QUEEN ASSUMED INTO HEAVEN

(1) MARY, you obey the law of death, but your death is rather a peaceful slumber, a gentle separation of the soul from the body. Your soul reaches such a degree of love that it seems unable to rest any longer except in the blissful embrace of the Blessed Trinity. It leaves your immaculate body and sweetly speeds to enjoy the blessed vision of God. But soon your fair soul is again united to your body which lies peacefully in the tomb, and suddenly you stand immortal and glorified, clothed in queenly glory.

As angels sing their hymns of praise, you are raised on high to the kingdom of glory by God's own power. Who can tell the sweetness of that loving embrace whereby Jesus welcomes and admits you, His own Virgin Mother, to unending union with Him in the glory of heaven! Your peaceful tomb has been opened by the Apostles and found to be empty. Beautiful flowers whose sweet fragrance scents the air fill the place where your body has lain, and heavenly music envelopes your empty tomb. The Apostles now realize that you have been taken up into heaven, soul and body.

(2) MARY, it was fitting that you should be assumed into heaven with soul and body. By your Assumption God honored your body that was always the temple in which He dwelt by grace. It was a gate through which the Son of God, the Divine Word, passed to earth and became Man. It was fitting that your holy and virginal body which gave flesh and blood to the God of all sanctity, the Victor over death, should never experience the corruption of the grave. Death and corruption are a result of original sin; but by your Immaculate Conception you are preserved from original sin and its effects. You offered yourself to suffering and your beloved Son to death for the redemption of mankind; it was fitting that you should be united with Him in glory.

Queen Assumed into Heaven, I rejoice that after years of heroic martyrdom on earth, you have at last been taken to the throne prepared for you in heaven. Lift my heart with you in the glory of your Assumption above the dreadful touch of sin and impurity. Teach me how small earth becomes when viewed from heaven. Make me realize that death is the triumphant gate through which I shall pass to Your Son, and that someday my body shall rejoin my soul in the unending bliss of heaven. From this earth, over which I tread as a pilgrim, I look to you for help. When my hour of death has come, lead me safely to the presence of Jesus to enjoy the vision of my God for all eternity together with you.

(3) MARY, I venerate you as the Queen of heaven and earth. Your own Son led you to a throne of glory in heaven next to His own. As you tasted the bitterness of pain and sorrow with Him on earth, you now enjoy the sweetness of eternal bliss with Him in heaven. I thank Jesus for having put a most beautiful crown upon your head, while all the angels and saints acclaim you as their Queen.

Because here below you shared in all the mysteries of our Redemption, Jesus has crowned you not only with glory, but with power. He placed you at His right hand that you may dispose of the treasures of grace by a singular title—that of Mother of God. In the midst of all the saints you stand as their Queen and ours—dearer to the Heart of God than any creature in God's kingdom. You pray for your children and distribute to us every grace won by the loving Savior on the cross.

Queen Assumed into Heaven, may your glorious beauty fill my heart with a distaste for earthly things and an ardent longing for the joys of heaven. May your merciful eyes glance down upon my struggles and my weakness in this vale of tears. Crown me with the pure robe of innocence and grace here, and with immortality and glory in heaven.

Having been made partakers of Your heavenly banquet, we implore Your mercy, O Lord our God, that we who celebrate the Assumption of the Mother of God, may by her intercession be delivered from all the evils that threaten us. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15)