Reluctant Catholic Thoughts about the church and my faith.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary, "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."[1] This means that Mary was transported into Heaven with her body and soul united. The feast day recognizing Mary's passage into Heaven is celebrated as The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Roman Catholics. This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950 in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. In those denominations that observe it, the Assumption is commonly celebrated on August 15, a Holy Day of Obligation in Roman Catholicism.

In his August 15, 2004 homily given at Lourdes, Pope John Paul II quoted John 14:3 from the Bible as a scriptural basis for understanding the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, where Christ, in his Last Supper discourses, explained that "When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also". According to Catholic theology, Mary is the pledge of the fulfillment of Christ's promise. However, many theologians disagree with this interpretation of Scripture, and believe that Christ was speaking about his preparation of Calvary and the crucifixion for the remission of sins.[2]

The Ascension is one of the great feasts in the Christian liturgical calendar, and commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension Day is officially celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter. However not all countries hold the feast on this day. The feast is one of the ecumenical feasts (i.e., universally celebrated), ranking with the feasts of the Passion, of Easter and of Pentecost among the most solemn in the ecclesiastical calendar.

The observance of this feast is of great antiquity. Although no documentary evidence of it exists prior to the beginning of the fifth century, St. Augustine says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time. Frequent mention of it is made in the writings of St. John Chrysotom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and in the Constitution of the Apostles. The Pilgrimage of Aetheria speaks of the vigil of this feast and of the feast itself, as they were kept in the church built over the grotto in Bethlehem in which Christ was born. [6] It may be that prior to the fifth century the fact narrated in the Gospels was commemorated in conjunction with the feast of Easter or Pentecost. Some believe that the much-disputed forty-third decree of the Council of Elvira (c. 300) condemning the practice of observing a feast on the fortieth day after Easter and neglecting to keep Pentecost on the fiftieth day, implies that the proper usage of the time was to commemorate the Ascension along with Pentecost. Representations of the mystery are found in diptychs and frescoes dating as early as the fifth century.

The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church on January 1, the Octave Day of Christmas. In many countries this day is a holy day of obligation.

The feast was celebrated in the east before the west, but by the 5th century it was celebrated in France and Spain on the Sunday before Christmas. In Rome, even before the 7th century, January 1 was used as a celebration of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 13th century and 14th century, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ had come to replace the Marian feast on January 1. The celebration of the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1 was expanded to the entire Roman Catholic Church in 1570 when Pope Pius V promulgated the Roman Missal for the entire church. In 1914, the feast of the "Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" was established in Portugal, occurring on October 11. In 1931, this feast was extended to the entire Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI and maintained on October 11. Following the Second Vatican Council in 1974, Pope Paul VI removed the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ from the liturgical calendar, and replaced it with the feast of the "Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God."[1] Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate this feast day with the old name "The Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" on October 11.[2]

The feast is a celebration of Mary's motherhood of Jesus. The title “Mother of God” is a western derivation from the Greek, “theotokos,” literally translated God-bearer. The term “theotokos” was adopted at the ecumenical council at Ephesus as a way to assert the divinity of Christ, from which it follows that what is predicated of Christ is predicated of God. So, if Mary is the mother of Jesus, she is the mother of God. Therefore, the title “Mother of God” and the “Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God”, which celebrates her under this title, are at once Mariological and Christological.