19th Sunday of the Year B

​The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady
The Feast of the Assumption is one of the oldest holy days in the Church, with accounts of celebrations going back to the sixth century. Christians in the East, both Catholic and Orthodox refer to it as the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or "the falling asleep of the Mother of God."
The earliest printed reference to the belief that Mary's body was assumed into Heaven dates from the fourth century, in a document entitled "The Falling Asleep of the Holy Mother of God." The document is written in the voice of the Apostle John, to whom Christ on the Cross had entrusted the care of His mother, and it recounts the death, laying in the tomb, and assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Tradition variously places Mary's death at Jerusalem or at Ephesus, where John was living.
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, exercising papal infallibility, declared in an Apostolic constitution known as the Munificentissimus Deus that it is a dogma of the Church "that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." As a dogma, the Assumption is a required belief of all Catholics. Anyone who publicly dissents from the dogma, Pope Pius declared, "has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith."
The question of whether Our Lady died before the Assumption is a matter of theological debate. Some believe Mary did indeed die, like all humans do, and was then transported to heaven. Still others believe she simply "completed the course of her earthly life," which leaves open the possibility that she ascended to heaven before actually dying. Pope Pius XII, in the text explaining his definition of the dogma of the Assumption, refers repeatedly to the Blessed Virgin's death before her Assumption, and the consistent tradition in both the East and the West holds that Mary did die before she was assumed into Heaven. However, the definition of the Assumption is silent on this question
 
Prayer to Our Lady, Assumed into Heaven
O Immaculate Mary, Assumed into heaven,
you who are most blessed in the vision of God:
of God the Father  who exalted you
among all creatures,
of God the Son who willed that you bear Him as your Son and that you should be His Mother,
of God the Holy Spirit who accomplished the human conception of the Saviour in you.

O Mary, most pure, O Mary, most sweet and beautiful, O Mary, strong and thoughtful woman

O Mary, poor and sorrowful, O Mary, virgin and mother woman very human like Eve, more than Eve.
You are near to God by your grace and by your privileges in your mysteries in your mission,
in your glory.

O Mary, assumed into the glory of Christ in the complete and transfigured perfection
of our human nature.
 
O Mary, gate of heaven mirror of divine light ark of the Covenant between God and mankind,
let our souls fly after you,
let them fly long your radiant path, transported by a hope that the world does not contain eternal beatitude.

Comfort us from heaven, O merciful Mother,
and guide us along your ways of purity and hope
till the day of that blessed meeting with you and with your divine Son our Saviour, Jesus. Amen!

Pope Saint Paul 6th