August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven. The following is an excerpt from the Dogma Defining the Assumption of Mary into Heaven by Pope Pius XII, on November 1, 1950. God willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted from the general rule of the corruption of the body after death. She, by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her immaculate conception. Therefore, she was not subject to the law of her body remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.

Also, Jesus Christ, out of the filial love that he has for his Mother, willed that she be assumed into heaven. The strength of this proof lies in the incomparable dignity of her divine motherhood and of all those prerogatives that follow from it. These include her exalted holiness, entirely surpassing the sanctity of all mortals and of the angels, the close union of Mary with her Son, and the affection of the preeminent love that he has for his Mother.

Another proof of the assumption of Mary into heaven lies in scripture in which David said: “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified.” (Psa. 132:8). The Church has interpreted the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord’s temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.

St. Germanus of Constantinople considered the fact that the body of Mary, the virgin Mother of God, was incorrupt and had been taken up into heaven to be in keeping, not only with her divine motherhood, but also with the special holiness of her virginal body. “You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life.”

And another very ancient writer asserts: “As the most glorious Mother of Christ, our Savior and God and the giver of life and immortality, has been endowed with life by him, she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him.”

Finally, she obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, the special grace that preserved her free from the corruption of the tomb. And, like her own Son, having overcome death, she has been taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.

In conclusion, as an act of acknowledgment of his divine power as her Son and as an act of his love towards her, he assumed her body and soul into heaven. It also redounds to his honor and dignity as true God and true Man that he could not allow the immaculate and blessed body of his Mother to return to dust.

Let us pray. O Virgin Mary, in veneration of the mystery of your precious death and assumption into heaven, I hereby invoke you as my Advocate so that you would look upon me with pity and come to my aid, especially at the hour of my death and be my special protection and defense. Receive my soul into your maternal arms so that you would present me before the tribunal of divine mercy and, through your intercession, I may join with you and all the angels and saints to praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.