Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“An echo, although it has a sound of its own, presupposes some other sound. So Mary’s Assumption, in itself a glorious mystery, harks back to the still greater mystery of Christ’s Incarnation. God came into the world by His own divine power. Mary, although the chosen one, was still but a creature, as little able to do anything without God’s help as you and I. She was, then, glorified by the power of God. And as Calvary was the price of her Son’s victory, so Mary’s Assumption was preceded by her life of service. Mary’s triumph was like her Son’s because her heart was like His. Real success is found only in thinking and acting like Christ.”

– Ven. Patrick Peyton

On Friday this week (August 15) we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation. This teaching about Mary is so important that the Church calls all Catholics to celebrate it and to solemnize the day by assisting at Mass. The teaching, the solemn articulation of which is quoted below, complements the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. That teaching (the first infallible teaching to be declared ex cathedra by Pope Pius IX) holds that Mary, by an act of God’s grace, was preserved free from original sin at the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. The dogma of the Assumption tells us that at the end of her life, the Immaculate Virgin Mary did not experience the decay of the tomb (the consequence of sin) but instead was assumed body and soul into heaven. Wherever you are this week, please remember to go to Mass to celebrate this holy day of obligation!

Since the teaching of papal infallibility can seem somewhat remote, I offer to you the final part of Pope Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which he solemnly declares the dogma of the Assumption. The whole document is a masterpiece of papal writing, and reading an actual ex cathedra statement is very powerful.

“For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: 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.

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.

In order that this, our definition of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven may be brought to the attention of the universal Church, we desire that this, our Apostolic Letter, should stand for perpetual remembrance, commanding that written copies of it, or even printed copies, signed by the hand of any public notary and bearing the seal of a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, should be accorded by all men the same reception they would give to this present letter, were it tendered or shown.

It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration, pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”

Peace,

Fr. Sam