August 22, 2004 Sunday After the Dormition

St. Ephrem Mission will not offer services this Sunday, Aug. 22, due to summer travels and pastoral visitation.

We invite you to share our liturgical readings for the First Sunday After the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos:
O marvellous wonder!
The source of life is laid in the tomb,
and the tomb itself becomes a ladder to heaven...

Before Holy Qurbana
Exodus 14: 21-31
I Samuel 8: 4 -9
Isaiah 43: 1-5
Holy Qurbana
I John 2: 22-29
Ephesians 6: 10-17
Luke 6 : 39 - 45

Meditations from the Universal Church

The Mystery of the Virgin Mary
by Archbishop Stylianos of Australia
excerpt:
It was precisely this most central position and relationship of the Virgin Mary with the entire plan of the Divine Economy which allowed the Church Fathers to form and develop not only a typological, but also a substantial parallel between the Virgin Mary and the Church in general.
The central axis of this parallel is the fact that both are simultaneously Mother and Virgin, having maternity and virginity absolutely, since both are brought about "by the Holy Spirit". The almost complete identification of the mystery of the Virgin Mary with the Mystery of the entire Church is perfectly and epigrammatically expressed even in the psalm verse "glorious things are spoken of You, O city of God" (Ps 87:3).
It is the unique case in all of Creation when one single person "represents" the entire city of God, that is to say the multitude of "people being deified".
This image alone would be sufficient to declare for all time the breadth and depth of the mystery of the Virgin Mary, which she herself had confessed with contrition and appreciation when foretelling doxologically:
from now on all generations will call me blessed. (Lk 1:48)

from Voice of Orthodoxy, v. 18(8) published by the Archdiocese of Australia http://home.it.net.au/~jgrapsas/pages/Mystery.html


Mary is first to receive glory, Mary is Church's pattern
Behold Your Mother: Woman of Faith
Pope JPII & NCCB of USA
excerpts:
The Solemnity of the Assumption puts before our eyes the reigning of our God and Christ's power over all creation.

Every man and woman is called to share in this glory, as St. Irenaeus says: Gloria Dei vivens homo; vita autem hominis visio Dei. (Adv. Haer. IV, 20, 7) These words express our personal vocation in the world and in the Church.

In the mystery of the Assumption, Mary is the first to receive the glory; the Assumption represents as it were the culmination of the Easter mystery.

Today Christ embraces Mary, . . .receiving her into Heaven in her glorified body, as if to hasten for her "the Day" of His glorious return to earth, "the Day" of the universal resurrection, awaited by humanity.

The Assumption into Heaven is like a great anticipation of the ultimate fulfillment of everything in God, in conformity with what the Apostle Paul writes: Then comes the end, when he [Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father ... that God may be everything to everyone. (1 Cor 15:24, 28)

Is not God everything in her:

I greet you, daughter of God the Father!
I greet you, Mother of the Son of God!
I greet you, mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit!
I greet you, Temple of the Holy Trinity!

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.... And a great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (Rev 11:19; 12:1)

This vision in the Book of Revelation is considered, in a certain sense, as the last word in Mariology. However, the Assumption, which is magnificently expressed here, at the same time has its own ecclesiological meaning:

2.
United to the victorious Christ in Heaven, Mary is "the image and first-flowering of the Church as she is to be perfected in the world to come."
She shines forth "as a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim People of God." In her Assumption, Mary manifests the fullness of redemption, and appears as the "spotless image" of the Church responding in joy to the invitation of the Bridegroom Christ, Himself the "first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20).

1. Mary is the first to receive glory, Mary is the Church's pattern
Pope John Paul II: Angelus & Homily, Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, 1995
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP950815.HTM

2. Behold Your Mother: Woman of Faith, n 59
Pastoral Letter, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Nov. 21, 1973.
http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=5244