Feast of the Assumption

The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady emphasizes the importance of sacred tradition to our faith. Nowhere in the Bible is there anything about Mary being taken into heaven (or her Immaculate Conception for that matter). The end of her life, like its beginning, is shrouded in mystery.

Did Mary suffer the pangs of death? The Church doesn't tell us. She, who shared in the passion of her Son, could have desired to imitate His end on earth by physically dying. On the other hand, since death had already been overcome and since Mary had shared spiritually in His suffering and death, was her physical death necessary? Mary would choose as she always did, "Be it done unto me according to your Word." Mary's entire life was a dying to self; the end of her time on earth would be the same.

Whether or not Mary died physically, the Church has believed since the fourth century that she was taken up body and soul into heaven where she is enthroned as Queen of heaven and earth.

Mary, Queen of angels, Queen of patriarchs, Queen of all the faithful, pray for us.