As summer days close and the promise of cooler days of fall get closer, we have a beautiful Marian feast – the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The Assumption is one of the four Marian dogmas that is a part of our Catholic faith. The other three dogmas are:
- Divine Motherhood
- Perpetual Virginity
- Immaculate Conception
What does the Assumption mean?
Simply said, God upon the Virgin’s death, assumed her body and soul into Heaven. Now, there is a significant difference between the Virgin’s Assumption and Our Lord’s Resurrection. Jesus, being God, resurrected from His own power. The Virgin, being human, was assumed by God, that is through His power. Both Son and mother passed through death’s door and both entered Paradise body and soul.
Timing is important
On August 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII promulgated his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus. Let’s put this encyclical into the context of time. Europe was still reeling from the horrors of the World War II, cities and towns were trying to lift themselves out of the rubble and destruction caused by occupation and liberation. There were thousands of displaced persons – adults and children who were trying to reconnect with their families and some semblance of their past lives. Lastly, but not least, our Jewish brothers and sisters were surfacing from the nightmare that God’s Chosen People had endured at the hands of Nazis.
A beautiful dogma
In spite of these world troubles, our Holy Father proclaimed this beautiful dogma when he wrote:
[quote]The august Mother of God, mysteriously united from all eternity with Jesus Christ in the one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a virgin inviolate in her divine motherhood, the wholehearted companion of the divine Redeemer who won complete victory over sin and its consequences, gained at last the supreme crown of her privileges — to be preserved immune from the corruption of the tomb, and like her Son, when death has been conquered, to be carried up body and soul to the exalted glory of heaven, there to sit in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the ages.[/quote]How can we honor this beautiful feast?
Let’s put aside our last-minute summer plans for a few extra days of vacation or back-to-school shopping and turn our hearts and minds to Our Lady and this mystery by:
- Attending Holy Mass
- Reading the encyclical Munificentissimus Deus here
- Praying this “Prayer to Our Lady of the Assumption”
Lovely Lady dressed in Blue, Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little Boy,
Tell me what to say!
Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently, on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way Mother does to me?
Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?
Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things – Little things that happen?
And
Do the Angels’ wings Make a noise?
And can He hear Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me – for you know?
Lovely Lady dressed in blue,
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little Boy.
And you know the way.