In discussing Mary’s Assumption, the Catholic Church teaches that Mary’s body was glorified immediately at the end of her earthly life. Since Mary was the first person to say "yes" to the Good News of Jesus (Luke 1:38) and maintained her devotion to Christ even after His death and Resurrection, she’s seen as the perfect role model for Christians. As this ideal example of discipleship, we believe that Mary received early the promised blessing of bodily resurrection that all Christians will be given one day.
August 15 is the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
The third apparition of Mary to Bernadette, on 18 February 1858, in which the beautiful Lady said to her: "I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next"; is not the one that comes closest to this feast?
The feast of the Assumption is the most beautiful and greatest Marian feast in our liturgical year. We celebrate Christ, of course, but also Mary, who entered the glory of God with her body. During the apparitions at the Grotto of Massabielle, few words were exchanged, but there are two that are fundamental.
The first was during the third apparition when Mary said to Bernadette "I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next". The happiness of the other world is not the happiness that awaits us after death. It is the happiness of this world which is inaugurated by her apparitions, in which the relationship is one of love between Mary and Bernadette.
It is in the world of love that we are promised happiness. It is because we love, because we give, because we receive, that we can live by this love. And so discover the happiness that God has come to bring us.
And then another apparition when Mary reveals her name "I am the Immaculate Conception". On that day, Mary reveals that God's plan of love has been fully realized in her, but that we too can benefit from the mercy Mary was preventively granted by being reconciled with God through the gift of her forgiveness.
It is innocence that we can recover. It is already the glory that is promised and offered to us. It is an invitation to follow Christ humbly, step by step, so that one day we may enter his glory.
For the winter is past and the rains are gone.
Flowers have appeared on the earth,
The time for songs has come.
Arise my beloved, and come my beautiful one!
In the night I searched for the love of my soul.
In my barren garden he made his home.
He has covered my head with dewdrops.
My soul is beautiful, my beloved is coming.
Come, my beloved, come into my garden,
Winter is over, and the vines are in bloom.
Come into my garden, come into my garden.
Speak my well loved one, glimpses in the window.
The fruit is ripe my soul is ready,
I wait for its call asking me to open,
The dove coos, my beloved arrives.
Come my beloved, come to my garden,
Winter is past and the vines in bloom.
Come to my garden, my beloved, come to my garden.
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