High Summer Feast Day

Today is the memoria of Our Lady, Queen and Mother and I was thinking why has the Church put this memoria in front of us.

I then remembered that in normal Catholic countries, last Monday would had been the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Fr Alan said after a high feast, there would had been a smaller feast on the eighth day after that feast - which would be called the Octave.  Fr Alan said the Solemnity of the Assumption of the BVM used to be our summer high feast and today, the octave of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the BVM, would therefore be the smaller feast of Our Lady, Queen and Mother. 

In the days before the Reformation, the people in this country would had celebrated this Summer High Feast with dancing and feasting on the streets.  However, after the Reformation, the puritans cancelled all of this celebration and public holiday.

Fr Alan said as Christians had not been called to be puritans. Fr Alan also said if we do not know how to feast, then we do not know how to fast.

Another thing is that Our Lady has been honoured by the Christian Church for 2000 years. However, after the Reformation, the Protestants threw Our Lady out with the bathwater. 

In other words, it is normal for Christians through the ages to honour Our Lady.  The key operating word here is HONOUR - not worship. Like the way you honour your father and mother!

So let us pray that we become moderate Christians and not become puritans. O Lord, teach us to walk the middle path, and not always thinking we are right and better than others. Amen