Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

Feast Day - Today, August 15th
Holy Day of Obligation

Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; the honor of our people; the name of the Lord hath strengthened thee and therefore thou shalt be blessed forever. - Judith xv:10

Of all of the Blessed Virgin's festivals within the Church's liturgical calendar, today's Solemnity of her Assumption is the greatest! Seventy-four (74) years ago, Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, declared infallibly that our Blessed Lady’s Assumption into heaven is a Dogma of Faith:

"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." - P.P. Pius XII, 1950

Similar in all things to her Divine Son, the glorious triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not completed with her happy and holy death. She had also to resemble Him in the glory of the sepulcher; in the triumph of her Resurrection and glorious Coronation. However, when Our Lady was assumed into heaven, she was taken up by the power of God, while Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven under His own Divine power.

According to the revelations on the life of the Blessed Virgin as given to Venerable Maria of Agreda and as documented in The Mystical City of God, the Assumption of our Blessed Lady occurred when she was 70 years old, and 21 years after Christ’s Ascension. She was assumed from Jerusalem, where her tomb has been placed since around the Sixth Century. The Fathers of the Church handed to us the words from the sermon preached by Saint John Damascene:

"Saint Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of Saint Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven."

However, Our Lady's tomb was not exactly found empty; Tradition tells us that there were many beautiful, fragrant lilies and roses found where her sacred body "should" have been.

From her infancy, Our Lady lived as the masterpiece of the Most High, resting in His continual favor, yet passing her humble life completely hidden. The saints explain that it is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her alma Mater - Mother secret and hidden. Her humility was so profound that she had no propensity more powerful than that of hiding herself, so as to be known to God alone. Like Wisdom incarnate, she took root among the chosen people, to the eye of man she appeared to walk on earth like other mortals, but God was ever her portion and her inheritance; and in the end her abode was in the full assembly of the Angels and Saints. It is this happy termination of Blessed Mary's life, her glorious Assumption into heaven, that we so festively celebrate today.

It is a feast which stirs our hearts with several meditations:

The Blessed Virgin’s temporal death and burial

Her incorruptible body in the grave

Her restoration to life and bodily Assumption into heaven

Her triumphant Coronation as Queen and Mediatrix of all grace

In the first place, the festival of the Assumption commemorates the holy death of the Blessed Virgin. As so beautifully prayed in the Collect for today's feast, Mary died: (a) because it was the will of God that she might be in all things like her Divine Son; and (b) in order that the just might have an example and a model of a holy death.

"Mary's death was most happy because she was completely detached from all things of earth; far from feeling any remorse of conscience, her life had been spotless; and because of her sinlessness, she was certain of her salvation." - Saint Alphonsus Liguori

The body of the Blessed Virgin did not suffer the corruption of the tomb, but was soon remitted with her soul and assumed into heaven. Her going into heaven is called an assumption rather than an ascension, because it was the effect of a special privilege and miraculous grace of God.

It is impossible to think that Our Lord would have suffered the body of His Mother to see the corruption of the grave. Also, since the delay in the resurrection of the body until the end of the world is a consequence of Original Sin, there was no reason why the body of Blessed Mary, who was conceived without sin, should long be separated from her soul. Furthermore, it was foretold in Scripture that the Holy Virgin should triumph over sin and its consequences: concupiscence and death. (Gen.iii. 15)

The Immaculata triumphed over sin by her Immaculate Conception, over concupiscence by her virginal maternity, and over death by her glorious Assumption. A type of the Blessed Virgin's Assumption is seen in the Ark of the Covenant, which was made of incorruptible wood, and which is spoken of by both the Psalmist and Saint John as existing in the heavenly temple: (Ps. cxxxi.8; Apoc. xi.9; cf. xii. 1)

We read in the Divine Office for today's feast that the Holy Virgin is exalted above all the choirs of Angels in the heavenly Kingdom. The words from the Canticle of Canticles apply: "Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus, come: thou shalt be crowned."Since the glory of the Saints is proportioned to their merits and dignity, what must be the glory of the Mother of God!

Surely, Saint John's vision of the "Woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and a crown of stars on her head" is a most accurate description of the Immaculata glorified above all Angels and Saints in heaven.

The holy death of Blessed Mary should teach us to prepare for our own death; to pray fervently in our daily Rosary those words of the Ave Maria: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."

Let us always celebrate this glorious feast with gladness and rejoicing, mindful that it far above - by far - all of the other Marian festivals of the Church. We fervently pray to our heavenly Mother and Queen, to help us sanctify our lives as she sanctified hers, not so much by the performance of many heroic deeds, but by a constant fidelity in the little things of our ordinary daily duty.

Traditionally, today's great feast is associated with herbs and fruits of which the Roman Ritual includes a special blessing. In this regard, there is a long held custom where the faithful bring fresh flowers for Our Lady, along with fresh fruits and herbs, most especially healing herbs, to be blessed and taken home. Also, in some coastal areas, the seas and fleets are blessed on this Solemnity; especially in and around fishing communities, such as nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The passages are read from the Gospel of Saint John, where Jesus went fishing with His Apostles; next, the Magnificat is prayed and then the sea is sprinkled with Holy Water and the Sign of the Cross made over it; therefore, it is believed that to swim in the waters blessed on this day can be curative.

Oratory of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary · 66 Goves Lane · Wentworth, NH 03282-3602 · USA

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

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