Random Update

I guess I should be updating this soon enough.

Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Mother clothed with light, plead for mercies, on the day of your Assumption, from that Fruit which dawned from your womb, for the assembly that has come to your banquet and extols on the day of your passing, that in unity and perfect love, it may magnify your name… — Basilica Hymn

In the mid 5th century, when the Roman Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria wished to obtain the body of the Blessed Virgin, St. Juvenal of Jerusalem informed them that there was no body. When after she had been buried, St. Thomas, having arrived late, requested to see her but the grave was found empty and the Apostles concluded that she had been carried off to heaven by the angels.

The St. Andrew Missal explains: “Her life was spent in helping the Apostles and in praying for the conversion of the world. On the third day after Mary’s death, when the Apostles gathered around her tomb, they found it empty.” Apocryphal works would expand on the story of how St. Thomas had seen the Holy Mother being carried by angels, and thus wanted to open the grave to confirm what had been revealed to him on his way to west from India.

The dogma of Mary’s Assumption stands, as with so many other articles of our faith, as a stumbling block and nonsense to those outside of the Apostolic Christian faith, but to those who have been enlightened by the light of Christ’s teaching, it gives joy and hope. To Catholics, it is a reassurance of God’s faithfulness and a glimpse of the promise of eternal life.

Blessed are you, who, on the day of her assumption, caused a commotion among angels: they came and accompanied your soul in reverence with your resplendent body; — Basilica Hymn

Mary’s Assumption is the belief that Mary did not suffer the corruption of death, but having been delivered from it, she was carried, body and soul, to heaven, being the first human to experience the resurrection and eternal life. This article of faith, shared by all Apostolic denominations, was formally declared as a dogma of the Catholic faith by Pope Pius XII on November 1,1950. The Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium, reaffirmed that she had been assumed into heaven and been installed, by our Lord Jesus, as Queen over all.

The belief in the Assumption of Mary proceeds exactly from the Church’s understanding of her purity. As Lumen Gentium rightfully points out, it is because she was preserved “free from all stain of original sin,” that she was taken up into heavenly glory. The Incarnation of our Lord in the womb of Mary presupposes her Immaculate Conception, which in turn leads to her Assumption. The Eastern Churches refer to her Dormition in that she did not experience the “sting of death” {1 Cor 15.55}, but went through death as one falling asleep. The Chaldean Church refers to her Departure (shunaya), because she crossed from this life into the next. Truly from all age, God had prepared Mary; the Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen explains, “She existed in the Divine Mind as an Eternal Thought before there were any mothers.”

Blessed is Christ who honored you, O spring of purity, and brought your soul and your splendidly-clothed body to the land of life and the bedchamber of happiness. — Basilica Hymn

This is what our people declare in their Hymn on the Feast of Her Assumption. Our Church of the East tradition had Three Feast days associated with St. Mary, of which the third was associated with her Departure. This commemoration of her Assumption takes place in the Liturgical calendar on August 15th, a date that had been accepted universally by the Church back as early as the 6th century.

The Assumption of Mary is a matter of hope for the faithful of the Chaldean Church. As those familiar with the Church’s tradition will be quick to recognize, the bedchamber of the heavenly bridegroom is the location of the fulfillment of God’s promise to the saints. {cf. Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body and current teaching which places Marriage squarely as a Sacrament of the salvation story} St. Mary is the first who is admitted to that promised resurrected life. Christ is the bridegroom and so the bedchamber belongs to Him. He vanquished death, removing its sting, and His bodily resurrection is something accomplished by Himself as God. But Mary was saved from death and resurrected and taken body and soul, in an anticipation of what all the faithful will experience. It is a sign of her participation of Christ’s resurrection. They too will be raised up into the heavenly bedchamber.

Again, her Assumption is a matter of hope, in that she has been installed as the Queen of Heaven, being the Mother of Christ our Lord and savior. She is interceding on our behalf to her Son, as she did at the wedding at Cana. She can be implored to ask the Lord for mercy and the Church prays in the Basilica Hymn of her Feast Day: “Ask him on our behalf for mercies and the forgiveness of debts, that we may be worthy, with you and with the angels, to cry out and say: Hallelujah!”

The Assumption attests to God’s faithfulness. The promise of the eternal life to come, the destruction of death’s dominion over us has been realized. No matter how dreary the plight suffered by a Christian, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a mother who looks after her children, pleading to her Son, who has realized in her the promise He made to His Apostles, to His church. It is why Pope Benedict can proclaim “The luminous sign of Our Lady taken up into Heaven shines out even more brightly when sad shadows of suffering and violence seem to loom on the horizon.” {Pope Benedict XVI, 2006}

May and St. Mary

May is a month dedicated to St. Mary.  The association of the month with Mary was established in the West probably in the 13th century., the link perhaps coming about as the Christian baptizing of pagan harvest feasts, yet the connection of the Holy Mother to the harvest feasts came about much earlier.

In the Old Testament, God’s connection with the bounty of the land is well attested.  Indeed it was right and proper to implore His blessings and give Him thanks for harvests.  Israel celebrated three Harvest festivals, Pescha {Passover}, Shav’outh {Feast of Weeks} that marked the appearance of the “first fruits” of the harvest, and the Sukkot {Feast of Booths} that marked the ingathering.  Shav’outh would occur in May or June.

With the early Christians, a further connection was made also between the Holy Mother and the harvests; she was after all the one who conceived, bore, and gave birth to our Savior, the fruit of her womb, Jesus.

In the Chaldean liturgical cycle, there were three feasts dedicated to St. Mary as the protector of the fields, one for the blessing of planting, one for the protection of the first fruits, and one for the blessing of the harvest.  The blessing of the planting was connected to the Annunciation, and her conception of the Christ, and the last of these, the blessing of the harvests, with the death and subsequent Assumption of Mary.  The second feast has retained it’s agricultural reference as the “Commemoration of St. Mary for the protection of the fields,” remembering how St. Mary protected and nourished the Child in her womb until the time of His birth.  This is the feast which was celebrated recently {May 15th}.

May indeed has been a month special to the Church in their reverence to St. Mary, and more recently, the month has been further associated with Mary with the apparition of our Lady of Fatima starting on May 13th, 1917.

May the Blessed Virgin’s prayers be of benefit to all the faithful, to whom she is a mother as well.

Lenten Meditation for “Paloo”

All the saints were triumphant in fasting, fasting from sin and not only from bread.
Moses on Mt. Sinai was triumphant, and Elijah also was elevated by it.
Our Savior Jesus, by it conquered death and granted victory to our nature.
And he gave us authority that if it be our desire, we too shall conquer.
Let us confess Him who by His glorious fast made known to us His divinity, to Him be glory!
– Evening Hymn of Paloo

Thus we proclaim in one of our Hymns during the “Paloo” evening prayer service.  The Aramaic name “Paloo” comes from the word “Palga” meaning half, and with half of Lent finished it behooves us to reflect on our fast.  Why have we gone down this road?  Is it a benefit to us?

The Memorial of the Faithful Deceased

O Christ King, give rest to your servants’ spirits in peace among all your saints, where suffering does not reign, nor grief or distress, but the promised eternal life. – Mawtwa

On Friday, March 4th, the last Friday of the Season of the Epiphany, St. Mary’s parish celebrated the Memorial of the Faithful Deceased.  This commemoration is the Chaldean equivalent to that of All Soul’s in the Roman liturgical calendar, or the Saturday of the Dead in the Byzantine liturgical calendars.  In these Eastern rites, the date is the eight Sunday before Easter, and two before Lent, but on that day, the members of those churches traditionally began to abstain from meat.  But in our Chaldean (Church of the East) practice, this date marks the last Friday before entry into Lent itself.

Walk for Life 2011

This past year has shown an increase in activity for those who support abortion, as can be seen from the increased push for it in the UN to its infiltration into the health care reform that was proposed and passed.  Since the landmark and unjust ruling in 1973, abortion has been a mainstay of the attack on human dignity, the protection of the innocent and their right to life.  Why is there this concerted effort to undermine our social fabric and promote the culture of death through abortion, contraception, and euthanasia? Pope John Paul II once said something that indicates the source of this attack, “Life, especially human life, belongs only to God; for this reason whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God Himself.”

How to Prepare for “Subara”

The Messiah was born in Bethlehem, and from the East, Magi came to honor him. They asked, and said: “Where was the king born? For we have come to bless and adore him.” (Basilica Hymn)

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wrote that there were two classes of men who visited the Christ, the Majestic King of all, as a babe in his crib.  “Shepherds: those who know they know nothing.  [And] wise men: those who know they do not know everything… Only the simple and only the wise find Christ, because both are humble; both acknowledge either ignorance or the limitation of human knowledge.”  This season of Advent, Subara, that we have entered, contains one of the great Mysteries that was revealed to us, a Mystery that cannot even now be completely fathomed by human investigation.

The great Mystery that had been hidden for centuries and for generations has been revealed to us in the final age: the Only-Begotten, who is in the Womb of his Begetter, came and assumed the form of a servant in his grace; and he related and revealed to us the perfect faith of the Trinity. (Basilica Hymn)

Celbrating Our Belonging to Each Other in Christ

The following is a copy and paste from Kaldu.org.  It is a wonderful analysis that was written by our bishop, H.E. Mar Sarhad Y. Jammo, more than a year ago, but one that I have been going back to on several occasions.  It is worth re-posting here.  As you can see by my activity on this blog, I blog about as frequently and as well as I keep a journal or diary… and I am sorry.  More to come soon… relatively… and hopefully…

October 14, 2009

Celebrating Our Belonging to Each Other in Christ
By: Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo

Numerous faithful of our parishes in north California are scheduled to come to St. Peter Cathedral in San Diego, for a first-time Pilgrimage, on Saturday, October 17-18, 2009.  The historic meaning of this event cannot be ignored. 

Celebrating Full Unity

The following article was taken from Kaldu.org.  This is a news report on a joyous visit from our bishop Mar Sarhad.  Our newly united parish celebrated the Holy Offering with the new reformed missal.

On Sunday, February 21, 2010, in an unprecedented gathering of Christian unity and solidarity, over 400 faithful parishioners packed the standing-room-only St. Mary’s Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church to mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of our beloved Church and Diocese.  During this blessed day of prayer, the parishioners were introduced to the newly reformed mass, reflecting the authentic and cherished heritage of our forefather, the Church of the East.  The beautiful mass was lead by our spiritual leader, His Grace Mar Sarhad Yosip Jammo and the two parish priests, Father Youshia Sana and Chorbishop Samuel Dinkha, who were accompanied by a large number of Deacons and the mesmerizing voice of a 40-member strong choir.

The Walk For Life

The following was posted at Kaldu.

It has been brought to my attention that the flicker account where I got some of the following photos from is actually public.  For more photos please see Walk for Life West Coast 2010.

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It was a rainy Saturday morning and we were really hoping that it would clear up like it was supposed to. Many phone calls were being made, and much discussion of where and how the youth of St. Peter, St. Mary, St. Thomas, and St. Matthew parishes would find each other… the parishes being spread from San Diego to San Jose. The youth were using this day’s occasion, to once again meet each other and together, walk, proclaim, and pray for life and it’s sanctity. And I was very proud of them, and blessed to be with them. And this walk for me was to serve as a great source of hope.