Sorrow on the Solemnity

On this day in 2004, the Blessed Virgin Mary became the instrument of my conversion, and Francine’s reversion, to Jesus Christ and to His Church. Two days ago, the Marian parish to which we belong, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, was suppressed.

Mary looms large in our Catholic life.

Today is the Solemnity of her Assumption into heaven. Francine and I call this our “Catholic anniversary”. This year, any celebration will be muted. Step by step our parish home has been stripped and scourged, until now nothing is left but the empty shell of a building. A building, no matter how magnificent and no matter how much I cherish it, is as nothing against the reality of a scattered and bereft congregation.

And yet, today, a new abbot will be installed at Saint Martin’s Abbey, of which we are oblates – a reminder that even in sorrow and grief, time moves on and we continue walking our pilgrim path.

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army set in array?

(Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption)