August: The Assumption and Coronation of Mary
See below for the theological basis of these feast days.
Calendar of Upcoming Events
Visit the Pilgrim Our Lady of Fatima Statue August 20! 
Guards are needed to accompany the Pilgrim Our Lady of Fatima Statue during its visit to St. Michael Parish on Saturday, August 20. If you would like to help, you should text Glenda Dubsky at 650 9967305 or at [email protected]. The schedule is at right.
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is a beautiful hand-carved image of Our Lady of Fatima given to the United States by the bishop of Fatima after being blessed by Pope Paul VI in 1967. She was crowned by Cardinal O’Boyle at the National Basilica in Washington, DC in 1971.
The purpose of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue tour was and still is to bring the graces of Fatima and Our Lady’s message of hope, peace and salvation to those many millions of people who may never have an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Fatima itself.
St. Michael Pancake Breakfast August 21
Pancakes will be served after the 6:45, 8 and 9:30 AM Masses. This event is to benefit St. Michael School. We need Knights to help with cooking, cleaing and logistics. Contact Dennis Lundbom at [email protected] or Jim Gagliardi at [email protected] to learn how best to help. At any rate, bring your families and spread the word!
RIP Brother William Adams
Brother Bill Adams died July 9 and his funeral will be at 11 AM on Friday the 12th at St. Michael Church.
The rosary for Bill will begin at 10:30 AM in the church, immediately preceding the funeral.
A reception will be held in the Large Hall after the funeral. Please help with set up. Check with the event contact for when setup will occur.
Because of my travel schedule, DGK John Christman will be our lead for this event, his email contact is [email protected].
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
Help at the St. Michael Hispanic Family Retreat August 13 and 14
The St. Michael Hispanic Family Retreat needs help at various times on Saturday and Sunday. Some examples are
- coffee Set up Lg Hall 7:30am-9am saturday and sunday
- Lunch Cook Team Saturday 11am-2pm Saturday Lg Hall
- Lunch Cook Team Sunday 10am-3pm sunday at St Michael School
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To fix Saturday afternoon School yard to carry the drinks and set up tents
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Help to clean after the event.
Contact Ricardo Garcia 925-339-5435 or Irving Garcia 925-339-5342 and [email protected], if you'd like to help in some way.
Bring Your Family For Burgers and Hot Dogs Sunday August 14 from 12-3
We will have a lunch celebrating the end of the Hispanic Retreat open to the whole parish from 12 noon to 2:30 PM at the St. Micheal School yard.
Bring your family and come help if you are able.
We can also use help with set up.
Dennis Lundbom is the contact for this event [email protected]
Elderly Knights and Widows Outreach
If you have been a member of our Council but have not been able join us for health reasons, or if you are the widow of one of our Knights, our Council would like to re-establish contact with you. Feel free to send an email to [email protected] so that we can reach you.
Our August Marian Feasts
On August 15, the Church celebrates the bodily assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. This event is not recorded in the New Testament, but Mary's bodily assumption into heaven is a tradition shared by the East and the West.
Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; nor wilt then give thy holy one to see corruption.
Psalm 15:10[1]
The assumption of Mary in Heaven is not explicitly described in the scriptures but is attested to by holy tradition. The above Psalm passage is generally applied to Jesus’ resurrection, but it is also applicable to Mary, because of her immaculate conception and utter fidelity to God. The assumption of Mary was defined as an official dogma of the Catholic Church on November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. Here we give St. Gregory of Tours’ account (late 500s AD) as excerpted by Taylor Marshall on his website:
The Apostles took up her body on a bier and placed it in a tomb; and they guarded it, expecting the Lord to come. And behold, again the Lord stood by them; and the holy body having been received, He commanded that it be taken in a cloud into paradise: where now, rejoined to the soul, she rejoices with the Lord’s chosen ones.
Gregory of Tours, Book of Miracles, 1:4
[1] Here we have used the Douay-Rheims translation rather than the Revised Standard because it more accurately captures the sense in the Vulgate, the Septuagint and the Hebrew. Note that the chapter number here is that of the Vulgate and Septuagint, whereas in the Hebrew it is Tehillim 16:10. Many modern translations of Psalms follow the Hebrew numbering.
On August 22, the Church celebrates Mary's coronation as Queen of Heaven. This feast day is also not recorded in Scripture but rather a result of tradition and the pious reflection of the church on Mary's role in salvation history.
"So Bathsheeba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother; and she sat on his right." -- 1 Kings 2:19
In ancient Israel, each king had many wives, however he had only one mother. Thus, the mother of the king was referred to as the queen and she could intercede with her son for petitioners, as seen in the above quote from 1 Kings.
This tradition reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the Kingship of Jesus, who had no wife but did have a mother. So, just as Jesus is the triumphant King of Heaven, so His mother is the Queen of Heaven. We remember Mary's coronation in Heaven by the Trinity in the last Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.
The devotion of remembering Mary as the Queen of Heaven has been practiced since the late 1700s, when Jesuit Fr. Latomia recommended it to help resist immorality among students in the spring. This devotion spread throughout the Latin Church and was formally recognized by Pope Pius VII in 1815. In 1945, Pope Pius XII solidified May as a Marian month after establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary on May 31st. For this reason, many Catholic parishes have a long tradition of crowning statues of Mary with a flowery crown in May. In the revision of the Church calendar after Vatican II, this feast day was moved to August 22 and May 31st became the feast of the Visitation of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56).