Assumption Day

This day is the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, body and soul, into heaven.  And it's a Holy Day of Obligation, which we made by the skin of our teeth.  I played for a graduation this afternoon and there was a mountain of traffic coming back.  Just barely got back in time to change, pick up the Memsahib, and dash off to evening Mass.  Evening N.O. Mass, alas, but Mass nonethless.  And not the worst one available either.  Excellent sermon, too.

Something from St John Damascene, from the 2d nocturn of the day that's in it:

This day the holy and animated ark of the living God, she who conceived in her womb her Creator,, rests in the temple of the Lord, which was not made with hands.  And her ancestor David leaps, and with him the Angels lead the dance, the Archangels celebrate, the Virtues ascribe glory, the Principalities exult, the Powers rejoice together, the Dominations are joyful, the Thrones keep holiday, the Cherubim utter praise, the Seraphim proclaim her glory.  This day the Eden of the new Adam receives the living Paradise, wherein the condemnation was made void, wherein the tree of life was planted, wherein our nakedness was covered.

A collect from the Divine Worship Missal:

Almighty and everlasting God, who didst assume the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of thy Son, body and soul to the glory of heaven:  grant us, we beseech thee; that being ever intent on things above, we may be worthy to be partakers of her glory hereafter; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord who liveth  and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.