August 2, Our Lady of the Angels, the Portiuncula

Occasionally, I must set aside the Roman Catholic Lectionary and turn to the Franciscan Lectionary. (To see the Readings, click on the link on the right side of your screen.) 
Soon after Francis of Assisi was canonized the friars were given the privilege  of celebrating liturgies customized for our own distinctive tradition, with our own prayers and scripture readings. The laity, of course, are invited to join us.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula. As a single hermit Francis apparently wandered the wilderness with no particular place. When some men joined him they moved into an abandoned shed at the site called Rivo Torto. When the local farmer ran them out of it, they moved to the little chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels, on a piece of property owned (to this day) by the local benedictine monastery, called The Little Portion; or, in italian, the Portiuncula.

It would become our most sacred shrine; there are replicas of it all over the world. Francis insisted we should never leave it; he felt the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a host of angels in that place as nowhere else. He spent many hours in its tiny chapel and, as  death approached, asked the friars to bring him there. The chapel is also remarkable for the Portiuncula Indulgence.

Today’s feast, however, is not so much about the place as the Lady who lives there, Our Lady of the Angels. The gospel of Saint Luke recalls the Archangel Gabriel’s unexpected, long-awaited announcement to Mary, that she would be the Mother of God.

Because Saint Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians before the four gospels were written, today’s first reading enjoys the honor of the first direct literary reference to Mary. Pope John Paul II made a great deal of this passage in his encyclical, Redemptoris Mater. He begins the document with:

 Venerable Brothers and dear Sons and Daughters,

 Health and the Apostolic Blessing.

The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'

He goes on to say these words “… celebrate together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer was born, and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of the "fullness of time."

Francis' original chapel is
kept in the world's fifth largest
basilica in Assisi

As we celebrate Our Lady of the Angels we thank God for this woman who, like our God, gave her only begotten son for the salvation of the world. We remember with awe her sharing her baby with Joseph, and showing him to the shepherds and magi, and her allowing Simeon to take the baby in his arms. Like every mother she had a choice as her son set out into the world. She could resent his leaving or give him away. As painful as it might have been, she did not hesitate, even in that agonizing hour when she gave him to his enemies, tormentors and God. 

For the purity of her courage and generosity, we remember her as Queen of the Angels.