August 15, 2019, Thursday: Solemnity of the Assumption

August 15, Thursday, is the solemnity of the Assumption.

The Church teaches that when Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was "assumed" into heaven and reunited there with her soul.

The Assumption of the Blessed Mother is one of the four Marian dogmas. The other three are her "Divine Motherhood", "Perpetual Virginity", and "Immaculate Conception".

A dogma in the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God which the Magisterium of the Church declared as binding" for all the faithful to believe and accept. A dogma may also be solemnly promulgated by the College of Bishops along with the Pope at an ecumenical council, or by the Pope alone when speaking in a statement "ex cathedra".

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Motherhood of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."

Ascension of Jesus vs. Mary's Assumption:

What is the difference between our Lord's Ascension and Mary's Assumption into heaven?

The answer is that our Lord Jesus Christ by His own power ascended into heaven. Now Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She did not do it under her own power because she has none.

Prayer:

Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!