August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary....

With my son home from college, things have been a bit topsy-turvy this summer.  I get into a routine when he is gone and then he comes home and it is all disrupted!  Soon he will be back at school, no more mess all over the house, no more bad treats to tempt me, no more annoying arguments and I will miss him terribly!  And hopefully, my writing will be a little more regular and punctual.....

Holy Church honors the Immaculate Heart of Our Heavenly Mother this month.  This traditional feast is celebrated August 22nd, along with the new feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Of course, we also celebrate the great feast of her Assumption and her Seven Joys!  Let us all attend Holy Mass on the Assumption, even though it may not be a holy day of obligation.  Let us prove our love and devotion to her!  As I said in a previous post....what is love if it is never tested? 

We also celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord, which is a sadly over-looked feast.  We have 2 patron saints of gardeners this month, Saint Rose of Lima and Saint Fiacre of Brie (actually on the same day!).  In the preparedness and sustainability world, we like gardens!  The more the better!  And we celebrate two of the Church's great mothers-Saint Helena and Saint Monica.  So let's have a look at a sampling of this month's feasts:

8/1-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop, Doctor-patron of confessors & moral theologians (it is said he suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder) (New)

8/2-Saint Alphonsus Liguori (Trad)

8/4-Saint John Vianney, Priest-patron of parish priests (his heart is incorrupt-I saw it once!) (New)/Saint Dominic, Priest, Founder of Dominicans, Seer of the Holy Rosary (Trad)

8/5-Saint Emygdius, Bishop, Martyr-invoked against earthquakes (Non-Standard)

8/6-Transfiguration of Our Lord

8/8-Saint Dominic (New)/Saint John Vianney (Trad)

8/9-Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin, Religious, Martyr

8/11-Saint Chiara of Assisi (Saint Clare or Clara), Virgin, Founder of Poor Clares (New)

8/12-Saint Chiara of Assisi (Trad)

8/14-Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Priest, Founder, Martyr-patron of drug addiction sufferers & political prisoners/Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Trad)

8/15-ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (all of my sources indicate this is not a holy day of obligation in the US this year and I must say this makes me very sad-we must make reparation to her poor heart!)

8/16-Saint Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary

8/18-Saint Helena, Widow, Empress, Mother of Constantine, Finder of the Holy Cross-patron of converts and marital difficulties

8/21-Our Lady of Knock (Non-Standard)

8/22-Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary/Immaculate Heart of Mary

8/23-Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin-patron of South America & gardeners (New)

8/24-Saint Bartholomew, Apostle of Our Lord, Martyr-patron of plasterers

8/27-Saint Monica, Mother of Saint Augustine-patron of mothers/Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Non-Standard)

8/28-Saint Augustine, Bishop, Doctor-patron of theologians

8/29-Passion of Saint John the Baptist

8/30-Saint Rose of Lima (Trad)/Saint Fiacre of Brie, Hermit-patron of gardeners & car service workers