Ordinary Time: August 6th

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MASS READINGS

August 06, 2022 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

Feast of the Transfiguration: O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration of your Only Begotten Son confirmed the mysteries of faith by the witness of the Fathers and wonderfully prefigured our full adoption to sonship, grant, we pray, to your servants, that, listening to the voice of your beloved Son, we may merit to become co-heirs with him. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (7)

• Barbecue Pilaf
• Boiled White Icing
• Holiday Party Kisses or Meringues
• Mexican Wedding Cookies
• Seven Minute Frosting
• Spiced Grape Jelly
• Wheat Pilaf

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Activities (3)

• Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: August
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: August

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Prayers (4)

• Litany of the Most Holy Trinity
• Roman Ritual: Blessing of Grapes
• Roman Ritual: Blessing of a Granary or the Harvest
• Prayer for the Feast of St. Sixtus and Companions

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Library (2)

• Our Bodies Will Share in the Resurrection | Pope Saint John Paul II
• We Await New Heavens and a New Earth | Pope Saint John Paul II

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Blog & Podcasts (7)

• I Would Rather Be a Peasant: Contemplating the Rural Life
• Reading the Fine Print for the Liturgical Calendar (Part 1)
• Resetting Point: The Feast of the Transfiguration
• The Catholic Tradition of Harvest Feasts of Thanksgiving
• The Transfiguration: August 6
• Toasting through the Liturgical Year
• Transfiguration and confidence

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

Entrance Antiphon, Cf. Mt 17:5:

In a resplendent cloud the Holy Spirit appeared. The Father’s voice was heard: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

Gospel Verse, Mt 17:5c:

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

Preface: The mystery of the Transfiguration:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.

For he revealed his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses
and filled with the greatest splendor that bodily form
which he shares with all humanity,
that the scandal of the Cross might be removed
from the hearts of the disciples
and that he might show how in the Body of the whole Church
is to be fulfilled what so wonderfully shone forth first in its Head.

And so, with the Powers of heaven,
we worship you constantly on earth,
and before your majesty without end we acclaim:

Communion Antiphon, Cf. 1 Jn 3:2:

When Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord became widespread in the West in the 11th century and was introduced into the Roman calendar in 1457 to commemorate the victory over Islam in Belgrade. Before that, the Transfiguration of the Lord was celebrated in the Syrian, Byzantine, and Coptic rites. The Transfiguration foretells the glory of the Lord as God, and His Ascension into heaven. It anticipates the glory of heaven, where we shall see God face to face. Through grace, we already share in the divine promise of eternal life.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #554:
From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Master "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. . . and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor do the others understand it any better than he. In this context the mysterious episode of Jesus' Transfiguration takes place on a high mountain, before three witnesses chosen by himself: Peter, James and John. Jesus' face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses and Elijah appear, speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem". A cloud covers him and a voice from heaven says: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"

St. Maria Francesca Rubatto (1844-1904) is the religious name for Anna Maria Rubatto, an Italian Roman Catholic nun. She was the founder of the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto. Most of her work was done in Uruguay where she died at the age of 59 in 1904. She was canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, and is Uruguay's first canonized saint.

The Transfiguration
Our divine Redeemer, being in Galilee about a year before His sacred Passion, took with him St. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Sts. James and John, and led them to a retired mountain. Tradition assures us that this was Mount Thabor, which is exceedingly high and beautiful, and was anciently covered with green trees and shrubs, and was very fruitful. It rises something like a sugar-loaf, in a vast plain in the middle of Galilee. This was the place in which the Man-God appeared in His glory.

Whilst Jesus prayed, he suffered that glory which was always due to his sacred humility, and of which, for our sake, He deprived it, to diffuse a ray over His whole body. His face was altered and shone as the sun, and his garments became white as snow. Moses and Elias were seen by the three apostles in his company on this occasion, and were heard discoursing with him of the death which he was to suffer in Jerusalem.

The three apostles were wonderfully delighted with this glorious vision, and St. Peter cried out to Christ, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias" Whilst St. Peter was speaking, there came, on a sudden, a bright shining cloud from heaven, an emblem of the presence of God's majesty, and from out of this cloud was heard a voice which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" The apostles that were present, upon hearing this voice, were seized with a sudden fear, and fell upon the ground; but Jesus, going to them, touched them, and bade them to rise. They immediately did so, and saw no one but Jesus standing in his ordinary state.

This vision happened in the night. As they went down the mountain early the next morning, Jesus bade them not to tell any one what they had seen till he should be risen from the dead.

—Excerpted from Butler's Lives of the Saints, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

In the Transfiguration Christ enjoyed for a short while that glorified state which was to be permanently His after His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The splendor of His inward Divinity and of the Beatific Vision of His soul overflowed on His body, and permeated His garments so that Christ stood before Peter, James, and John in a snow-white brightness. The purpose of the Transfiguration was to encourage and strengthen the Apostles who were depressed by their Master's prediction of His own Passion and Death. The Apostles were made to understand that His redeeming work has two phases: The Cross, and glory—that we shall be glorified with Him only if we first suffer with Him.

—Rt. Rev. Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas

Patron: pork butchers; Borgomasino, Italy.

Things to Do:

• In the Russian Orthodox church, honey, pears, apples, plums and other fruits are brought to the church for blessing. This feast is also referred to as "Metamorphosis" in the Eastern church.

• The Transfiguration was another "firstfruits" harvest feast, particularly of grapes and wheat. The older Roman Ritual has a blessing of grapes and blessing of the harvest for this feast.

• Playing up on the brilliant white of the garments, decorating with white (tablecloth, candles, etc.) and serving some white foods (mashed potatoes, vanilla ice cream, Mexican wedding cookies, meringues, etc.) can bring to mind that dazzling white.

• This is one of the harvest feasts of the Church. Katherine Burton in her Feast Day Cookbook explains the grape and wine connection for the Transfiguration: "Traditionally on the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Pope presses a bunch of ripe grapes into the chalice at Mass or uses new wine. Also in Rome raisins are blessed on the Feast of the Transfiguration, and the Greek and Russian Churches too conduct a special ceremony for blessing grapes and other fruits. See the recipe for spiced grape jelly and Toasting Through the Liturgical Year for more details.

• Having Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration is a reminder of the Old Testament. Bring in some Jewish recipes or foods to highlight this aspect of the feast day.

• View some paintings of the Transfiguration here.

St. Maria Domenica Mantovani
Blessed Maria Francesca was born Anna Maria Rubatto in Carmagnola, Italy on St. Valentine’s day, February 14, 1844. She was only four years old when her father died, and when she was a teenager, Anna Maria received an offer of what would have been a comfortable marriage to a local notary. She turned him down, however, because as a child, she had made a vow of virginity and was determined to keep it.

When she was 19, her mother also died and Anna Maria, now alone, moved about 18 miles south to the city of Turin. There she befriended an Italian noblewoman named Marianna Scoffone, who recognized the girl’s goodness and soon became her patroness. Though Anna Maria had received little formal education, she was nonetheless an intellectually gifted individual and, with the support of Scoffone, began to teach catechism to the children in the local parishes. She also visited the sick in the Cottolengo Hospital and generally tended to the needs of the suffering and neglected in Turin.

Anna Maria remained with Scoffone for the next 19 years until the latter died in 1882. Now 38 years old, Anna Maria’s next vocation would make itself known in a rather unusual way. One morning after Mass at the Capuchin church in Loano, Italy, Anna Maria was startled by a cry from a nearby convent that was under construction. A stone had fallen on the head of a young worker and, because of her experience helping with the sick, Anna Maria was able to clean the wound and tend to the young man.

As it happened, the religious sisters who were to live in the building were looking for a spiritual guide and leader. They discerned that the incident with the young man was the sign they were looking for and a Capuchin priest convinced Anna Maria to enter their community. A year later she did and took the name Sister Maria Francesca of Jesus. The local bishop, Bishop Filippo Allegro, soon made her the superior of the order, which became known as the Institute of the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto.

Under her leadership, the congregation grew, both in Italy and in the New World. In 1892, they established a mission in Montevideo, Uruguay, as well as in Argentina and deep within the rain forests of Brazil. In all, Mother Rubatto crossed the Atlantic seven times in order to support her sisters in both Europe and South America and was responsible for opening 18 Capuchin houses in 20 years.

Mother Maria Francesca Rubatto died of natural causes in Uruguay in 1904. She is buried in Montevideo where she had given so much of herself to the poor.

—Excerpted from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington

Things to Do:

• Read more about Uruguay's first canonized saint here.

• Visit All Saints and Martyrs to read one of St. Maria Francesca's letters.