"... The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."
Pius XII -- Munificentissimus Deus

Belief that Mary has been taken up and is now in heaven with both her body and her soul has been part of the teaching of the Catholic Church since the earliest centuries of Christianity.

The strongest evidence for the belief of the early Christians is found in ancient liturgies and in homilies in honor of Mary's passing.

A second source, widely spread in the Middle Ages is known as the Transitus writings.

By the end of the Middle Ages, belief in Mary's Assumption into heaven was well established theologically and part of the devotional expressions of the people.

The word Assumption comes from the Latin verb assumere,meaning "to take to oneself."

Mary did not ascend as Jesus ascended of His own power, but was "assumed," taken up by the power of God.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ took Mary home to Himself where He is.

 

The fact that Mary's body had been assumed into heaven had been accepted by virtually all Roman Catholics and by many other Christians for centuries.

It was not until our own day, however, that it was made a dogma of the Church.

From the earliest times Christians believed that the body of the Mother of God, who was never stained by original sin, had not been corrupted by death.

There was a strong tradition that Mary died quietly and peacefully amidst the Apostles.

Her death, according to this tradition, was not like other deaths which are accompanied by suffering, reluctance to leave this world, and a fear of the unknown.

Her death, rather, was an act of pure love, an intense desire to be re- united with her Son.

A short time after her burial, according to this tradition, the Apostles visited her tomb and found it empty.

 

Mary's Assumption reminds us that she who is in heaven body and soul is our Mother, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and the eternal enemy of Satan.

She loves us more than we can possibly love ourselves,

and she is our powerful intercessor.

What we ask in her name, she will obtain for us.

With God everything is possible, and God can refuse His Mother nothing.

There is no reason for despair so long as Mary reigns as Queen of Heaven.

The Assumption also reminds us that our final goal is not on this earth but in heaven.

If we live according to God's laws, our body and soul will someday be reunited in heaven, as Mary's are.

The troubles we face in this world will be forgotten in the eternal happiness of heaven.

The definition of the Assumption proclaims again the doctrine of our Resurrection,the eternal destiny of each human body.

And it is the history of Mary which maintains the doctrine it its clarity.

The Resurrection of Mary forecasts the resurrection of each one of us.

 

Mary's Burial place is Venerated

 

The tomb of the Blessed Virgin is venerated in the Valley of Cedron, near Jerusalem.

Modern writers hold, however, that Mary died and was buried at Ephesus.

It is a little room with a bench hewn from the rocky mass in imitation of the tomb of Christ. This has given it the shape of a cubical edicule, about ten feet in circumference and eight feet high. Until the fourteenth century the little monument was covered with magnificent marble slabs and the walls of the church were covered with frescoes.

Since 1187 the tomb has been the property of the Muslim Government which nevertheless authorizes the Christians to officiate in it.