Pope's Intentions
Universal: That refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights.
For Evangelization: That Christians in Oceania may joyfully announce the faith to all the people of that region.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Solemnity
Commentary of the day
Blessed Guerric of Igny (c.1080-1157), Cistercian abbot
1st Sermon for the Feast of the Assumption, 1-4 ; SC 202 (trans. Cistercian Fathers series)
Mary, mother of all the living
“Come, my chosen one and I will set up my throne in you” (Latin Liturgy)… “Blessed are those whom you have chosen, Lord; they shall live in your courts” (Ps 65[66],5). More than that, you will live in them, you will in them, and you will set up the throne of your kingdom in them. Of them all, Mary is the most blessed. She of all the elect was unique way chosen and singled out, for the Lord has chosen her to be his dwelling, saying: "She shall be my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen her" (Ps 131[132],14). He lived in her for nine months; he lived with her and was subject for so many more years… But now, through his dwelling in her and with her for all eternity and in a manner incomprehensible, her cup of joy overflows with the glory of the beatific vision. Outwardly he shows her the form of his glorified flesh, while within her he imprints the form of the glorifying Word…
She who is the Virgin-Mother, she who glories in having borne the Only-begotten Son of the Father, embraces that same Only-begotten of hers in all her members and so can be truly called Mother of all in whom she recognizes her Christ to have been formed, or in whom she knows he is being formed. The first Eve… is indeed called the mother of the living, but she turned out to be more precisely… the mother of the dead… And as Eve was incapable of fulfilling the vocation of her title, Mary consummated the mystery. She herself, like the Church of which she is the type, is a mother of all who are reborn to life. She is in fact the mother of the Life by which everyone lives hommes (Jn 11,25; 5,25f), and when she brought Life forth from herself she in some way brought to rebirth all those who were to live by that Life…
Thus the blessed Mother of Christ, knowing that she is the mother of all Christians by reason of this mystery, shows herself a mother by her care and loving attention… Already we really dwell in “the shadow” of the Mother “of the Most High”; we live under her protection as if “under the shadow of her wing” (Pss 90[91],1; 16[17],8). Later, in participating in her glory we shall be cherished as if in her bosom… since the King of glory has set his throne within her.