Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Today is the Feast of the Assumption (Dormition in Eastern Church).

Could this day not be any happier unless it was Easter? Worship in Joy!

O people of Christ, let us acclaim her today in sacred song, acknowledge our own good fortune and proclaim it. Let us honour her in nocturnal vigil; let us delight in her purity of soul and body, for she next to God surpasses all in purity. It is natural for similar things to glory in each other. --St. John Damascene

Mary, then, has left this world; she is now in heaven. Thence does this compassionate Mother look down upon us who are still in this valley of tears. She pities us, and, if we wish it, promises to help us. Let us always beseech her... --St. Alphonsus Liguori

See the beauty of the daughter of Jerusalem, who ascended to heaven like the rising sun at dawn. -- Benedictus antiphon from Daily Office

It is surely fitting, it was becoming, that she should be taken up into heaven and not lie in the grave until Christ's second coming, who had passed a life of sanctity and of miracles such as hers....Who can conceive that God should so repay the debt, which He considered to owe to His Mother for the elements of His human Body, as to allow the flesh and blood from which it was teken to molder in the grave? Or who can conceive that that virginal frame which never sinned, was to undergo the death of a sinner?... --Venerable Pope Pius XII

Loving Mother of the Redeemer,

Gate of heaven, star of the sea,
Assist your people

who have fallen yet strive to rise again.

To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,

yet remained a virgin after as before.

You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting,

have pity on us, poor sinners.

The earthly heaven takes up her dwelling in a heavenly and imperishable land. ... The gates of heaven were opened wide and the angels sang, as Christ received the virgin treasure of His own Mother. (Orthros [Morning Prayer] Ode 4 following Hypacoi)