Do you have a garden at your house?   Invite Fr. Kevin to come and bless it!

There is a tradition that on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption “produce of fields, gardens, and orchards” (that is, grains, vegetables/herbs, and fruit) may be blessed.

Where does this tradition come from?

First of all, of course with this Feast Day on August 15, it naturally falls during late summer, when people are bringing in produce from their gardens.  Perhaps you have found yourself gathering produce from your own gardens.  Or you may have seen some stands recently set up selling sweet corn!

In the Biblical worldview, the people of Israel saw seasons of harvest as time to give praise and thanks to God.  They also connected their harvest seasons to reflecting on the redemptive and saving work of God.

So too, people of Christian faith naturally made connections between the fruitfulness of the earth that gives us natural health and life, and the “fruitfulness” borne of the Virgin Mary that gives us divine and eternal life!  And just as us being taken up to heaven is sometimes talked about as “God’s Harvest” so Mary’s bodily Assumption is seen as sort of the “first fruits” of God’s harvest.

As the Catholic priest, Fr. Pius Parsch in his book The Church’s Year of Grace explains:

“Now toward the end of the summer season, at a time when fruits are ripe in the gardens and fields, the Church celebrates the most glorious “harvest festival” in the Communion of Saints. Mary, the supremely blessed one among women, Mary, the most precious fruit which has ripened in the fields of God’s kingdom, is today taken into the granary of heaven.”

Therefore on Wednesday August 14 and Thurs. August 15 for the Feast of the Assumption I will be offering a special Assumption blessing of gardens ( gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, Grains).  I will have a sign up sheet in church if you would like me to come to your home and bless your garden (Wednesday in Ackley, Thursdays in Hampton).

A reminder that the Feast of the Assumption is a Holy Day of Obligation (so to be attended like a regular Sunday Mass), and so we will have special Masses for this day.

Masses for this Holy Day will be:

Wed. Aug 14 – 5:30pm at St. Mary’s in Ackley

Thurs Aug. 15 – 5:30pm at St. Patrick’s in Hampton (Bilingual)

Note that after Mass in Hampton we will have a special blessing of the Community Garden, and then we will have Eucharistic Adoration until 8pm.  You are welcome to join us for any of those things following Mass!

Peace,

-Fr. Kevin