Unlike the other saints who’s bodies will not join their souls in Heaven until the Second Coming of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s body was immediately taken up into Heaven along with her soul at the end of her existence on Earth.
The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches refer to this event as the Dormition of Mary or the Dormition of the Virgin.
Mary’s Assumption into Heaven was not by her own power, but by the power of God. This was different from Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven which happened by his own divine power
Because Mary’s body is in Heaven, no church or other holy place claims to possess it, and no grave or tomb exists that contains her remains.
Although the Catholic Church has always believed and taught that the Immaculate Mother of God was assumed into Heaven, it was not infallibly defined as a dogma of the Church until 1950 by Pope Pius XII.
Catholics meditate on the Virgin Mary’s Assumption into Heaven as the fourth Glorious Mystery of the Holy Rosary.
The Church celebrates The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 each year, a holy day of obligation for Catholics.
When the fullness of Mary’s time was completed:
Mary’s body and soul were taken up into Heaven:
A logical consequence of the Immaculate Conception:
Then God’s temple in Heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. And a great portent appeared in Heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 11:19-12:1
Jesus will take all of those He loves into Heaven:
Mary’s Assumption into Heaven is proof of eternal life for humans:
“Finally 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.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. . . . she is our Mother in the order of grace.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 966
Mary is an exception:
The new Eve experiences now what we hope to experience later:
The Bible supports the traditional belief in the Assumption of Mary:
Today we contemplate in a special way the Mother of God. Let us fix our gaze on her definitive dwelling in God. In his glory. It is that great “sign” which, according to the words of St. John in the Apocalypse, appeared in Heaven. This sign is simultaneously closely linked to the Earth. It is first of all the sign of the struggle “with the dragon”, and in this struggle we reread the entire history of the Church on Earth: the struggle against Satan, the struggle against the forces of darkness, which never cease to launch their attacks on the Kingdom of God. This is, at the same time, the sign of the definitive victory; in the mystery of her Assumption, Mary is the sign of this definitive victory, of which the Author of the Apocalypse speaks: behold, “now have come salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ”. Today’s solemnity is a great celebration of faith. We must sharpen our gaze of faith so that the mystery of the Assumption can operate freely in our minds and hearts: so that it too may become for us the sign of definitive victory, which is preceded by the toil and struggle against the forces of darkness.
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 15 August 1982
Praying in the very place that Mary was assumed into Heaven:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Led away from anti-Catholicism by Scripture:
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