The solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated on August 15. On this day, several masses in the Croatian language are celebrated and this since five in the morning. In 2018, at least eight masses in the Croatian language were held. In addition, masses in other languages ​​are also celebrated throughout the day. Many pilgrims came barefoot, sometimes walking like this for several days. Many confessions also take place during these days.

 

On August 15, 2018, Bishop Höser, the Holy Father's Special Envoy to Medjugorje, was the main celebrant of the Mass at 7 p.m. 108 priests concelebrated with him. Bishop Höser also gave the homily. It should be noted that during this one, Mgr Höser alluded to the apparitions of Lourdes. Here is an excerpt:

 

                            “A young girl from Nazareth gradually discovered her incomparable being, especially since she had never experienced personal sin. After the Annunciation, the angel of the Lord announced news to Mary and said to her: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you."

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Full of grace, Mary is free from original and personal sin. In Lourdes, Mary concludes this truth by saying: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

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With the Annunciation, after Mary had said: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word" (Lk 1,37), her "pilgrimage in faith" begins in which "the Blessed Virgin Mary advance, faithfully preserving her union with Christ. ”(R. Mater 5) A pilgrimage is the bond which unites the Mother of God to Christ and to the Church.

For us, Mary appears and becomes like Stella Maris - Star of the sea for all those who are still on the path of faith. Indeed, the faith of Mary is heroic, it crosses all the mysteries of the Rosary, yes, joyful, luminous and glorious, but also painful. "

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What does the catechism of the Catholic Church tell us about the Assumption of the Virgin Mary?

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"964 The role of Mary towards the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ, it follows directly from it." This union of Mary with her Son in the work of salvation is manifest from the time of the Virgin conception of Christ, until her death "(LG 57). It is particularly evident at the time of his passion:

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The Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, faithfully keeping the union with her Son until the Cross where, not without a divine plan, she was standing, suffering cruelly with her only Son, associated with a maternal heart to his sacrifice, giving to the immolation of the victim, born of his flesh, the consent of her love, to be finally, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the Cross, given as his Mother to the disciple by these words: "Woman, behold your son "(Jn 19, 26-27) (LG 58).

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965 After the Ascension of her Son, Mary "assisted the nascent Church with her prayers" (LG 69). Reunited with the apostles and some women, "we see Mary also calling with her prayers for the gift of the Spirit which, at the Annunciation, had already taken her under her shadow" (LG 59).

... also in his Assumption ...

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966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved by God from all attack of the original sin, having completed the course of her earthly life, was lifted up body and soul to the glory of heaven, and exalted by the Lord as the Queen of the universe , to be thus more fully in conformity with her Son, Lord of lords, victorious over sin and death "(LG 59; cf. the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Pope Pius XII in 1950: DS 3903). The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a unique participation in the Resurrection of her Son and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

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In your childbirth you kept your virginity, in your dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God: you joined the source of Life, you who conceived the living God and who, through your prayers, will deliver our souls of death (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion of the Feast of the Dormition [August 15]).

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... she is our Mother in the order of grace

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967 By her entire adhesion to the will of the Father, to the redemptive work of her Son, to every motion of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is for the Church the model of faith and charity. In this way she is "an eminent and absolutely unique member of the Church" (LG 53), she even constitutes "the exemplary realization", typus, of the Church (LG 63).

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968 But her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes even further. "She brought to the work of the Savior an absolutely unparalleled cooperation through her obedience, her faith, her hope, her ardent charity, so that supernatural life might be restored to souls. That is why she has become for us, in the order of grace, our Mother "(LG 61).

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969 "From the consent that she brought by her faith on the day of the Annunciation and that she maintained in her firmness under the Cross, this motherhood of Mary in the economy of grace continues without interruption until the final consummation of all the elect. In fact, after her Assumption into Heaven, her role in salvation is not interrupted: through her repeated intercession she continues to obtain for us the gifts which ensure our eternal salvation (...)  This is why the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Help of Christians, Helpers, Mediators "(LG 62). "

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Source CEC: www.vatican.va