Scripture Reflections for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“We trust in the intercession for us and our loved ones by Mary, the bodily assumed Mother of God in heaven. Hope radiates hope, so let our virtue give hope to those around us trapped in despair or hatred or falsity.”

“Very often we experience or see salvation as a battle, or perhaps as an ongoing war that happens within us and outside us. A war between life and death, between truth and lies, hope and despair...However we need also to remember that Christ has already conquered it all.”

“whilst our salvation is entirely the work of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the way that God chose to work out this salvation in history was to involve human beings”

“Let us then, take inspiration from Mary’s holiness and devotion, by all means. But let us also take inspiration from her humanity.”

“The assumption is not on our part, but on God’s part. It is not we who make the assumption. It is God who makes the assumption. So perhaps the sense is better understood if we think of God ‘lifting’ Mary into heaven. A slightly different sense of the word ‘assumption’ than the one we often use.”

“We are seeing more clearly that respectful caring for all our bodies, the body of the earth and all its creatures, big and small is an expression of God caring for all creatures. It is our way of thanking the Loving God creating us still. We are all interconnected with each other and in God.”

“we must be daily receptive to the graces and instincts of the indwelling Spirit who both frees us from our past and elevates us towards our future glory: day by day, little by little, dying and rising”

“the feast of the Assumption celebrates the mercy of God or rather the victory of God’s mercy and glory over the poor”

“The barrenness of Elizabeth’s womb is not an obstacle for God, the dry river is not an obstacle for God in providing water that nourishes people and animals, and Mary’s death is not an obstacle for God in showing how God can defeat even death”

“in the Magnificat, Mary the good biblical theologian recognizes that what is taking place within her is the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to his people over thousands of years. She is identifying her place in God’s plan and in his promises.”

“Mary shares with her divine Son the unity of body and soul after earthly life, and in so doing they both help us to anticipate that moment of our own, when our souls and heavenly bodies will once again be reunited at the end of time”

“Communion only begins to be restored in the relationship between the Second Adam and the new Eve. In this relationship there was no shadow of separation or division.”

“When she shared the good news with Elizabeth, Mary created a communion of joy between herself and Elizabeth. We have the opportunity to use Mary's example daily by being a witness to God in whatever ways God is calling us.”

“For our part, where we live, with whom we associate, and how expansively we relate to the world will have a good deal to do with the extent to which we understand and incorporate these readings into our own lives.”

“Jesus’ victory over sin and death flowed in a unique way, with outstanding intensity, to his Mother, but it did so as a pledge that it can flow to us. The Spirit who went ahead of Mary to keep her from sin, goes ahead of us to free us from sin.”

“Christian hope does not only point to the kind of future awaiting us, but also affects how we live and behave now. Hope is not cosmic fantasy or wishful thinking. It is for real, for real people in a real world. Grace is given to us for struggle, the struggle against all that diminishes our humanity and that of others.”

“In Mary, the most perfect representative of those who hear the Word of God and do it we see our own destiny revealed”

“God’s grace can only be seen in the particularity of a human life. It was seen in this girl who made joyful haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. It was seen in her to the full.”

“we Christians must paint a message of beauty and of hope, one that inspires and one that cherishes, one that respects and safeguards, one that loves the human body here and now, and reaches out into eternity”

“the conviction that the promise of redemption has come to fulfilment in one of her members, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a powerful reason for our hoping to participate in the Lord’s Resurrection too”

“In solemnly recognizing Mary’s unique destiny the Catholic Church reaffirmed the inviolable dignity of every human person, over against the horrendous degradation of so many in the Second World War”

“Mary dies as we do because it is congruent with the Christ-pattern so to do. It’s all of a piece with his life and hers. On each case, and all along the line, the theme is self-giving in humility, sacrifice, abandonment.”

“The Assumption of the Our Lady confirms for us that human beings are not just souls or even brains, but souls and bodies...Mary, like each of us, was and is a unity of soul and body.”

“Just as the contents of the ark prefigure Jesus, so the ark itself prefigures Mary. The ark contained the old covenant, but in her womb Mary carried the New Covenant.”

“Her assumption into heaven points us foward to the resurrection of the whole people of God in Jesus Christ at the end of time, and her coronation there points us foward to our own sharing in Jesus’ kingly power”

“God never fights with the puny weapons of the world, that ends up just being self-defeating. God's a warrior indeed, Christ is a warrior, Mary's a warrior indeed but they don't fight with the weapons of the world.”

“the feast of the Assumption, especially in light of our readings for today, is a celebration of Mary's translation to heaven and is also precisely for that reason a spur to battle”