Faith Seeking Understanding for August 14, 2005

Tomorrow, August 15^th, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This great feast day is ordinarily a Holy Day of Obligation, meaning that we are required to attend Holy Mass on this day; this year, however, since the Assumption falls on a Monday, we are not obliged to attend Mass. Nevertheless, we should still honor our Blessed Lady tomorrow as we celebrate this joyful day in honor of her bodily assumption.

The dogma of the assumption was declared by Pope Pius XII, on November 1, 1950. In the Apostolic Constitution that defines this teaching we read “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.” This teaching is a natural extension of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (celebrated on December 8), which states that the Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, was uniquely free from the taint of original sin.

The Church has celebrated the Feast of the Assumption since the sixth century, demonstrating in the Sacred Liturgy a continuous belief in this privilege of our Blessed Mother. One ancient liturgical text beautifully reminds us: “Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten your Son our Lord incarnate from herself.” Elsewhere, in an Eastern Liturgy we find: “God, the King of the universe, has granted you favors that surpass nature. As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb.”

We should strive to honor the Blessed Virgin on this solemn feast day by attending Mass if possible, by praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and also by discussing in our homes the meaning of Mary’s Assumption for our own spiritual lives. The Assumption gives God even greater glory, by showing His power through the Saints; it also confirms in us the Theological virtue of Hope, by directing our hearts toward heaven where we, too hope to dwell bodily with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the angels and saints, for all eternity.

Please visit my Blog at http://fatherbloomfield.blogspot.com/ for links to learn more about the Assumption. May God bless you, and please pray for priests!

UPDATE: Links will be posted Monday for more research, books, and information about the Assumption.