What is the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, celebrated on August 15?

What is the meaning of the assumption?

Marie is a woman from Israel. She lived fully but without sin. His life was filled by the Spirit of God. After her death, the Virgin was removed to immediately enter into life in God, in heaven. The feast of the Assumption is therefore the celebration of the welcome, in Notre-Dame, of eternal life even in the flesh. With the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, it is the announcement of our own personal resurrection that is revealed in it. This is what is revealed in the creed with the “I believe in the resurrection of the flesh”. To believe in God, to believe in your Son and in your good news is also to believe in eternal life and the resurrection of bodies.

What is the difference between ascent and assumption?

The Festival of Assumption is a celebration fixed for August 15 from the sixth century. It celebrates death, resurrection, entry into heaven and the coronation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. We say “Assumption”, of a Latin word which means “to remove”, and not “ascent”, which means “to go up”, to mark that Notre-Dame was removed in heaven, in body and soul, by virtue of a particular privilege. What was this privilege? To have agreed to be the mother of Christ. By his “yes”, by her fiat to God during the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary welcomed in her flesh, the one who is the master of life and on whom death has no power: Jesus Christ.

Conversely, the feast of ascent celebrates the rise of Jesus Christ in heaven, in glory, towards God his Father. By going there, the Messiah fulfills the meaning of his Pascale Resurrection: entering, with his body, in divine glory. If Jesus leaves his disciples by rising to the ascent, he continues to accompany his disciples via the Holy Spirit.

Since when have we been celebrating the Assumption?

The feast of the Assumption, or of the “Dormition” as the Christians of the East call it, was celebrated from 431, when the Council of Ephesus defines the belief (the dogma) of “Mary, Mother of God”. At the beginning of the 8th century, this celebration was enriched by an office from the evening before (vigil). In France, the Assumption was solemn from the wish of Louis XIII, in 1638, since he devoted the kingdom to Mary.

In the universal church, this celebration is deployed with the proclamation of the dogma of “the assumption of the Virgin Mary” by Pope Pius XII, in 1950. The feast of Assumption is a summary of the believer’s journey. If we place his faith in the risen Jesus, one is destined body and soul to live in the breast of God. And Notre-Dame was the first to live it.

What date does the assumption take place?

The celebration of the assumption takes place every year, August 15. It is a public holiday in many countries.

Why is the Fête de l’Assumption a holiday in France?

August 15 is a public holiday in France and in many countries. This celebration has been celebrated there since the Middle Ages, but it was only in 1638 that King Louis XIII devoted the kingdom of France to the Most Holy Virgin Mary. The date of August 15 is then established as a national day day. This date symbolized the maternal protection of Notre-Dame on the country.

But it was only necessary to wait until the year 1802 that the first consul Napoleon Bonaparte decided to sanctuarize this symbolic date and made the feast of the Assumption one holiday everywhere in France, thus reinforcing its importance in the national and popular tradition.

What Pope Pius XII said during the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

“We proclaim, declare and define that it is a divinely revealed dogma that Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God always virgin, at the end of the course of her earthly life, was raised in soul and body with celestial glory. », Pope Pius XII, November 1, 1950.

Prayer of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716) for the Assumption of the Virgin

“Let’s make the Queen of Angels
On earth as in heaven;
At all times, in all places,
Let us sound his praises.
Let’s run the Queen of Angels
On earth as well as heaven

In that day God is a party
To the queen of her court;
After God turn,
The angels crown his head.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

Its light is more radiant
Than that of the cherubs;
The Fire of the Seraphim
Breathe a less fiery flame.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

What court always the environment?
All glorious thrones
And the virtues of heaven
Are the jewels of his crown.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

She is more than all the archangels
True to its creator;
More zealous in his heart
And purer than all angels.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

The whole heaven in rejoicing
Sounds its quantities;
Angels with nine choirs
Celebrate his magnificence.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

O celestial! O sweet harmony!
O angelics concerts!
Make in the universe
Everything sounds from Marie.
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as in heaven.

Glory, love, honor and praise
To this queen of heaven;
At all times, in all places,
Long live Notre-Dame des Anges!
Couronnons La Reine-des-Anges
On earth as well as heaven

So be it. »»

Prayer of Mgr Jauffret (1759-1823) for the Assumption of the Virgin

“O Jesus! Who made all the greatness of Mary, who is currently making her happiness, give us for mother, make us celebrate her triumph with dignity, grant us by her intercession the virtues which made her become your mother, open in our favor the treasures of heaven, make that we receive you with the same dispositions in the Holy Eucharist, that the very pure virgin has received in her breast, We died like her in charity, so that we can live like her in glory.

O Marie! O our very mining mother! Be our lawyer with the very Saint Trinity, look from the heaven our fights, make us win the victory, get us the graces we need to avoid sin, to detach ourselves from the affection of the world, and to sigh only after the happy eternity.

So be it. »»