Aotearoa New Zealand’s National Patronal Feast is on Thursday 15 August. We celebrate the Assumption of Mary Mother of God because this illustrates for us the truth about Christ’s promise of eternal life and the resurrection of the faithful. The solemnity of the Assumption calls us to appreciate more deeply the dignity of the human body and its intimate link to our spirituality. It is also one of two Holy Days of Obligation in Aotearoa.
The gospel for this day highlights Mary’s faith which enabled her to recognise the work of God in her people’s history and in her own life. Her openness to God allowed God to work through her so that salvation might come to all. Mary is a model and symbol of the Church. May we be like Mary, open and cooperative in God’s plan of salvation.
Here are a collection of resources from various sources to help you pray with this Feast Day.
Readings of the day
Rv 11:19A; 12:1-6A, 10AB I saw a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet.
PS 45:10, 11, 12, 16 R. The queen stands at your right hand arrayed in gold. Listen here
1 Cor 15:20-27 As members of Christ all people will be raised, Christ first, and after him all who belong to Him.
Alleluia, alleluia! Mary is taken up to heaven, and the angels of God shout for joy. Alleluia.
LK 1:39-56 The Almighty has done great things for me; he has lifted up the lowly.
A few hymns you may like to pray with
As I Kneel (Live)
Steubenville Worship
Prayers and Reflections
Song of Mary
My soul sings in gratitude.
I’m dancing in the mystery of God.
The life of the Holy One is within me,
And I am blessed, so truly blessed.
This goes deeper than the human mind.
My heart is filled with awe
At Love whose only condition
Is that it be received.
It’s a gift not for the proud
For they have no room for it.
The strong and self-sufficient
Do not have this awareness.
But those who know their emptiness
Can rejoice in God’s fullness.
This is the Love we are made for,
The reason for our existence.
It fills our inmost heart space
And brings to birth in us
The Holy child of God.
Joy Cowley’s Magnificat Prayer from her book ‘Veil Over the Light’ p.157
A prayer to Our Lady for protection through her patronage (southern te reo version)
E oma atu ana mātou ki ā koe,
e te Whāea tapu o te Atua,
hei piringa mō mātou: aua e whakakino mai
ki a mātou īnoi i ō mātou mate,
ēngari whakaorangia mātou i ngā mea whakamataku katoa,
e te Takakau i whakakorōriatia,
ā, i whakapaingia.
Āmene.
A Samoan Prayer to Mary
Si o’u alofa oe,
Maria Tina paia,
O le Alo tasi lava o le Atua mamalu,
o le Atua mamalu.
Peace be with you,
Mary the holy Mother
Of the only son of the holy God,
of the holy God.
Source: National Catholic Liturgy Office
Religious Art
Sr Mary Lawrence (Julia Lynch) painted this beautiful picture of the Madonna. It’s called Tangiwai ca. 1945. It is in Hiruharama, Whanganui River.
Source: National Catholic Liturgy Office
Southern Madonna, by Julia Bridget Lynch (Sister Mary Lawrence, RSM), ca. 1953-1954. Southern Star Abbey, Kopua, Hawkes Bay. Copyright: Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy New Zealand.
The Pompallier Madonna is a painting of the Blessed Virgin brought to Rome from Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul) by the nuns of the Immaculate Conception in the Campus Martius in the year 750.
It was given to Bishop Pompallier by Pope Pius IX when the bishop visited Rome in 1847 and the bishop brought it to New Zealand.
For more information click here.