Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the death of Mary and her bodily assumption into Heaven, before her body could begin to decay--a foretaste of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. Because it signifies the Blessed Virgin's passing into eternal life, it is the most important of all Marian feasts and a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics. Mary was totally united to her Son Jesus and accompanied Him at every moment of His life. She was bore the God-man in her virginal womb and walked the road of suffering with Him to the Cross. Then she beheld Jesus after His resurrection in His glorified body. It is fitting, then, that Mary should have her own type of "resurrection" at her Assumption when God would take her body and soul into Heaven without her suffering death.