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The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was lifted up to Heaven by the Holy Spirit

We are right to celebrate Our Lady's Assumption. She now lives in Heaven's Radiance, honoured as Queen beside Christ the King.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary reached the end of her life, she was lifted into glory by Christ her beloved Son. Body and Soul, she entered Heaven. Christ was enfleshed of her at His conception; He could not allow her to die and be buried like sinful people.

Christ descended a great distance to join us in our world, yet He had the joy of being with a Mother who, though not divine, was pure and holy. It was fitting that she was lifted, body and soul, out of our sinful world, when her work was done, so that she might 'rest' eternally with Him Who had 'rested' with her.

As I praised the Blessed Virgin Mary on the feast of her Assumption, I was shown by the Lord a 'mountain', with the narrow path which leads to great sanctity. We can all become holy and pure, like Our Lady and the Saints, by God's grace - though we cannot yet enter bodily into Heaven, as she has, and her son.

When we hear from the pulpit distorted versions of the Faith, when a member of the Clergy explains away the supernatural and casts doubt on such events as the Transfiguration of Christ, or His bodily Resurrection and Ascension, or His Mother Mary's Assumption into Heaven, we must nevertheless hold fast to the faith we know to be true.

The Saints and Angels stand around Our Blessed Lady now, in Heaven, in awe of her privileges -- her Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption into Heaven - and in awe of her amazing holiness; yet she is as simple as a child, and kind, like her son, Jesus. We must not be afraid to approach her, to celebrate her feasts and to ask for her prayers.

Christ was introduced to the world, even as a child, because He is King: the Divine child Who would sacrifice His life for sinners, and then conquer sin and death by rising from the grave. The Early Church spent many years preaching about Him, and defining His two natures, and His Mission. Only much later were definitions made about His mother's Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption. Yet the time is ripe for confirmation, in a formal declaration, of two other titles: Co-Redemptrix, and Mediatrix of all Graces.

The Blessed Virgin sacrificed her life, to give the world its Saviour. The Church has issued formal declarations in modern times of what she has long believed about Our Blessed Lady: about her purity (The Immaculate Conception) and her triumph (Her Assumption, body and soul, into Heaven); yet Christ wants to see honour paid to her courage and love, through a formal definition of her titles, proclaiming her, 'Co-Redemptrix', and, 'Mediatrix of all Graces'.

Jesus Christ is Divine. He is God-made-man, whereas His mother is only human - though very pure and holy. Christ did not simply use the Virgin Mary as a conduit for His arrival on earth. Her life is inextricably entwined with His, and will be so forever, as she intercedes for the Church, at His side in Heaven. It was by Divine grace that she was conceived Immaculate, worthy to be the mother of the Infant Jesus. She taught Him in His boyhood, then saw Him teach others, in His adult life. She suffered with Him, as He endured the Cross; and after His Resurrection and Ascension she guided the disciples. She was with them at Pentecost. But when her work on earth was done she was assumed, body and soul, to Heaven, to be with her beloved son forever, interceding for us who need their prayers.