Assumption of Mary

During Angelus address on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis reminds faithful that the Blessed Mother takes each ...

Mary, he said, 'prophesies,' in anticipating what her Son will say, inasmuch as He will proclaim blessed the poor and humble, and warn the rich and those who base themselves on their own self-sufficiency. "Looking at her, in glory, we understand that the true power is service, and that to reign, means to love." As we listen to these words, the Pope said, we might ask ourselves: "is the Virgin not exaggerating, describing a world that does not exist," where "the poor and hungry remain so, while the rich continue to prosper."

By the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own, we proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by God, ...

The historical context of the proclamation of the Assumption is also significant. At the definition in 1950, Pope Pius XII infallibly proclaimed in the apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, that the long-held belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic faith. She followed the Spirit’s prompting, even though it was far from clear, to her at least, where she was being led. The glory she enjoys is the glory which, through the resurrection of her Son, is our destiny too. When at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Emperor Marcian (396-457) asked the Bishop of Jerusalem about Mary’s tomb, he told him that when it had been opened, it was found to be empty. In other words, at the end of her life on earth, Mary entered immediately, body and soul, into that perfected relationship with God we call ‘heaven’. Why? The decree says: It seems impossible that she who conceived Christ, bore him, fed him with her milk, held him in her arms and pressed him to her bosom, should after this earthly life be separated from him in either body or soul.

A Reflection for the Solemnity of the Assumption. “… the beginning and image of your church's coming to perfection …” The preface for today's liturgy, ...

Because the reality is that I am—at least in relative terms—much closer to pride and might and wealth than I am to lowliness and hunger. The readings we’re offered today help ground the cosmic import of the Assumption by reminding us that Mary’s cooperation with God is not aimed primarily at her being crowned in heaven but at the in-breaking of God’s kingdom of love and justice. In other words, Mary’s Assumption is a promise of God’s hope and desire for all of us, not a one-off miracle solely for her sake.

SCRIPTURES & ART: The Solemnity of the Assumption is a 'little Easter,' reminding us that Jesus' Resurrection was not just a one-time event but the start of ...

Outside the door we see other peasants coming to church, the woman on the left with her own garland of herbs. As a boy growing up in a New Jersey ethnic neighborhood, we didn’t bring basil to church, but most folks cut some of their best flowers to bring a bouquet for blessing, some of which they brought back home and some of which they left on the side Marian altar. And I confess that, somewhere in the back of my mind I inchoately remember a tradition about saving the rose petals from the flowers blessed that day — perhaps some reader recalls that. God, after all, gave man the plant world as a blessing: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. Easter begins what ends in the “resurrection of the body” on the Last Day — and which the Assumption already shows us is intended to include humanity. Both the Transfiguration and Assumption answer this worldview with a firm “no.” As Christianity penetrated the Germanic and Slavic lands, the Church sought to counteract these pagan accretions, without denying the natural goodness they covered. Almost halfway between Easter and the end of the liturgical year, it is a “little Easter,” reminding us that Jesus’ Resurrection was not just a one-time event but the start of a process intended to enfold the whole of humanity. Rather than focus on today’s Readings, however, let me address an old custom associated with the Solemnity of the Assumption: the blessing of herbs. Most countries have long traditions about the beneficial effects of various plants for human health and healing. In that line of thinking, Catholics in the United States in 2022, at least get a get-out-of-the-obligation-free card, courtesy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “most holy days on Saturdays or Mondays don’t count” rule. But, if Jesus’ rising from the dead is the “first fruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20) of redemption, Mary’s Assumption is “second fruits” — and pointing to the fullness of the harvest on the Last Day.