The Vigil Of The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. 14 August.

English: The Assumption of The Virgin Mary.

Deutsch: Maria Himmelfahrt, Hochaltar für

St. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venedig.

Français: L'Assomption de la Vierge.

Artist: Titian (1490–1576).

Date: 1516-1518.

Current location: Institution:Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, Italy.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202.

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Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated.

The Vigil of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

14 August.

Violet Vestments.

The Epistle, for The Vigil Of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, is "Ego quasi vitis",

(taken from The Book of Wisdom) from the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16 July).

As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odour,

And my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.

I am the mother of fair love,

And of fear,

And of knowledge,

And of Holy hope.

In me is all Grace of the way and of the truth,

In me is all hope of life and virtue.

Come over to me,

All ye that desire me,

And be filled with my fruits;

For my spirit is sweet above honey,

And my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.

My memory is unto everlasting generations.

They that eat me, shall yet hunger;

And they that drink me, shall yet thirst.

He that hearkeneth to me shall not be confounded,

And they that work by me shall not sin.

They that explain me shall have life everlasting.

Christ, after having lain for only three days in the tomb, rose again and ascended into Heaven.

Likewise, the death of The Virgin resembled, rather, a short sleep. Hence, it was called "Dormitio" (Dormition), and before corruption could defile her body.

God restored her to life and Glorified her in Heaven.

These three privileges are celebrated by the Feast of the Assumption, which follows logically from the privilege of The Immaculate Conception and the privilege of The Mystery of the Incarnation.

For sin never having defiled the Soul of Mary, it was right that her body, in which The Word had become Incarnate, should not be tainted by the corruption of the tomb.