Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother into heaven. The belief in Mary's resurrection, called the Assumption, is founded, as are all Marian doctrines, on her divine maternity. Liturgically, the feast of the Dormition, or "falling asleep," of the Blessed Virgin, dates back to the fourth century. In the fifth century, St. Augustine commented on the feast, "This venerable day has dawned, the day that surpasses all the festivals of the saints, this most exalted and solemn day on which the Blessed Virgin was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. On this day the queenly Virgin was exalted to the very throne of God the Father, and elevated to such a height that the angelic spirits are in admiration." Augustine's contemporary, St. Jerome observed, "We read how the angels have come to the death and burial of some of the saints, and how they have accompanied the souls of the elect to Heaven with hymns and praises. How much more should we believe that the heavenly army, with all its bands, came forth rejoicing in festal array, to meet the Mother of God, to surround her with effulgent light, and to lead her with praises and canticles to the throne prepared for her from the beginning of the world!"

In 594 A.D. St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, declared that "the Lord . . . commanded the body of Mary be taken in a cloud into paradise; where now, rejoined to the soul, Mary reposes with the chosen ones." St. Germaine I in 732 A.D., Patriarch of Constantinople, speaks thusly of Mary, "Thou art . . . the dwelling place of God . . . exempt from all dissolution into dust." And St. John Damascene, his contemporary, asserted, "He who had been pleased to become incarnate of her . . . was pleased . . . to honor her immaculate and undefiled body with incorruption . . . prior to the common and universal resurrection."

Finally, in our own time, on November 1, 1950, St. Peter's successor, Pope Pius XII, infallibly defined the dogma of Mary's Assumption into heaven.

We honor our Blessed Mother with the highest honor. Why? The Church teaches She is Mother of God, the first Marian dogma; the Church teaches that She was ever virgin, the second dogma of Perpetual Virginity; the Church teaches that She was sinless and in fact was born without original sin, the third dogma of the Immaculate Conception. And of course, the Feast we celebrate today, the fourth dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven.

But Mary is much more than dogma. She is our spiritual Mother in heaven, with a total and everlasting love and concern for Her earthly children, perfectly fulfilling the duties of Mother, winning for us by Her intercession that grace of Christ which is life to our souls. She is the Mother of the Church, model of all that is pure and true and good. She is Intercessor, Mediatrix, Queen of Heaven. She is all that we ought hope to be. She is First Disciple, Primary Witness, Co-Operatrix. She is as the prayer says, "our life, our sweetness, and our hope". She is our life in that two thousand years ago, through Her "Fiat", Her "Yes", Her complete and full obedience, acceptance and conformance to God's Will; in bringing forth Christ into this world She brought all of us forth into Life. She is our sweetness for She is the model of every sweet virtue. She is our hope in that She is the New Eve whereas the first Eve is our despair.

Our Blessed Mother is eternally honored most perfectly by her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as we imitate Christ, your Son; we honor You, Mother Mary, by praying:

Hail Mary, full of grace….
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray…. Amen!