For the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

My 2011 Liturgical Desk Calendar made sure to inform that today IS NOT a holy day of obligation. The Catholic Source Book provides more information:

• Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass is abrogated. ("Holy Days of Obligation," pg. 328)

Gee, I'm sure glad I don't have to go to Mass! Especially on a Monday, that is especially dreadful!

</sarcasm>

The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy explains the importance of this feast day (even when it's not a holy day of obligation):

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

180. The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary clearly stands out in Ordinary Time because of its theological importance. This is an ancient memorial of the Mother of God, which signifies and synthesises many of the truths of the faith. Our Lady assumed into Heaven:

• is "the highest fruit of the redemption"196, and a supreme testimony to the breath and efficacy of Christ's salvific work (soteriological significance);
• is a pledge of the future participation of the members of the mystical Body of Christ in the paschal glory of the Risen Christ (Christological aspect);
• is for all mankind "the consoling assurance of the coming of our final hope: that full glorification which is Christ's will also be that of his brethren, since He is of the "same flesh and blood" (Heb 2, 14; cf. Gal 4,49)197 (anthropological aspect);
• is the eschatological icon in which the Church joyfully contemplates "that which she herself desires and hopes wholly to be"198 (ecclesiological aspect);
• is the guarantee of the Lord's fidelity to his promise: he reserves a munificent reward for his humble Servant because of her faithful cooperation with the divine plan, which is a destiny of fulness, happiness, glorification of her immaculate soul, her virginal body, perfect configuration to her Risen Son (mariological aspect)199.

181. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15 August) is deeply imbedded in popular piety. In many places the feast is synonymous with the person of Our Lady, and is simply referred to as "Our Lady's Day" or as the "Immacolada" in Spain and Latin America.

In the Germanic countries, the custom of blessing herbs is associated with 15 August. This custom, received into the Rituale Romanum200, represents a clear example of the genuine evangelization of pre-Christian rites and beliefs: one must turn to God, through whose word "the earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seeds in their several kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seed inside in their several kinds"(Gen 1, 12) in order to obtain what was formerly obtained by magic rites; to stem the damages deriving from poisonous herbs, and benefit from the efficacy of curative herbs.

This ancient use came to be associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in part because of the biblical images applied to her such as vine, lavender, cypress and lily, partly from seeing her in terms of a sweet smelling flower because of her virtue, and most of all because of Isaiah 11, 1, and his reference to the "shoot springing from the side of Jesse", which would bear the blessed fruit of Jesus.

For more on the Assumption of Mary, see the following articles:

• Liturgical Calendar: Solemnity of the Assumption
• The Assumption of Our Lady
• Mary's Death and Bodily Assumption
• The Vatican Council on the Assumption of Our Lady
• Mary's Assumption Reminds Us That Our True Dwelling Place Is in Heaven
• Her Assumption Befits the Mother of God
• Homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption
• Deiparae Virginis Mariae (On the Possibility of Defining the Assumption as a Dogma of the Church)
• Mary Is Church's Pattern
• Mary, the Exemplar
• The Assumption of Mary: A Belief Since Apostolic Times
• Straight Answers on the Assumption
• The Immaculate Conception and Assumption
• Mary's Assumption: Irrelevant and Irreverent?
• Munificentissimus Deus (Defining the Dogma of the Assumption)
• The Mother of God in the Mission of Salvation
• Mary and the Human Drama of Death
• Church Believes in Mary's Assumption
• Mary Is First Creature to Enjoy Eternal Life
• Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• The Feast of the Assumption
• Apocryphal Works on the Assumption of Mary
• Death and Assumption of Mary
• History of the Doctrine of the Assumption
• Some Thoughts on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Its Foundation in Her Role as Coredemptrix
• The Woman of Rev 12
• Answering James White on the Bodily Assumption of Our Lady
• Assumptions about Mary
• How to Argue for Mary's Assumption
• The Assumption of Our Lady
• The False Assumption of Protestants Regarding the True Assumption of Mary
• What Is the Scriptural Support?
• Feast of the Assumption ("Marymass" or "St. Mary's Day")
• In What Year Was Mary Assumed Into Heaven?
• In Her End, the Promise of Our Beginning

See also my debate on the Assumption of Mary, in three Parts: Part 1 -- Part 2 -- Part 3.

Pax Christi,
phatcatholic