Dumping My Assumptions about Mary

August 10, 2011 by Pat Gohn

Continued from Page 1

In this doctrine of the Assumption, the Church meets the despair of the world . . .

She affirms the beauty of life against death. When wars, sex, and sin multiply the discords of men, and death threatened on every side, the Church bids us lift up our hearts to the life that that has the immortality of the Life that nourished it . . .

Eat the food of earth and one dies; eat the Eucharist and one lives eternally. She who is the mother of the Eucharist, escapes the decomposition of death. (The World's First Love, Fulton J. Sheen)

Mary's Assumption anticipates the resurrection we may one day enjoy in Christ. Further, when we are perfectly conformed to Christ, we, too, will have a perfected, glorified body, that is united with our soul in heaven.

The Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 972)

In Mary, we see the true hope of every human person: we were made for a loving, intimate relationship with God and with others.

In Mary, we see our own heavenly destiny. And that is—all at once—wonderful, transcendent, grandiose, and truly sublime.

Um . . . it's anything but irrelevant.

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8/10/2011 4:00:00 AM

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About Pat Gohn

Pat Gohn is a Catholic writer, speaker, and the host of the Among Women Podcast and blog. Her book Blessed, Beautiful and Bodacious: Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Womanhood is published by Ave Maria Press.

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