Our Lady on Saturday: The Ongoing Work of the Assumption

St. Amadeus of Lausanne was educated at Cluny and, like so many other young noblemen, fell under the spell of St. Bernard and entered Clairvaux, eventually becoming Abbot of Illautcombe in 1139 and Bishop of Lausanne in 1144. His sermons remain classics of devotion to the Mother of God.

In his Seventh Homily on the Blessed Virgin Mary, he speaks of the Blessed Mother's ongoing work of intercession in heaven, saying that the Assumption was not the completion of her work or only a reward for her exemplary life, but that she was raised up so that she could pray all the more effectively for the living and the dead

When the Virgin of virgins was led by God and his Son, the King of kings, amid angels triumphant, archangels rejoicing, and heaven resounding with praises, then was fulfilled the prophecy of David, who said to the Lord: "the Queen stood on your right hand in a vesture of gold, wrought about with diverse colours." Then, according to the word of Solomon:" Daughters have risen up and called her blessed and queens have praised her." "Who is she", says the heavenly virtues, "who ascends in white, leaning upon her beloved?" And again: "Who is she who goes forth like the rising dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?" Again they say, " Who is she who goes up through the desert like a column of smoke from the perfumes of myrrh and incense and all the powders of the perfumers?" That splendour is for us strange and wondrous, strange and glorious, this plan of her Assumption; strange and pleasing, this most sweet odor.

The Feast of the Assumption

Our Lady as Queen of Heaven, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

Christ * ascended to the highest heaven, * where He prepared for His most pure Mother an incorruptible dwelling. * Today’s feast is incomparably greater than the feasts of all other saints. * The angelic choirs of heaven’s courts look on in amazement * as Mary, filled with bliss and glory, * enters heaven for the celebration of the divine espousals. * From heaven may Mary, in her love and goodness, * think evermore of us, who think of her.

-Antiphon for I Vespers of the Assumption from the Cistercian Breviary.

 

Assumption banner, St. Michael's, Ghent.

O with what glorious luster thou shinest,
Daughter of royalty, David’s descendant!
Throned in majesty, Mary the Virgin,
Now midst the blessed one, sitting exalted.

Joining with motherhood virginal honour,
Holy and spotless ,one, chastely thou gavest
Shrine for the heaven-sent Lord of the Angels;
Thus in humanity God was incarnate:

Whom the whole universe lowly adoreth,
Bending the knee to him meetly in homage:
On this thy holy day pray him to grant us
Light and felicity, darkness dispelling.

This of thy clemency, Father of glory,
Grant through thy Son, who, with thee and the Spirit,
In the bright firmament liveth and reigneth,
Evermore ruling and ordering all things. Amen.

O quam glorifica (Maid, who mantled in the sun)
Hymn of Vespers for the Assumption

Assumption image on the high altar in Argeles-sur-Mer.

The Assumption, Rest, and Blessed Geurric of Igny

The Virgin gathers the Cistercians under her mantle .

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption.  As summer draws to an end and life begins to pick up its pace, I was reminded of a passage from the sermons of Blessed Geurric of Igny on Mary, the Assumption, and rest.   

Bl. Guerric, was known for his devotion to the Virgin and died on the Octave of the Assumption in 1157, which Cistercians keep as their principal feast. Here is what he says in his Third Sermon on the Assumption about the rest secured by the Virgin and the model it presents for us:

    Continue, Mary, continue free from anxiety in the good things of your Son; act with all confidence as Queen, the King's Mother and Bride. You sought rest but what is owed to you is of greater glory: queenship and power. He wishes to share his empire with you, he who shared with you in one flesh and one spirit the mystery of love and unity.... He will recall to you amid embraces and kisses, if I am not mistaken, how pleasantly he rested in the tent of your body, how with greater delight he dwelt in the inner chamber of your heart.

     God is not unjust, brethren, so as to forget a good work: the memory of a boon once received is always alive with him. Blessed is he with whom God has found rest if but once, in whose tent he has rested if only for one hour.

    Let us all then together so make a point of being quiet that in our quiet we may always be occupied with meditation on eternal quiet, and for desire of it be found ready for every work. May the blessed Mother of God, whose rest we are celebrating, obtain this for us by her prayers from him who rested in the tabernacle of her body and her heart. He is eternal rest, Christ Jesus, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.