All posts by Paul Zalonski

Mary’s Assumption into Heaven

OL Assumption ACastagno(Vatican Radio) On August 15th each year, the Catholic Church remembers the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven.  Different traditions hold that the Virgin Mary left this earthly life between three and fifteen years after Christ’s death and Resurrection.  She was assumed into heaven, accounts say, as she reposed in eternal sleep – either in Jerusalem or in Ephesus, in modern day Turkey.

Early accounts from the Holy Land reported that a Christian cult venerating Christ’s mother had grown up around a place on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, just south of the Old City walls.  The spot, known from early times as Hagia Maria, continues to this day to be the site of prayers to Our Lady.  Today, Benedictine monks care for the Catholic Church of the Dormition built there, over the ruins of a series of early Christian shrines.

Tracey McClure sat down with the noted scholar and author Fr. Peter Stravinskus, who has led us on reflections on the holy sites in the land of Christ’s birth – to ask him his thoughts on this Jerusalem shrine, celebrating the Virgin’s death and Assumption into heaven…

Listen to Tracey McClure’s conversation with Fr. Peter Stravinskus

132 Annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

You are cordially invited to the Fifth Annual Traditional Mass Pilgrimage at The Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This Pilgrimage will take place on Saturday, July 23, 2016 from 10 A.M. – 3 P.M. The focal point of the Pilgrimage will be the Entrance of Pilgrims and Solemn High Mass celebrated according to the1962 Missale Romanum at 11 A.M.

Pilgrims will be welcomed at 10 A.M. by our Pastor, Father Marian Wierchowski SAC, a Priest of the Pallottine Fathers. Spiritual Talks of a Marian Motif will be delivered by priest pilgrims. We also will have priests hearing confessions before and during Mass for pilgrims who wish to avail themselves of the Sacrament.

There will be a Plenary Indulgence granted by devoutly visiting the Shrine, Receiving the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion within twenty days, being free from attachment to sin, and praying for the Intentions of Our Holy Father.

Pilgrims may choose to process down the nave of the Church walking on their knees or discalced, or remain in their pews. Thereafter, the Solemn High Mass will begin. The Mass to be Celebrated will be the Second Class Votive Mass of Our Patroness, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which can be found in your hand missals under the Proper of the Saints on July 16.

Following the Mass, Pilgrims may elect to have Lunch in one of the many neighborhood restaurants, or have lunch in the Parish Undercroft, during which the Martyrology will be Chanted and spiritual talks delivered, a venerable practice adopted from Seminary Refectories, Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries.

At 2:15 P.M., Pilgrims will be invited to Enroll in the Brown Scapular by the  Pallottine Fathers. It is said that those who are faithful and die wearing the Brown Scapular will be released from Purgatory on the Saturday following their death, known as the Sabbatine Privilege. Pilgrims will have an opportunity to Recite the Most Holy Rosary. The Pilgrimage will conclude with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Farewell of Pilgrims.

We hope you can join us in Pilgrimage during this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. May our Traditional Mass Communities and congregations have an abundance of fruitful and joyful exchanges, as we offer up to God the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Mass of all Ages!

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/297503747256448/

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Pontifical Shrine
448 E. 116th Street, New York, NY 10027
212-534-0681