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)
During the course of the last 3 months, two of my dear family members have returned to their Creator, “Pear” my father-in-law on May 18th and “Ma” my mother on July 23rd. God has given me the grace to know of their safety with Him. I am thankful for this knowledge and remain hopeful that I too will one day see them again. Today, August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we are reminded that this too is our goal, to be once again united with our Creator and our beloved relatives and friends whom have passed before us. In the Assumption, Our Blessed Mother glorified in body and soul, is already in the state that will be ours after the resurrection of the dead.
“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) A 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 – The Journey’s Destination)
Novena to the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary
begins August 15 and ends August 23
For a more detailed Catholic explanation
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
please visit
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art
Assumption of Mary - Palma Vecchio
Assumption of Mary - Juan Martin Cabezalero
Assumption of Mary - Peter Rubens
Assumption & Annunciation - Lippi Filippino
