Middletown parish marks Assumption feast with new blessing of water tradition
August 16, 2024 at 12:17 p.m.
Updated August 18, 2024.
Holding battery-operated candles and singing Marian hymns, several hundred people processed 0.3 miles from St. Catherine Laboure Church, Middletown, to Ideal Beach Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary. The procession—led by Father Richard Osborn, parish administrator, and parishioners carrying a crowned statue of the Blessed Mother—concluded the parish’s celebration of the Assumption and marked the final day of the Miraculous Medal Novena.
PHOTO GALLERY: Middletown parish hosts Blessing of the Sea for Feast of the Assumption
In his homily at the Mass before the procession, Father Osborn spoke of the deep physiological bond between Jesus and Mary.
"Studies have been done on women who have had children,” he said. “Each child a woman has, a part of the DNA of that child always remains in her.... Without the Assumption, the Resurrection did not fully happen, because there would be some of Our Lord decayed in the earth rather than all of Our Lord’s humanity in heaven: his body, and even that part of himself that would have been imprinted for all eternity in his Immaculate Mother.”
Following the Mass, Father Osborn led the congregation in the final day of a novena to the Miraculous Medal, which holds special significance, because it was first revealed by the Blessed Mother to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830.
“I attend the novena to get closer to God,” said Louis Lusquinos, who has been a parishioner of St. Catherine’s for 20 years, “and it’s been a tradition here at our church since my wife and I have been married. So we try to make it every year; we do it as a family.”
Calming the waters
While it was the first year that the blessing of the sea was a part of St. Catherine’s Assumption celebration, the practice has roots going back over a thousand years.
“There was an archbishop in Venice on a boat, around the year 1000, and there was a bad storm, and the boat was about to sink,” Father Osborn explained as he stood on the shore of Sandy Hook Bay. “It was the Assumption of Our Lady, Aug. 15, and he said to God, ‘I entrust myself and everyone on this ship to Our Lady of the Assumption’s intercession, I humble myself before you.’ And then he took off his bishop’s ring, and he threw the ring into the Adriatic Sea, and as the story goes, immediately the storm calmed down.”
Father Osborn blessed the sea, the community of St. Catherine’s and a flower wreath that he then released into the bay.
However, for the community of St. Catherine’s, the blessing of the sea has an even deeper meaning.
“When [Hurricane] Sandy came, we were the only part of the bay shore that didn’t get flooded, because our pastor at that time ... had a rosary said in church to protect us, so Father Rick, by doing this, is again asking Our Blessed Mother to protect us from storms, from tragedy, from sea and from air, from rain,” said Lusquinos.
“There was an umbrella of protection over us. It was a miracle,” said Joyce Kaiser, who has been a parishioner for 55 years along with her husband John, who has been a parishioner for all of his 77 years.
“It’s funny to me, to bless the ocean,” mused Christina, a young adult who attended the blessing, “because the ocean belongs to God, innately, but I also think it’s a beautiful gesture towards the immensity of Mary’s energy and her love for us. It’s a replica of that [energy and love] in its own way, the immensity of the water.”
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Updated August 18, 2024.
Holding battery-operated candles and singing Marian hymns, several hundred people processed 0.3 miles from St. Catherine Laboure Church, Middletown, to Ideal Beach Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary. The procession—led by Father Richard Osborn, parish administrator, and parishioners carrying a crowned statue of the Blessed Mother—concluded the parish’s celebration of the Assumption and marked the final day of the Miraculous Medal Novena.
PHOTO GALLERY: Middletown parish hosts Blessing of the Sea for Feast of the Assumption
In his homily at the Mass before the procession, Father Osborn spoke of the deep physiological bond between Jesus and Mary.
"Studies have been done on women who have had children,” he said. “Each child a woman has, a part of the DNA of that child always remains in her.... Without the Assumption, the Resurrection did not fully happen, because there would be some of Our Lord decayed in the earth rather than all of Our Lord’s humanity in heaven: his body, and even that part of himself that would have been imprinted for all eternity in his Immaculate Mother.”
Following the Mass, Father Osborn led the congregation in the final day of a novena to the Miraculous Medal, which holds special significance, because it was first revealed by the Blessed Mother to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830.
“I attend the novena to get closer to God,” said Louis Lusquinos, who has been a parishioner of St. Catherine’s for 20 years, “and it’s been a tradition here at our church since my wife and I have been married. So we try to make it every year; we do it as a family.”
Calming the waters
While it was the first year that the blessing of the sea was a part of St. Catherine’s Assumption celebration, the practice has roots going back over a thousand years.
“There was an archbishop in Venice on a boat, around the year 1000, and there was a bad storm, and the boat was about to sink,” Father Osborn explained as he stood on the shore of Sandy Hook Bay. “It was the Assumption of Our Lady, Aug. 15, and he said to God, ‘I entrust myself and everyone on this ship to Our Lady of the Assumption’s intercession, I humble myself before you.’ And then he took off his bishop’s ring, and he threw the ring into the Adriatic Sea, and as the story goes, immediately the storm calmed down.”
Father Osborn blessed the sea, the community of St. Catherine’s and a flower wreath that he then released into the bay.
However, for the community of St. Catherine’s, the blessing of the sea has an even deeper meaning.
“When [Hurricane] Sandy came, we were the only part of the bay shore that didn’t get flooded, because our pastor at that time ... had a rosary said in church to protect us, so Father Rick, by doing this, is again asking Our Blessed Mother to protect us from storms, from tragedy, from sea and from air, from rain,” said Lusquinos.
“There was an umbrella of protection over us. It was a miracle,” said Joyce Kaiser, who has been a parishioner for 55 years along with her husband John, who has been a parishioner for all of his 77 years.
“It’s funny to me, to bless the ocean,” mused Christina, a young adult who attended the blessing, “because the ocean belongs to God, innately, but I also think it’s a beautiful gesture towards the immensity of Mary’s energy and her love for us. It’s a replica of that [energy and love] in its own way, the immensity of the water.”