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Solemnity of the Assumption
Two
Novenas for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(from EWTN.com)
FAITH
FACT: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“Pope Pius XII in 1946 sent a letter . . . to all
the bishops in the world in which he asked them whether
(a) the teaching [of the Assumption] can be proposed as
a dogma and (b) whether the people desired it. The result
was staggering. Out of 1232 bishops, 1210 answered ‘yes’
to both questions.”
St. John of Damascus, Father and Doctor of the Church
Three
Sermons on the Dormition of the Virgin
“Angels with archangels bear thee up. Impure spirits
trembled at thy departure. The air raises a hymn of praise
at thy passage, and the atmosphere is purified. Heaven receives
thy soul with joy.”
“The birth of her, whose Child was marvellous, was
above nature and understanding, and it was salvation to
the world; her death was glorious, and truly a sacred feast.
The Father predestined her, the prophets foretold her through
the Holy Ghost. His sanctifying power overshadowed her,
cleansed and made her holy, and, as it were, predestined
her.”
Defining
the Dogma of the Assumption: Munificentissimus Deus
“Thus, when it was solemnly proclaimed that Mary,
the Virgin Mother of God, was from the very beginning free
from the taint of original sin, the minds of the faithful
were filled with a stronger hope that the day might soon
come when the dogma of the Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption
into heaven would also be defined by the Church’s
supreme teaching authority.” (no. 6)
“Among the holy writers who at that time employed
statements and various images and analogies of Sacred Scripture
to Illustrate and to confirm the doctrine of the Assumption,
which was piously believed, the Evangelical Doctor, St.
Anthony of Padua, holds a special place. On the feast day
of the Assumption, while explaining the prophet's words:
‘I will glorify the place of my feet,’(27) he
stated it as certain that the divine Redeemer had bedecked
with supreme glory his most beloved Mother from whom he
had received human flesh. He asserts that ‘you have
here a clear statement that the Blessed Virgin has been
assumed in her body, where was the place of the Lord's feet.
Hence it is that the holy Psalmist writes: “Arise,
O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark which you
have sanctified.”’ And he asserts that, just
as Jesus Christ has risen from the death over which he triumphed
and has ascended to the right hand of the Father, so likewise
the ark of his sanctification ‘has risen up, since
on this day the Virgin Mother has been taken up to her heavenly
dwelling.’” (no. 29)
“Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully
to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined,
let him know that he has fallen away completely from the
divine and Catholic Faith.” (no.
45)
Pope John Paul II
“Taken up into heaven, Mary shows us
the way to God, the way to heaven, the way to life.”
(Homily,
Solemnity of the Assumption, 1999)
Pope Benedict XVI
“The Solemnity of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, the oldest Marian Feast, returns
every year in the heart of summer. It is an opportunity
to rise with Mary to the heights of the spirit where one
breathes the pure air of supernatural life and contemplates
the most authentic beauty, the beauty of holiness.”
“Let us ask Mary today to make us the gift of her
faith, that faith which enables us already to live in the
dimension between finite and infinite, that faith which
also transforms the sentiment of time and the passing of
our existence, that faith in which we are profoundly aware
that our life is not retracted by the past but attracted
towards the future, towards God, where Christ, and behind
him Mary, has preceded us.”
(Homily,
Solemnity of the Assumption, 2008)
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