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Upon this Rock magazine is published by EuropeAxess

Media, Gibraltar.Editor Fr. Stuart Chipolina:

editor@uponthisrock.eu Production Editor:

A. Sargentangela@europeaxess.com

Cover: RIFCOM ‘Tight Spot’ Photo: Tim Lewis

To advertise: This magazine is hand delivered to homes, churches, hospitals and many businesses around Gibraltar every month. To discuss your advertising requirements call Tel: 200 79335. Church Groups or Charities: If you would like to have an article considered for publication, please send it by e-mail to the production editor at the address above. Enquire for details of sending high resolution digital images to illustrate your article.Editorial is selected by EuropeAxess Media in liaison with the Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar. Neither of these parties is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained herein, nor do the views and opinions expressed herein necessarily reflect the views and opinions of either party. Advertisers are not endorsed by virtue of advertising in this magazine. EuropeAxess Media reserves the right to refuse space to any submissions or advertisements.

Jesus addressed this issue with those who sought him after the miracle of

the multiplication of the loaves. Were they simply hungry for things which satisfy the body or for that which satisfies the heart and soul? Jesus echoes the ques-tion posed by the prophet Isaiah: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy” (Isaiah 55:2)? Only God can satisfy the spiritual hun-ger in our heart and soul – the hunger for truth, for life, and for companionsip and love.Jesus makes a claim which only God can make: He is the true

bread of heaven that can satisfy the deepest hunger, thirst, and longing which every human be-ing experiences in life. When the Israelites journeyed in the desert wildnerness they could find no food to keep themselves alive. They complained that God had left them there to perish. God tested them to see if they would trust in his personal care and provision for them. He gave them sufficient manna each day to sustain them on their journey to the promised land. This daily provision of manna in the wil-derness could not produce long lasting satisfaction nor eteral life for the Israelites. It did however

prefigure and point to the supera-bundance of the unique bread of the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper which Jesus gave to his disciples on the eve of his sacrifice. The bread which Jesus offers his dis-ciples sustains us not only on our journey to the heavenly paradise, it gives us the abundant supernat-ural life of God which sustains us now and for all eternity. When we receive from the Lord’s ta-ble we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, who makes us sharers in his body and blood and partak-ers of his divine life. Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 A.D.) calls it the “one bread that provides the medicine of immortality, the

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antidote for death, and the food that makes us live for ever in Je-sus Christ” (Ad Eph. 20,2). This supernatural food is healing for both body and soul and strength for our journey heavenward.Jesus also spoke about the works of God and what we must do to be doing the works of God, namely to believe in God’s Son whom he has sent into the world. Jesus offers a new relationship with God which issues in a new kind of life: a life of sacrificial love, selfless service, and the forgiveness of others which cor-

responds to God’s mercy, good-ness and loving kindness; a life of holiness, purity, and truth which corresponds to God’s ho-liness; and a life of obedience and trust which corresponds to God’s offer of abundant life, peace, and happiness. This is the work which Jesus directs us to and enables us to perform in the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you hunger for the bread which comes down from heav-en and thirst for the words of everlasting life?God Bless you, Fr Stuart

Supernatural Food Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch, succeeding St. Evodius, who was the immediate successor of St. Peter, during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajen (98-117), an unyielding persecutor of the Christian Church. What we know of him stems from his writings, in particular the seven epistles Ignatius wrote. At around the year 110 A.D., Emporor Trajen sentenced Ignatius to death by exposure to lions in the arena. In his letter to the Romans, Ignatius writes: “I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God’s sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beast, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ.”

In the 1st Century they fed Christians to the lions, but there are plenty of 21st Century threats that make us afraid to follow our Christian path. Stresses that may seem to us as powerful and inescapable as the jaws of a lion.

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Cover Story: rIFCoM (BrIdgIng the gap Between ContInentS)

Beyond the blue city of the hills

On another day it is veiled in mist and lies tantalisingly out of

reach, beguiling and mysteri-ous. Another continent, a differ-ent culture beckons, so near we live as neighbours, but oh so far apart lie our historical, social, re-ligious and cultural differences. Morocco, the 57th largest coun-try in the world, has been inhab-

ited since 8,000 BC. Today it has a population of some 32mil-lion and of these; the Berbers are considered its original inhabit-ants. The Berber word ‘arif’-wise- refers to the region in the Rif’s mountain range where they live in many small dispersed villages. Interestingly, the Rif are not part of the Atlas range,

but include the mountains of southern Spain and belong to the Gibraltar Arc or Alboran sea geological region. So it seems we have grounds for a common affinity, at least as human beings.Rifcom (bridging the gap be-tween continents) is a fairly re-cently established charity of vol-unteers from Gibraltar and Spain who get involved in projects that

help enhance the lives of the Berber communities. In June this year, a group of 42 volun-teers left Gibraltar for a five day trip with this aim in mind. One of these was Nina Macedo, one of the youngest at 22 years who works in Associate Assurance with PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd, and who has shared her ex-

Africa is only a stone’s throw from the Rock, or so it seems on a clear day.

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SPONSORS OF UPON THIS ROCK

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perience with me. How did it all start? “A couple of years ago I wanted to go to Kenya to work in an orphanage, I had actually signed up and paid for it when civil unrest flared up so I had to cancel. It was a missed oppor-tunity so when this chance came along I was eager to go”. Nina had responded to a generic email at work which invited seven peo-ple from this particular company, as well as others, to participate. “An invitation to challenge your-self and make a difference”. Nina was ready, and having raised the necessary sponsorship money she set out with the group on 10th June. Leaving the Rock at the early hour of 5.am they travelled by coach to Tarifa, then by ferry to Tangier and onwards by coach to Chefchaouen, a city forty miles south of Tetouan in the heart of the Rif Mountains. This blue city of the hills has been inhabited since pre historic times and Nina found its diverse nature intriguing. “It seemed to be very western in parts, while other parts were very primitive, for instance no flushing toilets, and then again we met children

who were on Facebook”. The group spent three days in town getting acquainted with the local community. “We needed to bond with the more well off in order to approach those less well off”, and during that time they helped to paint some houses. Then it was off beyond the blue city of the hills into the ancient Rif’s land of rugged mountains which descend steeply to the coast with few cultivated areas, but where fig and olive trees clung on te-naciously. They saw women working in the few arable areas as they trudged in baking heat through valleys and rivers, inter-spersed with green and dry areas, wading through muddy patches to a small Berber village. The inhospitable conditions in which these “Free People” exist were outweighed by the warmth of their welcome. “I remember all 42 of us crammed into one small hut drinking mint tea”. These hardy people have survived cen-turies of tough living and still “live with their whole family together in small mud huts and cook in clay ovens”.

continued overleaf

Cover Story: rIFCoM (BrIdgIng the gap Between ContInentS)

Beyond the blue city of the hills Photos: Tim Lewis Text: Anne Mesilio

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Cover Story: rIFCoM (BrIdgIng the gap Between ContInentS)

continued from previous pageThis family closeness was a moving experience for Nina es-pecially as they have preserved their social customs through various waves of conquest. She explained that whilst in the mountains the group ate the same food as the Berbers which was mainly bread, mint tea and crepes and this helped them get a feel of how the people lived. It

became clear that they are happy and content in their ways, don’t want to convert to western ways, but could do with some hygiene guidance. The group went to visit a wom-en’s institute where the women were busy weaving on hand made and hand operated looms. “There is no way I would ever be able to do that”, was Nina’s immediate impression as she realised how “technology has moved us on and we in the west seem to have lost touch with basics, I’m sure we could learn something here”, she sounded thoughtful. On a visit to a school it became apparent that elemen-tary needs only were being met, “just a building with a black-

board”. She went on, “I did a music lesson with the children, well tried to anyway, I attempted to sing in Moroccan, the children in English and it was fun. Then we played games which we en-joyed”. Their guide had been to university, and while some people are quite well educated it became apparent that those in the mountains cherish their age old ways, they live simply, at one with nature. One of Rifcoms aims is to “create a source of in-come (micro economy) in the Rif region that is sustained by the local community….” (www.rifcom.org) and I find this heart-ening as President Obama said on his visit to Ghana (July 11th 2009) which I quote; “The pur-pose of foreign aid is to create conditions where it is no longer needed”. Some computers had been do-nated to these mountain schools where they had never been seen before let alone know how to use one. Was this too much too soon in areas where mules pro-vide the transport and women, once married stay at home? (It has to be said that many new laws have been passed in Mo-

rocco, one giving women more rights.) Still, misgivings gnawed at me and I asked Nina if all this westernisation was really a good thing? “I’m aware of the destructive side of technology and how adverse an effect it can have, but if used within limits, it can only help”, well, she was candid and I appreciated that. There has been massive defor-estation to make way for can-nabis plantations and the regions around Chefchaouen produce one half of the worlds supply. Their guide pointed out where the King of Spain has turned an area into a nature reserve, mak-ing it illegal to grow the marijua-na plant, but as Nina observed, “it grows everywhere and has been cultivated for centuries”. I cannot see this changing over-night.Nina was “really glad to have made the trip and would love to go back and see if things have changed”. So near and maybe not so far anymore there is an-other way of life, which, with all good intention can be enhanced for the inhabitants, with all due respect to their traditions and family values.

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Cover Story: rIFCoM (BrIdgIng the gap Between ContInentS)

A new statue of Our Lady of Europe

Religious and gift item distributors CBC in Newry, Northern Ire-

land were selected to project manage the production.Using detailed photographs of the original statue, a sculptor produced a scale model, 30cm high. A silicon rubber mold was made from this model, and a trial statue produced in a single colour. This was presented to His Lordship for approval. His Lordship found that the flowing locks of hair depicted in this first casting were too curly, and so the artist was asked to change this. A second mold was manufactured and a new prototype produced, this time with all the colouration completed. This was again sub-mitted for approval, and when

Bishop Caruana was able to pass it, production began. Initially 1000 units have been manufactured in resin and hand painted by a Tiawanese owned company in China. The statues were shipped to Newry where each one was checked and only after it had passed a stringent quality control process, passed for sale to the public as part of a range of religious statuary in the CBC ‘Florentine Collection’A percentage of the new statues have been retained in the UK for worldwide wholesale distribu-tion by CBC, and the new Our Lady of Europe statue will be included in their next annual cat-alogue. But the bulk of the first batch are being made available to us here in Gibraltar.

While this is without doubt the most beautiful statue of Our Lady of Europe, after the original, the modern production methods mean that it can be re-tailed at £19.50, considering the size and quality of the item, this is a very reasonable price point and demand is bound to be high. The new statue is available from

the Cathedral Multimedia Centre bookshop next to the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned and from St. Theresa’s Church on Devil’s Tower Road. The statue comes very well packed in thick polystyrene and a strong card-board box, this adds to the value of the statue as a gift, and makes it suitable for sending abroad.

His Lordship Bishop Caruana has commissioned a beautiful new ‘Florentine Collection’ statue of Our Lady of Europe.

700 Years of Devotion to Our Lady of Europe

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the Message of Mary to Saint Catherine labouré

On the 18th July, 1830 at 11.30 in the evening I heard someone call-

ing me “Sister, Sister, Sister.” I awoke and looked in the direc-tion that I heard the voice com-ing from, I saw a little child

dressed in white who appeared to be about 4 or 5 years old. The child said to me “let us go to the chapel. Get up quickly and go to the chapel, The Blessed Virgin is waiting for you.” These thoughts came to me but I was worried

that someone would hear me. The child told me “do not worry, it is 11.30 in the evening and eve-ryone is asleep. Come, I am wait-ing for you.”So I arose and dressed quickly while the child waited for me at the foot of the bed. He shone brightly and illuminated the path we were taking. This astonished me greatly, but I was even more surprised as I entered the chapel and found that the door opened at the child’s touch. My amaze-ment was made complete when I saw that all the candles and lights in the chapel were illuminated, as if for midnight mass. I did not yet see The Blessed Virgin.The child led me into the sanctu-ary to the chair where the Sister Director always sat, I fell to my knees and the child remained with me. I heard a rustling like the sound of a silk dress, I doubt-

ed at first that this was The Bless-ed Virgin, but there she was sit-ting on the chair. She pointed to the foot of the altar with her left hand and said that it was there, I was to open my heart then I would receive all the consola-tion that I needed. She explained everything to me, I do not know for how long I stayed there, all I know is that when she left she suddenly was gone in the same way that she arrived.I believe that this child was my guardian angel. The great-est message that she left was: “Come to the foot of this altar, I will pour special graces on you.” I can testify to that because when I went to the chapel and knelt at the foot of the altar, I felt my heart fill with a moth-er’s love. The love that only a mother can give. From that moment I knew I had a mother who loves me. I feel so loved by her that I know she is with me all the time.When I left that church with the illumination, I knew without a doubt that at the alter you receive the maternal love of Our Blessed Mother.

Testimony of one who knelt at the altar in the sanctuary at the Rue due Bac in Paris

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on pIlgrIMage

the Message of Mary to Saint Catherine labouré

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on pIlgrIMage

There I also experienced why the Pope called St Catherine “The Saint of Silence”, because she kept everything in the silence of her heart.Testimony of anothers on the same pilgrimage:“My experience at the foot of the altar was unforgettable. As I went there full of worries and anxieties and some personal problems and Our Lady, to-gether with her Son took them all and I came back a much more carefree and happier person.”AnonymousNuestra visita a la Virgen Mi-lagrosa

Soy Pepi Lopez y pertenezco al Rosario de la Milagrosa. Siemre se hablo de ir a visitar el lugar donde aparecio la Vir-gen y porfin este año lo conseg-uimos.Este viaje a sido una experi-encia inolvidable, llena de fe y de paz que recomendaria y a su vez me encataria repetir.The Miraculous Medal Group meets every Tuesday at 10.30 a.m at the fellowship room at the Catholic Community Centre to pray the Holy Rosary. Anyone wishing to join us is more than welcome.

THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

Mrs Domi Ellul kneels at the altar where Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Catherine Labouré

Book Review

Sleep-deprived, starving and gasping for air, former RAF pilot Frank

Smythe was alone on Mount Everest.One by one, his fellow moun-taineers had turned back, frozen and exhausted, and the British Everest Expedition, which had begun as a large, military-style assault, had been reduced to just one man.The date was June 1, 1933, the era of high altitude climbing was in its infancy and Everest, the world’s highest peak, had yet to be conquered.Smythe was now in the so-called

‘death zone’ - the area above 26,000ft where the amount of oxygen in the air is insufficient to sustain human life.‘Weak as a kitten’, he pressed forward, but with each step he sank deeper into the snow. The summit was only 1,000 feet higher, but it might have been 1,000 miles.Smythe was ‘overcome by a feeling of hopelessness and wea-riness’. His limbs trembled and he felt like he was suffocating.He made one last attempt to press on, but standing for a few moments ‘at the very boundaries of life and death’, at an eleva-

tion as high as any man had ever reached, he finally concluded that the summit of Everest ‘was not for mere flesh and blood’.Smythe had already earned a place in the history books. But what happened next made his story one of the most talked about endeavours in climbing folklore.Weak and desperately hungry, he reached into his pocket for a slab of Kendal mint cake.‘This I took out of my pocket and, carefully dividing it into two halves, turned round with one half in my hand to offer to my “companion”.’Smythe was a man entirely

alone, in one of the most inhos-pitable spots on earth. But aston-ishingly, throughout the solo part of his climb, he’d had a strong sensation that he ‘was accompa-nied by a second person’.And so real did this person seem that Smythe believed he, too, would need sustenance.At the moment he held out the piece of mint cake, he described the presence as ‘so near and so strong’ that it was ‘almost a shock to find no one to whom to give it’.Smythe later revealed that the ghostly companion had joined him almost as soon as he had parted company with his last re-maining comrade.But after finally making it back to base camp, he was initially too embarrassed to talk openly about the phenomenon for fear of ridi-cule.Indeed, he entered his experi-ence on the official record only after much persuasion from the expedition leader.He wrote: ‘All the time that I was climbing alone, I had a strong feeling that I was accompanied by a second person. The feeling was so strong that it completely eliminated all loneliness I might otherwise have felt.’

We never Walk aloneThe Third Man Factor: How those in dire peril have felt a sudden presence at their side, inspiring them to survive

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LEfT TO RIgHTS/LDR SMyTHE - PILOT, SIDnEy MEADOwCROfT, KEITH fAL-COnER, TIM yATES - w/OP, PETER SCOTT -R/g, f/O O’COnnORPHOTO SOURCE: PETER D SCOTTPHOTO BELIEvED TO BE TAKEn In DEC OR EARLy JAn 1941, LIKELy BU-P STIRLIng n2800 In BACKgROUnD

Book Review

We never Walk alone

The explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton made a leg-endary escape from Antarctica in 1916 after his ship Endurance was trapped in and subsequently crushed by the ice of that unfor-giving land. Shackleton and two of his men were on the final leg of their journey, having to cross an uncharted mountain range on South Georgia, a sub-Antarctic island, to reach help at a whaling station. During the crossing, each of the three men had the sense that there was another “pres-ence” with them, helping them on the arduous journey. This fourth presence which inspired T.S. Eliot to include it in his 1922 poem, “The Waste Land,” chang-ing the number to ask, “Who is the third who walks always be-side you?” This experience be-came known among climbers and other explorers as the “third man factor.” For those of us of Faith, there is no need for explanation, but the Third Man Factor is a biogra-phy of a phenomenon that seems ‘spooky’ to many people. That people at the very edge of death, often adventurers or explorers, experience a sense of an incorpo-real being beside them who en-courages them to make one final effort to survive.If only a handful of people had

ever expe-rienced the Third Man, it might be d i smi s sed as an unu-sual delu-sion shared by a few overstressed minds. But the amazing thing is this: over the years, the experience has

occurred again and again, to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, solo sailors, aviators and astro-nauts. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly sim-ilar stories of having experienced the close presence of a helper or guardian.The mysterious force has been explained as everything from hal-lucination to divine intervention. Recent neurological research suggests something else. In The Third Man Factor John Geiger combines history, scientific anal-ysis and great adventure stories to explain this secret to survival, a Third Man who — in the words of legendary Italian climber Re-inhold Messner — “leads you out of the impossible.” “Call it a guardian angel, call it hallucina-tion…it’s fascinating. Geiger’s account combines history, scien-tific analysis and true-life tales to haunting effect. I couldn’t put this down, and when I did

I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it.” – The BooksellerWe may or may not agree with the con-clusion of the book, but according to one reviewer, “With his new book, author and explorer John Geiger heads into the mystic, shed-ding new light on an ‘angelic’ pres-ence... Geiger at-tempts to get to the heart of this third man, ex-plaining how and why the be-nevolent (non) being exists us-ing both histo-ry and science as analytical tools. Geiger is uniquely qualified to do so.”

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Pausing for Reflection Angela Sargent

During the last year, I have had the privilege of being involved in

the production of a book, writ-ten by Ursula Dirmeier and first published in German. It had been translated by Julie Clinton and further readied for print by a team in Gibraltar, former Loretto Convent head-mistress Aoife Hynes and a

good friend of mine, Dorothy Prior. The title of the book, ‘In the Presence of God’ is not a phrase that we found ourselves ban-dying about overmuch as we worked. In fact we found we referred to the project as ‘The Book’ or in my case, in compu-ter files and documents relating to the production work, the rath-

er unattractive acronym IPOG. Thus I fell into the trap of not using the G word, almost as if we were back in the Old Testa-ment times again, and too afraid to use God’s holy name. When I was a teenager I had a feeling there was some se-cret, some truth, some theory of everything that I was miss-ing, What is the Point of it all? I found myself asking. I was sure there was some mystical force that if only one could tune in one would be enlightened. But where was it to be found?

At various times in my life I have been gradually enlight-ened in very small degrees, and its what Dom Sebastian Moore, the much published monk of Downside calls the ‘Tolle mo-ment’, aluding to the moment of awareness that Ekhart Tolle de-scribes in his book, ‘The Power of Now’. Eckart Tolle is a very modern prophet, who finds a home in the Buddist spirituality, but he has discovered ‘It’ that very thing I was searching for. So imagine my joy when read-ing this book which deals with the spirituality of a woman who lived 4 centuries ago, when I had not got more than 18 pages into the book before discovering that she too, had discovered ‘it’ as professed by the title of the book, she had assimilated the truth, the importance of living in the presence of God. But what do we mean by this? I had not read the book in full until after it was published, but while typesetting the text and paginat-ing the pages I was teased by the Chapter Headings and sub head-ings which seemed to speak to me in type that was bolder than

In the presence of GodMary Ward assimi-lated the Truth, and in this new book we can learn more about her spirituality.

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Pausing for Reflection Angela Sargent

the density of their ink alone.The words seemed to have a life, and as I worked through them with my daughter, we were both struck how certain phrases would require our attention, one that comes to mind is ‘This is the work of a lifetime’. We’ll talk about it more next month.This text was first broadcast on gBC Radio ‘Pause for Reflection’ Monday 15th June. Angela Sargent is a graphic designer who avoids writing but has been encouraged by her peers to reproduce her Pauses for Reflection in this magazine.

Praying for our Priests

Just over a year and a half ago I made a promise to pray for our priests

daily. (This was something which I figured I should have been doing since I was born!) At first I started with “adopting a priest” (www.pray4apriest.com) just to get into the routine of it and then it grew slowly to praying the rosary for priests (see note below). Doing this has brought a new found appreciation for the amount of selfless giving, sacrifice and hard work put into our diocese by our priests. What effort is there on our behalf to say an extra prayer a day for them, say thank you or give them a little gift just to quietly say “I appreciate everything you are doing”? I am nobody to tell you who and what to pray for, but I just want to encourage each one of us at the beginning of this World Year for the Priesthood

and let you know that there are unnumbered blessings awaiting us, when we just open our hearts and prayer time for our priests. Lots of love and continued prayers, SarahThe Rosary for Priests can be obtained at the offices of Upon this Rock magazine, please call to arrange Tel:20079335

Sarah Cumming

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Catholic Tradition Fr. Clifford Stevens: ETWN

tHe aSSuMptIon oF MarY A BELIEF SINCE APOSTOLIC TIMES

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we

don’t know how it first came to be celebrated.Its origin is

lost in those days when

Jerusalem was re-stored as a sacred

city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Con-

stantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan

city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had levelled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as ‘Aelia Capi-tolina’ in honour of Jupiter.

For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples.After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centred around the “Tomb of Mary,” close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian com-munity had lived.On the hill itself was the “Place of Dormition,” the spot of Mary’s “falling asleep,” where she had died. The “Tomb of Mary” was where she was buried.At this time, the “Memory of Mary” was being celebrated.

Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption.For a time, the “Memory of Mary” was marked only in Pal-estine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the church-es of the East. In the seventh cen-tury, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the “Fall-ing Asleep” (“Dormitio”) of the Mother of God.Soon the name was changed to the “Assumption of Mary,” since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven.That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the begin-ning was that there were no rel-ics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the

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The Assumption of Mary. Peter Paul Rubens. flemish Baroque.

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Catholic Tradition Fr. Clifford Stevens: ETWN

tHe aSSuMptIon oF MarY A BELIEF SINCE APOSTOLIC TIMES

edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrim-age. (Today, the Benedictine Ab-bey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot).At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantino-ple, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constan-tinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that

“Mary had died in the presence of the apostles;

but her tomb, when opened later . . . was

found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up

into heaven.”

In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giv-ing sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: “Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heav-enly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth.”All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemp-tion. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the

first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very begin-ning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior.The Assumption completes God’s work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God’s crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.The prayer for the feast reads: “All-powerful and ever-living God: You raised the sinless Vir-gin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul, to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as

our final goal and come to share her glory.”In 1950, in the Apostolic Con-stitution <Munificentissimus Deus>, Pope Pius XII pro-claimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: “The Immacu-late Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven.”With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God.

father Clifford Stevens writes from Tintern Monastery in Oak-dale, neb.Provided Courtesy of: Eternal word Television network5817 Old Leeds Road Irondale, AL 35210 www.ewtn.com

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