Text Box: THIS WEEK WE CELEBRATE: August 4 - Tuesday – St. John Mary Vianney, priest. – universally known as the “Cure of Ars”; compassionate spiritual counselor who spent usually no fewer than eleven hours every day in the confessional in the winter, sixteen in the summer; patron of priest and confessors. August 5 - Wednesday – The Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. – Following the declaration of Mary as THEOTOKOS – “God – Bearer” by the Council of Ephesus in 431, Pope Sixtus III erected in Rome this oldest basilica in the West dedicated to the Mother of God. August 6 - Thursday – Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. – Celebrated by 5th c. East Syrians, this feast was inserted into the general calendar in 1457 by pope Callistus III to celebrate the defeat, announced in Rome on 6 August, of the Turks at Belgrade. August 6th occurs 40 days before the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, September 14th. The purpose of this feast is to celebrate that glorious event in the life of Jesus Christ, the Transfiguration, which some Holy Fathers call the second Epiphany of the Lord. The observance of this feast goes back to the 4th century. At that time, St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, built a church on Mt. Tabor in honor of the Lord’s Transfiguration. At the end of the 11th century, the Crusaders founded several churches and monasteries on Mt. Tabor. From the early Church history, there was a custom of blessing grapes and other fruits. This week - on Thursday, August 6th - GRAPES AND OTHER FRUIT WILL BE BLESSED. Please bring baskets of grapes and fruits during 8.00am Holy Mass. August 9 – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin and Martyr. – Born of Jewish parents in 1891; influential philosopher and convert to Catholicism; entered the Discalced Carmelites in 1933; arrested by the Nazis in 1942 and transported by cattle train to the death camp of Auschwitz where she died in the gas chamber. because of her beauty; O.P. tertiary who lived a life of penance and solitude, caring for the homeless, elderly and sick. She died in 1617 at the age of 31. First declared saint of the New World (1672); patroness of the Philippines and of South America, especially Peru; also of florists and gardeners. ******************************************* ST. ANNE’S GUILD CORNER: Scheduled upcoming events, please mark your calendars! Sunday, October 4; Harvest Bake sale, after all Masses. Sunday October 18; St. Margaret Mary Feast Day Dinner- @ 3 pm Sunday, December 13, Gaudete Bake Sale; after all Masses. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Next week, Saturday, August 15, we will celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; known also as the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin (in the Eastern Churches), for Her body did not know corruption after death, but together with her soul, was taken up into heaven. We have no historical data to indicate how long the Mother of God remained on earth after the Ascension of Christ into heaven, nor when, where, or how she died, for the Gospels say nothing of this. The foundation for Text Box: the feast of the Dormition is to be found in the sacred tradition of the Church dating from apostolic times, apocryphal writings, the constant faith of the People of God and the unanimous opinion of the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church of the first thousand years of Christianity. The earliest written tradition which speaks of the death of the Most Holy Mother of God is given in the work, which, in the Western Church, is known by the title “The Transition (death) of St. Mary. From this work, which we summarize here, we learn the details of the holy and wonderful Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God: “Three days before the death of Mary, the Archangel Gabriel appeared and announced to her from her Son, Jesus Christ, the time of her departure into eternity. On the day of her death, in a miraculous manner the Apostles gathered in Jerusalem, although they had been scattered in various countries of the then-known world. St. Thomas was the only Apostle absent. The Mother of God expressed her wish to be buried in Gethsemane near her parents and her spouse, Joseph. Christ, in person, came, accompanied by Angels and Saints, to escort His Most Holy Mother to heaven. The Apostles, while singing holy hymns, carried the body of Mary to the grave where they remained keeping vigil for three days. On the third day, St Thomas came from afar and desired very much to view for the last time the Most Pure Mother of God. When the grave was opened, her body was not there, only the funeral clothes in which the body was wrapped, and flowers: lilies and roses. The Apostles then realized that Mary had been taken up body and soul into heaven. From the beginning of the sixth century, it was believed by many that the tomb of the Most Holy Mother of God was to be found in the Church of the Assumption in Gethsemane. The first church was built there in the fourth century. The Church on Mount Zion was regarded as the site of her dormition. The feast of the Dormition is one of the oldest of Marian feasts. It began in Jerusalem shortly after the Council of Ephesus (431); and it was called “The Feast of Mary Mother of God”. In the sixth century this feast received its present day title: “The Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God” in the East, and The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Western Church. Holy Father Pius XII, after obtaining the opinions of all the bishops of the Catholic Church, in his Apostolic Constitution, “Most merciful God”, on the first of November 1950 solemnly proclaimed to the whole world, a Dogma: “By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we proclaim, declare and define as a truth revealed by God, that the Immaculate Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, having ended the course of her life on earth, was taken body and soul into heavenly glory.” Saturday, August 15th is not the Holy Day of obligation. Novus Ordo Holy Masses will be celebrated at : 8.00AM (Eng.). This Feast is associated with the old custom of the blessing of flowers and herbs. On Saturday, August 15th, during the 8.00AM, we will have the blessing of flowers and herbs. Please bring them to our church. You can also offer some flowers to Our Lady’s Shrine in our church. FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS & CLEANING TEAM FOR THE CHURCH We all appreciate the beautiful floral arrangements in our Church. Is there no one else who would like to keep our church beautiful? We urgently need more volunteers to learn and help to arrange flowers in our church. We need you urgently. We also greatly need families and single persons to clean our church. THANK YOU FOR YOUR POSITIVE ANSWER. We still need more people. If you would like to help, please contact the Parish Office: 510-482-0596.