Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - August 15

Solemnity of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 15

“The whole of life is an ascent.
The whole of life is…..
obedience, trust and hope even in darkness…”
(Pope Benedict XVI - Feast of the Assumption)

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a marian dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950 on his Encyclical Munificentissimus Deus.

“We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory (Encyclical Munificentissiums Deus #44)

This definition of the Assumption had been accepted for centuries by pious Saints and Doctors of the Church.

In the eighth century Saint Germanus of Constantinople considered the fact that the body of the Blessed Virgin was incorrupt and taken into heaven not only because of her divine motherhood but also because of the holiness of her virginal body.

"You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life."( St. Germanus of Constantinople, In Sanctae Dei Genetricis Dormitionem, Sermo I.)

In the thirteenth century, Saint Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor of the Church, “considered it as entirely certain that, as God had preserved the most holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her virginal purity and integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes.” (St. Bonaventure, De Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, Sermo V.)

"From this we can see that she is there bodily...her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude.” (St. Bonaventure, De Assumptione B)

“This feast reminds us of the goal that each of us has in life, heaven. If we follow the path that Jesus and His mother Mary showed us, a path of obedience to the will of God the Father, then we can be sure we can join them in heaven.”
(Fr. James Kubicki)

  For a more detailed Catholic explanation
of the Dogma of the Assumption please visit  

http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0105sbs.asp

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/immaculate-conception-and-assumption

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Art
Assumption - El Greco
Assumption - Guercino
Assumption - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Assumption - Annibale Carracci

Assumption of the Virgin Mary - Novena August 15 - 23

Novena
Assumption of the Virgin Mary
August 15 - August 23

Mary, Queen Assumed into Heaven, I rejoice that after years of heroic martyrdom on earth, you have at last been taken to the throne prepared for you in heaven by the Holy Trinity.

Lift my heart with you in the glory of your Assumption above the dreadful touch of sin and impurity.  Teach me how small earth becomes when viewed from heaven.  Make me realize that death is the triumphant gate through which I shall pass to your Son, and that someday my body shall rejoin my soul in the unending bliss of heaven. 

From this earth, over which I tread as a pilgrim, I look to you for help.  I ask for this favor:  (Mention your request).

When my hour of death has come, lead me safely to the presence of Jesus to enjoy the vision of my God for all eternity together with you. 
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Art
Assumption of the Virgin Mary - Francesco Botticelli