the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

today is my birthday. i think the thing the i love the most about this day is that it is also the Solemnity of the Assumption, when Mary, the immaculate perpetually Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven. (Pope Pius XII) 
my love for our mother Mary is very deep! in fact my love for the catholic church and the gift of faith makes my heart swell with gratitude. so why do i find it so difficult to talk about it here on my blog?! i don't know? maybe it's fear of criticism. fear that i'm not a good enough writer to even speak on the subject. fear of not being able to defend the church and her teachings. well, today and from now on i will try to shove those fears aside. it is my blog after all and i should feel free to talk about whatever i wish, right? 

although there are no scriptures to support the Assumption of Mary, it is known that the feast was celebrated long before it became a Dogma of the church in 1950. The Byzantine Emperor Mauritius (582-602) established the celebration of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 for the Eastern Church. (Some historians speculate that the celebration was already widespread before the Council of Ephesus in 431). By the end of the 6th century, the West likewise celebrated the Feast of the Assumption. Fr. William Saunders goes on to say,Theoteknos of Livias (c. 550- 650) delivered one of the most comprehensive early sermons concerning the Assumption: "For Christ took His immaculate flesh from the immaculate flesh of Mary, and if He had prepared a place in heaven for the Apostles, how much more for His mother; if Enoch had been translated and Elijah had gone to heaven, how much more Mary, who like the moon in the midst of the stars shines forth and excels among the prophets and Apostles? For even though her God-bearing body tasted death, it did not undergo corruption, but was preserved incorrupt and undefiled and taken up into heaven with its pure and spotless soul."

another article by Fr. Clifford Stevens states, The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.
The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.

along with church beliefs are all the devotions. when i was young, my sister would pray the rosary at night in bed. i remember wanting to be like her and trying to say it too. i'm pretty sure i fell asleep before i got to the first mystery! haha i guess that explains why she is the nun and i am not! i didn't reconnect with the rosary until my late teens, when i had my conversion. i have a book called Scriptural Rosary that has a bible quote for each Hail Mary. i have so many consoling memories with that little book. below is my favorite marian verse from it-

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

Rev 12:1

i basically want to get across here how rad Mary is. yes, she is rad!  she intercedes for us, she appears to people like here and here, she is queen of heaven and earth. if that's not rad then i don't know what is! she is the surest and quickest path to Jesus. 

mary, dispenser of grace, morning star, mother of wisdom, ark of the covenant, the new eve- pray for us!

♥anne