Saint Of The Month
Assumption Of Our Blessed Mother Mary - August 15
When the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, wrote St. Matthew, 'before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.' St. Luke's Gospel adds that this was told to Mary herself by the angel Gabriel, who said, 'Hail, favoured one, the Lord is with you.' Mary simply replied, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.'
While Mary carried Jesus in her womb, she visited her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the BaptiSt. Elizabeth cried, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.' It was on this occasion that Mary sang her beautiful Magnificat.
Little is told us in the New Testament about the boyhood of Jesus. St. Luke recounts his journey with his parents to Jerusalem when he was twelve. Mary, he says, kept in her heart everything she saw and learned of her son. From time to time we read of her appearances in the events of Jesus's public ministry. But at the crucifixion, according to St. John, came one of the tenderest moments between the mother and her son, as she watched him dying on the cross. Mary was standing by the disciple whom Jesus loved. He said to her, 'Behold your son', and to him, 'Behold your mother.' From that hour the disciple took Mary to his own home.
The last mention of Mary in the New Testament occurs in the Acts of the Apostles, where we learn that she was with Jesus's disciples at Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon them all. But many ancient traditions of the church glorify her - in particular by speaking of her lifelong virginity and of her bodily assumption into heaven. Other legends claim that Mary spent her childhood in the Temple.
From A Calendar of Saints, The Lives of the Principal Saints of the Christian Year.