'The hope of glory': praying Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer on 15th August

In some parts of the Anglican Communion, 15th August is marked as 'Saint Mary the Virgin' (TEC BCP 1979), 'The Blessed Virgin Mary' (Common Worship), or 'The Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary' (Canadian BCP 1962). In the Church of Ireland, today is merely the Thursday of the Eleventh Week after Trinity. Our equivalent Marian observation is 8th September, celebrating the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a provision also permitted as an alternative to 15th August in Common Worship). This wisely avoids any confusion which may arise, in the Irish context, in light of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters celebrating the Assumption on this day.

Whether we, as Anglicans, are observing this day a Marian observance or not, however, is rather beside the point. We all rejoice that the Blessed Virgin Mary shares in the heavenly glory with "all thy saints departed this life in thy faith and fear", the hope of "all thy whole Church". This is seen in the central petition of the collect usually provided for Anglican observance of 15th August or, as in the Church of Ireland, for 8th September:

Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of thine eternal kingdom.

It is a petition familiar to the heart and soul nourished by Cranmerian liturgy. In the Prayer for the Church Militant in the Communion Office we pray, when commemorating the faithful departed, "that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom". We rejoice that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, shares in the glory into which the whole Body of Christ is called, and in which all the faithful departed now dwell.

This is reflected at Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer today, whether or not we observe a Marian feast. In the Te Deum at Matins we pray for ourselves and all Christians: "Make them to be numbered with thy Saints: in glory everlasting". Amongst those saints is the Blessed Virgin, rejoicing "in glory everlasting".

In the Benedictus we praise the God who in Christ gives "gives light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death". In the fullness of this light the Blessed Virgin Mary now dwells, with all the faithful departed.

At Evensong, we will rejoice in the words of the Magnificat that God "hath exalted the humble and meek"; for all those who with the Blessed Virgin Mary who humbly confessed faith in Christ are now exalted in the heavenly kingdom.

In Nunc Dimittis we give thanks that Christ is "the glory of thy people Israel", for in Him the hopes of patriarchs and prophets are fulfilled. The Blessed Virgin Mary, with all those who have been grafted onto the hope of Israel, now beholds the fullness of this glory which the Temple foreshadowed.

At both Morning and Evening Prayer, we confess the Creed, giving voice to the hope of "the life everlasting", the fullness of life in which the Blessed Virgin Mary and all departed saints dwell. If the General Thanksgiving is said at either Morning or Evening Prayer, our thanks is offered for "the hope of glory", in which the Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the saints, rejoices. The Prayer of St. Chrysostom concludes with the petition that we may be granted "life everlasting", echoing the hope of the Creed, praying that we may be brought to that life in which now dwell the Blessed Virgin and "all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear".

Finally, there is the Grace: the grace of Christ, the love of the Eternal Father, the fellowship of the abiding Spirit, which enfolded the Blessed Virgin Mary at her death and brought her into "the life everlasting".

Whether or not, therefore, we observe a Marian feast today, those of us who pray Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer therein rejoice that the Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the faithful departed, dwells in that "life everlasting". For those of us who (following historic Anglican custom) do not observe a Marian feast on this day, Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer draws us today, as every day, to rejoice with hope in the glory now shared by the Blessed Virgin and all the faithful departed. This is also reflected in the concluding petition of the collect for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, prayed throughout this week: "and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure". Of this heavenly treasure the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the faithful departed now partake.

For those who do observe a Marian feast on this day (a now widespread Anglican liturgical provision), Cranmerian Morning and Evening Prayer defines the feast that is celebrated, avoiding what the 1950 Pastoral Letter of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Ireland described as the "uncurbed religious sentiment" which led to a dogma "resting ... on no scriptural authority". At Matins and Evensong, we rejoice in the glory in which the Blessed Virgin Mary shares, the glory known to all the faithful departed. This is no denial of honour to the Blessed Virgin; rather it is a joyous proclamation that - in the words of the collect for 15th August and 8th September - we, with the Mother of Our Lord and all the faithful departed, share in a common hope of "the glory of thine eternal kingdom".

(The drawing of Virgin and Child is attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, c.1638.)