4

THE ASSUMPTION

“Death where is thy mortal sting?”

And Mary was assumed,
taken up to heaven.

And Mary went with haste
into the hill country.

“Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the human heart
what things God has prepared for those who love him.”

The Mother of God,
the Mother of Jesus,
the Mother of the Church,
was taken to the mansion prepared for her by her Son.

The New Eve,
the maid servant of the Lord,
is returned to the Garden of Paradise.

The assumption was an annunciation,
a visitation, a nativity, a presentation,
and a finding of Mary in the temple of the Lord.

The assumption of Mary
was a resurrection,
an ascension into heaven,
a message to all of us
that if Christ had not risen from the dead,
none of us can arise from the dead.

We believe in the resurrection of the body.

Christ is risen from the dead, Alleluia.

Mary is assumed into heaven, Alleluia.

All who die in Christ
are taken into the Father’s house,
into the banquet hall,
into the hall of Light.

This is our faith,
our belief in a beyond,
where with Christ
we will be whole again, body and soul.

We believe in life after death.
“O death where is your mortal sting?
O death where is your victory?”

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you.