OF THE ASSUMPTION 

The Liturgical Year - Ven. Dom Prosper Gueranger

In the eternal decrees Mary was never separated from Jesus; together with Him, she was the type of all created beauty. 

When the Almighty Father prepared the heavens and the earth, His Son who is His Wisdom, played before Him in His future humanity as first exemplar as measure and number, as starting point, center and summit of the work undertaken by the Spirit of Love; but at the same time the predestined Mother, the woman chosen to give to the Son of God from her own flesh His quality of Son of Man. appeared among mere creatures as the term of all excellence in the various orders of nature, of grace and of glory. We need not then be astonished at the Church putting on Mary's lips the words first uttered by Eternal Wisdom: 'From the beginning and before the world was I created.' The divine ideal was realized in her whole being, even in her body. To form out of nothing a reflection of the divine perfections is the purpose of creation and the law even of matter. Now next to the face of the most beautiful of the sons of men, nothing on earth so well expressed God as the Virgin's countenance. 

St. Denis is said to have exclaimed on seeing our Lady for the first time: 'Had not faith revealed to me thy Son, I should have taken thee for God.' Whether it be authentic or not to place it in the mouth of the Areopagite, this cry of the heart expresses the feeling of the ancients. We shall be the less surprised at this, if we remember that no son ever resembled his mother as Jesus did; it was the law of nature doubled in Him, since He had no earthly father. It is now the delight of the angels to behold in the glorified bodies of Jesus and Mary new aspects of eternal beauty, which their own immaterial substances could not reflect. Now the unspeakable perfection of Mary's body sprang from the union of that body with the most perfect soul that ever was, excepting, of course, the soul of our Lord her Son. With us, the Original Fall has broken the harmony that ought to exist between the two very different elements of our human being, and has generally displaced, and sometimes even destroyed, the proportions of nature and grace. It is very different where the divine work has not thus been vitiated from the beginning: so that in each blessed spirit of the nine choirs, the degree of grace is in direct relation to His gifts of nature. Exemption from sin allowed the soul of the Immaculate One to inform the body of its own image with absolute sway, while the soul itself, lending itself to grace to the full extent of its exquisite powers, suffered God to raise it supernaturally above all the Seraphim, even to the steps of His own throne. For in the kingdom of grace, as in that of nature, Mary's supereminence was such as became a Queen. At the first moment of her existence in the womb of St. Anne, she was set far above the highest mountains; and God, who loves only what He has made worthy of His love, loved this entrance, this gate of the true Sion, above all the tabernacles of Jacob. It was indeed impossible that the Word, who had chosen her for His Mother, should, even for an instant, love any creature more, as being more perfect. Throughout her life there was never in Mary the least want of correspondence with her preventing graces; so great perfection could not brook the least failing, the least interruption, the least delay. From the first moment of her most holy Conception till her glorious death, grace operated in her without hindrance, to the utmost of its divine power. Thus, starting from heights unknown to us, and doubling her speed at each stroke of her wings her powerful flight bore her up to that nearness to God, where our admiring contemplation follows her during these days. Our Lady, moreover, is not only the first-born, the most perfect, the most holy, of creatures and their Queen-or rather she is all this, only because she is also the Mother of the Son of God. 

God the Father Designing the Immaculate Conception

If we wish only to prove that she alone surpasses all the united subjects of her vast empire, we may compare her with men and with angels, in the order of nature and of grace. But all comparison is out of the question if we try to follow her to the inaccessible heights, where, still the handmaid of the Lord, she participates in the eternal relations which constitute the Blessed Trinity. What mode of divine charity is that whereby a creature loves God as her Son? But let us listen to the Bishop of Meaux, not the least of whose merits is to have understood as he did the greatness of Mary: To form the holy Virgin's love, it was necessary to mingle together all that is most tender in nature and most efficacious in grace. Nature had to be there, for it was love of a son; grace had to act, for it was love of a God. But what is beyond our imagination is that nature and grace were insufficient; for it is not in nature to have God for a son; and grace, at least ordinary grace, cannot love a son as God: we must therefore rise higher. Suffer me, 0 Christians, to raise my thoughts to-day beyond nature and grace, and to seek the source of this love in the very bosom of the Eternal Father. The divine Son, of whom Mary is Mother, belongs to her and to God. She is united with God the Father by becoming the Mother of His only begotten Son, who is common to her and the Eternal Father by the manner of His conception. But to make her capable of conceiving God, the Most High had to overshadow her with His own power-that is, to extend to her His own fecundity. In this way Mary is associated in the eternal generation. But this God, who willed to give her His Son, was obliged also, in order to complete His work, to place in her chaste bosom a spark of the love He himself bears to His only Son, who is the splendour of His glory and the living image of His substance. Such is the origin of Mary's love: it springs from an effusion of God's heart into hers; and her love of her Son is given to her from the same source as her Son Himself. After this mysterious communication, what hast thou to say, 0 human reason? Canst thou pretend to understand the union of Mary with Jesus Christ? It has in it something of that perfect unity which exists between the Father and the Son. Do not attempt any more to explain that maternal love which springs from so high a source, and which is an overflow of the love of the Father for His only begotten Son.'

August 18 - Agapitus of Palestrina - Martyr

Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, sends a representative to Mary's court to-day, in the person of its valiant and gentle martyr, Agapitus. By his youth and his fidelity, he reminds us of that other gracious athlete, the acolyte Tarcisius, whose victory, gained on August 15, is eclipsed by the glory of Mary's queenly triumph. During the persecution of Valerian, and just before the combats of Sixtus and Lawrence, Tarcisius, carrying the body of our Lord, was met by some pagans, who tried to force him to show them what he had; but, pressing the heavenly treasure, to his heart, he suffered himself to be crushed beneath their blows rather than 'deliver up to mad dogs the members of the Lord.' 

Agapitus, at fifteen years of age, suffered cruel tortures under Aurelian. Though so young he may have seen the disgraceful end of Valerian; while the new edict, which enabled him to follow Tarcisius to Mary's feet, had scarcely been promulgated throughout the empire, when Aurelian, in his turn, was cast down by Christ, from whom alone kings and emperors hold their crowns.

PRAYER

Let Thy Church rejoice,

O God, relying on the

intercession of blessed Agapitus.

Thy martyr; and by his glorious

Prayers, may she remain devout

and be securely supported.

Fourth day within the Octave of the Assumption The Roman Breviary - Vespers

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Judith 13:22-23

The Lord hath blessed thee by his power, because by thee he hath brought our enemies to nought. Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the earth.

Hymn

Ave, star of ocean,

Child divine who barest,

Mother, Ever-Virgin,

Heaven's portal fairest.

Taking that sweet Ave

Erst by Gabriel spoken,

Eva's name reversed,

Be of peace the token.

Break the sinners' fetters,

Light to blind restoring,

All our ills dispelling,

Every boon imploring.

Show thyself a mother

In thy supplication;

He will hear who chose thee

At his incarnation.

Maid all maids excelling,

Passing meek and lowly,

Win for sinners pardon,

Make us chaste and holy.

As we onward journey

Aid our weak endeavor,

Till we gaze on Jesus

And rejoice forever.

Father, Son, and Spirit,

Three in One confessing,

Give we equal glory

Equal praise and blessing.

Amen.

Prayer

Almighty everlasting God, who hast taken body and soul into heaven the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of thy Son: grant, we beseech thee, that by steadfastly keeping heaven as our goal we may be counted worthy to join her in glory.