The last days of summer are upon us. As a child, I confess I didn't much like this August time of year. The summer that I had looked forward to during the previous school year was fast disappearing, and soon a new school year (announced by an endless number of inescapably noticeable "back to school" sales) would intrude upon what seemed to me then the truest form of human freedom: a child's undisciplined hours of summer leisure.

The small hands of the young boy clung fast to summer vacation unprepared to concede that my early summer perspective of unlimited free time was unreal or deceptive. Even as I have grown older, I still sometimes find myself resisting the calendar turn from summer to fall. The flip of the month triggers a bittersweet admixture of memories of summer family get-togethers (always much anticipated in their weeks of planning and then seemingly gone in an instant) as well as summer projects not yet accomplished.

Now, of course, only I still see the boy in the mirror, but God who sees us both calms our jointly-managed, anxious heart and permits us to know Him as the God of all seasons. There is refreshment to be found in contemplating --- even in the sticky humidity of August --- the cool, freshness of the new life of Christ's Resurrection on Easter.

Thinking back to Easter in late summer brings to mind the happy joy of spring and the beauty of new beginnings. What's more, recalling the months since Easter corrects the record by giving reminder of how luxuriantly long and generous the summer's passage of time has actually been. Any grievance for time lost is thereby proclaimed unworthy of attention. In between Easter and now, the church has honored Corpus Christi and helped us welcome the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Suddenly, instead of fretting over what is gone, there is an appreciation for the Spirit working in the here and now. Reconceived in the patience of the Spirit, the precious summer weeks that remain are allowed to ripen the seed of faith.

The church calendar of late summer also brings its own special beauty in the feast of the Assumption. In mid-August, the image of human perfection in the person of Our Lady being taken into God's presence without the pain or anxiety of death underscores how the peace of summer need never end. Mary's miraculous journey awaits us if we follow her example of submission to the Divine will.

During the 20 years I was privileged to teach at Notre Dame, it always seemed to me that the statue of Our Lady atop the Golden Dome --- the University's famed administration building in the center of the campus --- stood in ever more tranquil splendor upon this feast day. Each August 15, Jesus' mother seemed to gently tilt her head and smile upon the nearby Indiana and Michigan countrysides as they were silently and effortlessly being prepared by God's hand for the fall harvest. The students had not yet returned, enabling August to remain a casual walk in undisturbed admiration for the morning dew on lush green lawns edged by golden rod and purple sage.

Oh yes, September arrives, but bathed in the true light of faith and God's seasons, the mind is reassured. The sprinkled dew of Our Lady's August yields to September's moist condensation upon front porch swing. The harvest season is open.

And I am ready. Soon enough will come the feast day of St. Michael near September's end. Michael, it will be recalled, is the good Lord's "great harvester" who when all our final seasons are at end, will lead the worthy to paradise.

Tony Snow and Tim Russert, friends who began the summer with us, are gone. In one case God gave notice. In the other He did not. Like the child within my memory who mistakenly thought summer's end could be resisted, neither man knew his moment and both likely planned --- as we all pretend to do --- beyond it.

In the passing of each season, we come to appreciate how our lives progress in God's time, not our own. If we are accepting of that, we lose nothing of these final summer days. Instead, we gain the restful reassurance of even greater times to come."

Douglas W. Kmiec is chair and professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, Malibu, and the former Dean and St. Thomas More professor of law, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.