Day 9 (August 14)
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him (Lk. 9:37).
For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, (1 Cor 15:53-54)
So far from light emerging gradually out of the womb of our darkness, it is the Light, existing before all else was made which, patiently, surely, eliminates our darkness. As for us creatures, of ourselves we are but emptiness and obscurity. But you, my God, are the inmost depths, the stability of that eternal milieu, without duration or space, in which our cosmos emerges gradually into being and grows gradually to its final completeness, as it loses those boundaries which to our eyes seem so immense. Everything is being; everywhere there is being and nothing but being, save in the fragmentation of creatures and the clash of their atoms. Blazing Spirit, Fire, personal, super-substantial, the consummation of a union so immeasurably more lovely and more desirable than that destructive fusion of which all the pantheists dream: be pleased yet once again to come down and breathe a soul into the newly formed, fragile film of matter with which this day the world is to be freshly clothed.
I know we cannot forestall, still less dictate to you, even the smallest of your actions; from you alone comes all initiative — and this applies in the first place to my prayer. Radiant Word, blazing Power, you who mould the manifold so as to breathe your life into it; I pray you, lay on us those your hands — powerful, considerate, omnipresent, those hands which do not (like our human hands) touch now here, now there, but which plunge into the depths and the totality, present and past, of things so as to reach us simultaneously through all that is most immense and most inward within us and around us. May the might of those invincible hands direct and transfigure for the great world you have in mind that earthly travail which I have gathered into my heart and now offer you in its entirety. Remold it, rectify it, recast it down to the depths from whence it springs. You know how your creatures can come into being only, like shoot from stem, as part of an endlessly renewed process of evolution. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Even after Christ had ascended to heaven she remained united to Him by a most ardent love while she faithfully fulfilled the new mission of spiritual Mother of the most beloved of the disciples and of the nascent Church. It can be asserted that the whole life of the humble handmaid of the Lord, from the moment when she was greeted by the Angel, until her assumption in body and soul to heavenly glory, was a life of loving service. We, therefore, associating ourselves with the Evangelists, with the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church, recalled in the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium (Chap. VIII), full of admiration, contemplate Mary, firm in her faith, ready in her obedience, simple in humility, exulting in praising the Lord, ardent in charity, strong and constant in the fulfillment of her mission to the point of sacrificing herself, in full communion of sentiments with her Son who immolated Himself on the Cross to give men a new life. Before such splendor of virtue, the first duty of all those who recognize in the Mother of Christ the model of the Church, is to unite themselves to her in giving thanks to the Most High for working great things in Mary for the benefit of all mankind. But this is not enough. It is also the duty of all the faithful to pay as tribute to the most faithful handmaid of the Lord, a veneration of praise, of gratitude and of love because, by a wise and mild divine provision, her free consent and her generous cooperation in the designs of God had, and still have, a great influence in the attainment of human salvation. Therefore every Christian must make St. Anselm’s prayer his own: “Oh, glorious Lady, grant that through you we may deserve to ascend to Jesus, your Son, who through you deigned to descend among us”. (Pope St. Paul VI)
Prayers
Come, let us sing with joy, and devoutly celebrate these sacred solemnities; let the Church resound with the praises of this day to the honor of the Most High God. For on this festal day did Christ give manifest signs of his great glory; that we may recount the same, may he give us his aid and fill us with his grace. Christ, then, the mighty God, the giver of life, and conqueror of death, the true Sun of justice, today transfigured on Thabor’s height, did glorify the flesh he had taken of the Virgin. O how happy the lot of the good! For such will be the resurrection of the blessed. As shines the sun in fullness of his light, so shone the countenance of God and Man, as the Gospel testifieth. The brightness, too, of his sacred robe gave testimony of his Godhead and of the glory to come. Wondrous the honor and sublime: wondrous exceedingly, O God, is the power of thine almightiness. And when Christ, the power of God, to Peter and the sons of Zebedee did clearly show the glory of his majesty, lo! they beheld, as Luke doth testify, Moses and Elias. This we learn of Matthew, that they were seen speaking with God, the Son of God the Father. Oh! how noble and how holy, how good and full of all joy, to speak to God!
Great is the glory of this day, consecrated by the voice of God, and exceeding is its honor; a cloud did overshadow them, and the Father’s voice proclaimed: “This is my Son.” Hear ye his voice: for the words of life hath he, who can do all things by his word. This is Christ, the King of all, the world’s salvation and the light of Saints, the light enlightening all things. This is Christ, the Father’s Word, by whom he destroys the bitter law set in us by the wicked enemy, the cruel serpent, who, pouring out his poison upon Eve, did work our ruin. Christ by dying healed us, who by rising restored our life and condemned the tyranny of death. This is Christ, the eternal peace, ruling both depths and height; to whom from heaven the Father’s voice bore testimony.
At his voice those three aforesaid fathers were afraid, and prostrated on the earth when the word was uttered. At length they rise, Christ bidding them; they gaze around intently, but at once see none but Jesus. Wishing these things to be concealed, Christ suffers them not to be uttered, until the restorer of life and conqueror of life’s enemy should rise triumphant over death. This is the day so worthy of praise, whereon are wrought so many holy signs; may Christ, the splendor of God the Father, by the prayer of his holy Mother, deliver us from death. To thee, O Father, thee, O Son, and thee, O Holy Ghost, be, together with highest power, the praise and honor due! Amen. (Adam of St. Victor)
We greet you, glorious Mother of the Redeemer, Ark of the Covenant, in whom the mystery of Redemption was fulfilled: in you the promise of Emmanuel, God-with-us, became a reality, and God was made our brother. We greet you, humble Handmaid of the Lord, who gave the Son of God to mankind, and, as the obedient Woman, by your fiat you taught us to accept with docility all that he asks of us. We greet you Blessed Virgin, who accompanied and followed your divine Son, suffering and crucified, to his death, and at the foot of the Cross became "our Mother", Mother of the Church and of all humanity. We greet you, Virgin who prayed with the Apostles in the Upper Room: by your intercession for us you obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews heaven and earth.We greet you, glorious Virgin, in the mystery of your Assumption into heaven: in you God the Father anticipated what he intends to accomplish at the end of time for all those who die in communion with Jesus Christ, his Son and your Son. We greet you, Queen of Angels and Saints; you intercede for us from heaven and sustain us on our earthly pilgrimage to the promised land: Keep our faith alive, our hope firm and our love fervent for God and for our brothers and sisters.
In contemplating the mystery of your Assumption O Mary, let us learn to evaluate earthly affairs in the proper light. Help us never to forget that our true and definitive dwelling place is heaven, and support us in our effort to live together here below in ever greater brotherhood and solidarity. Make us workers of justice and peacemakers in the name of Christ, our true peace. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! (Pope St. John Paul II)
Litany of the Transforming Light
V. Lord, have mercy on us.
R. Christ have mercy on us.
V. Lord, have mercy on us, Christ, hear us.
R. Christ, graciously hear us.
V. God the Father of heaven,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. God the Holy Spirit,
R. Have mercy on us.
V. Holy Trinity, one God,
R. Have mercy on us.
Lord Jesus, Word through whom God spoke and there was light, enlighten us.
Lord Jesus, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, “
Lord Jesus, whose face shone like the sun in the Transfiguration,
Lord Jesus, whose clothes became white as light on the holy mountain,
Lord Jesus, Dayspring who gives light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Lord Jesus, light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel,
Lord Jesus, in whom was life that was the light of the human race,
Lord Jesus, light shining in the darkness,
Lord Jesus, light whom the darkness has not overcome,
Lord Jesus, true light who enlightens everyone,
Lord, Jesus, light of the world,
Lord Jesus, who give the light of life to those who follow you,
Lord Jesus, whose face radiates the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,
Lord Jesus, whom we behold with unveiled face,
Lord Jesus, who transforms us into your likeness from one degree of glory to another,
Lord Jesus, in whom we are light and walk as children of the light,
Lord Jesus, who give light to those who sleep in death,
Lord Jesus, who enables us to share the inheritance of the saints in light,
Lord Jesus, radiance of God’s glory,
Lord Jesus, who calls us out of darkness into your marvelous light,
Lord Jesus, Morning Star rising in our hearts,
Lord Jesus, Lamb who are the lamp giving light to the city of God,
Our Lady of the Transfiguration, enlighten our path
Our Lady of Light, “
Mother of the Light,
Mother of the Star which never sets,
Dawn of our salvation,
Beacon of hope,
Radiant mirror of justice,
Seat and light of wisdom,
Untarnished image of the Church,
Woman clothed with the sun,
Woman with the moon under her feet,
Woman crowned with twelve stars,
Woman assumed into glory,
V. Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, R. Spare us, O Lord.
V. Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, R. Graciously hear us, O Lord.
V. Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, R. Have mercy on us.
V. You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God.
R. Let your everlasting Light shine upon us through the prayers of the Theotokos.
Let us pray
Upon a high mountain,
O God of majestic glory,
you revealed Jesus
in the mystery of his transfiguration
as your Son, the Beloved,
to whom we must listen.
By the word of his gospel,
shining for ever as a light in the darkness,
give us hope in the midst of suffering
and faith to perceive, even in the passion and cross,
the glory of the risen Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)
Almighty God,
you looked with favour upon a humble virgin and raised her up,
so that she became the Mother of your only Son
and was crowned in heaven with incomparable glory.
Through the prayers of blessed Mary
may we who are saved by the mystery of your redemption
be raised by you to everlasting life.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)