Sunday, August 15, 2010

August 15 - The Assumption

FURTHERMORE Ozias the prince of the people of Israel, said to her, "Blessed are you, O daughter, by the Lord God the most high above all women upon the earth. Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth, who has guided you for a wound to the head of the prince of our enemies. For on this day He has so magnified your name that your praise shall not retire from the mouth of men, who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord for eternity, for that you have not spared your life for the sake of the distress and tribulation of your people, but have prevented our ruin before the sight of our God."

(Vulgate, Judith 13:22-25)

And said Ozias to her, "Blessed are you, O daughter, to God the Most High above all the women upon the earth; and blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you for a wound to the head of the leader of our enemies. For this your confidence shall not depart from the heart of men, who remember the strength of God to the age; and God turn these things to you for an exaltation to the age, to visit you in blessings, since you did not spare your life for the affliction of our nation, but went against our ruin, walking a straight way before our God."


(Septuagint, Judith 13:18-20)

 AND opened was the sanctuary of God which is in the heaven, and there was seen the chest of His covenant in His sanctuary; and there came lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail, and there was seen a great sign in the heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a wreath of twelve stars; and being with child, she cries out in labor, and being tortured to deliver.
 And there was seen another sign in the heaven, and behold: a great fiery-red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his head seven diadem crowns, and his tail sweeps the third of the stars of the heaven and cast them to the earth; and the dragon was standing before the woman who is about to give birth, that when she may give birth, her child he may devour.
And she birthed a son - a male, who is about to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and snatched up was her child to God and to His throne, and the woman fled to the wilderness, where she has a place prepared from God, that there they may nourish her a thousand, two hundred, sixty days.
 And there was war in the heaven. Michael and his angels waged war against the dragon, and the dragon waged war and his angels; and they were not strong enough, nor was their place found any more in the heaven. And thrown out was the great dragon, the ancient serpent that is called 'Slanderer' (diabolos) and 'Satan', who is leading the whole world astray – he was thrown out to the earth, and his angels were thrown out with him. And I heard a great voice saying in the heaven:
 "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, for thrown out was the accuser of our brethren, who is accusing them before our God day and night; and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life unto death. 
"For this be glad, O heavens, and those in them who tabernacle! Woe to the earth and the sea, for the Slanderer has descended to you, having great wrath, having known that he has little time."
 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown out to the earth, he pursecuted the woman who birthed the male, and there were given to the woman two wings of the great eagle, that she may fly to the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent; and the serpent cast after the woman, out of his mouth, water like a river, that he may cause her to be swept away by the river. And the earth aided the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and drank up the river that the dragon cast forth from his mouth. And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her seed: those keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus.

(Revelation 11:19; 12:1-17)

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