Coreggio's famed Assumption fresco

VIGIL OF THE ASSUMPTION OF
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
[Anticipated]

Dieric Bouts the Elder

The Torture of St. Hippolyte

after 1468
Oil on wood, 90 x 89.2 cm
St Salvator Cathedral, Bruges

Saint Cassian tortured by

his pagan pupils

SAINTS HIPPOLYTUS AND CASSIAN
Martyrs

SIMPLE / PURPLE
Our Lady was acclaimed as Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Shortly before Bernadette's vision at Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception was defined. And now her glorious assumption into heaven has been revealed to us as a dogma. In her Immaculate Conception, Mary was the sole human being who perfectly fulfilled God's will. As Mother of God, Mary became the co-redeemer of the human race. At the Assumption she was the first to enter, body and soul united, into the final glory awaiting redeemed mankind after the general resurrection. Thus, all through her temporal life, Mary was the expressed ideal of God's plan of creation.

INTROIT Ps. 44:13, 15-16
All the rich among the people shall seek your favor. Behind her the virgins shall be led to the king; her friends shall be brought to you with gladness and joy.
Ps. 44:2. My heart overflows with good tidings; I sing my song to the king.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
O God, You willed to choose the womb of Blessed Mary as Your dwelling place. Grant that we may joyfully celebrate her feast under the shield of her protection; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

Commemoration of SAINTS HIPPOLYTUS AND CASSIAN
Hippolytus was a prominent priest of the church of Rome at the beginning of the third century. Together with the Pope St. Pontian he was exiled to Sardinia, and his sufferings ended in martyrdom A.D. 235.
In about the year 320, officials at Imola, Italy, arrested Cassian, a Christian schoolmaster. The governor ordered him to be tortured by his own pagan pupils. After making barbarous sport of Cassian in various ways, the pagan boys stabbed their former teacher to death with their stilettos.
 
O Almighty God, grant that our solemn celebration of the feast of your holy martyrs Hippolytus and Cassian may increase our devotion and bring us closer to our salvation. Through our Lord . . .

LESSON Eccli. 24:23-31 [Sirach]
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 of 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.

GRADUAL
You are blessed and venerable, O Virgin Mary, for without the loss of your virginity you became the Mother of our Saviour.
V. O Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world cannot contain enclosed Himself in your womb and was made man.

GOSPEL Luke 11:27-28
At that time, as Jesus spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee and the paps that gave thee suck." But he said: "Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. "

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON
Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary, who bore the Creator of all things. You brought forth your own Creator, and yet you remain a virgin forever.

SECRET
O Lord, may the intercession of the Mother of God bring our offerings to Your merciful attention, for You took her out of this world that she might plead with confidence before Your throne for the forgiveness of our sins. Through the same Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord, who lives and rules with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Commemoration of SAINTS HIPPOLYTUS AND CASSIAN
Look kindly upon the gifts Your people offer on this feast day of Your saints. May the testimony that these saints gave to th etruth help us toward salvation. Through our Lord . . .
 

COMMUNION ANTIPHON
Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal God.

POSTCOMMUNION
Support us in our weakness, O merciful God. May we rise again from our sins through the intercession of the Holy Mother of God, whose feast we are preparing to celebrate. Through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and rules with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Commemoration of SAINTS HIPPOLYTUS AND CASSIAN

O Lord, may the reception of Your Sacraments save us and confirm us in the light of Your truth. Through our Lord . . .