The last dogma defined by the Church is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heavenly glory. This dogma is the gateway to answer one of the greatest problems that has ever faced the human race. What is the meaning of life? Is death the end of everything? Mary's Assumption tells us that eternal life with God is the final evolution of every man and woman who dies in the friendship of God. At the end of time all will be taken up and transformed, the body and the soul, the corporeal and the spiritual. For all that God created is sacred and loved. Where Mary is, all the elect will be. Whoever contemplates this mystery learns much about God, Christ, Mary, the Church and oneself. The Virgin Mary is one who walked in the darkness of faith and never despaired, one who obeyed and never deserted, one who loved and was never unfaithful. She is an example of the perfect disciple. Mary was Jesus' first and the most perfect disciple of Christ. The Virgin Mary, taken up into heaven after her earthly life, remains for us the symbol of all that we should be, and of all that we will be, if only we are faithful to Christ. She is the woman in the life of Christ and the woman in the life of all who follow him. On earth Mary was the mother of Jesus and his wholehearted companion, his comfort and joy. Now in heaven close to Jesus, she watches over us with a mother's care and intercedes for us. She is our life, our sweetness and our hope. She is our shining example. Where she is, we shall be. God knows we need the woman clothed in glory. The purpose of this book is to contemplate the Virgin Mary in her heavenly glory. The book's reflections go beyond the mystery of the Assumption in itself to contemplate the Mother of God in glory in relation to Christ and the Church. For Mary in glory is close to Christ and the people of God. We hope to penetrate more deeply this twofold mystery. To facilitate this task, the book is divided the study into two parts: The Assumption in the Mystery of Christ, and the Assumption in the Mystery of the Church. The first part follows the model of Chapter eight of the Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council. There as here, Mary is considered first in the mystery of Christ and then in the mystery of the Church. The first part is actually a commentary on the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus that defined the dogma of the Assumption. It is here we perceive that the Assumption is not an isolated privilege granted to Mary, but one that is intimately joined with the person and mission of Christ. Her triumphal entrance into glory is part of Christ's victory over sin and death. The second part goes beyond the Constitution and ponders the Immaculate Virgin in heaven in relation to the mystery of the Church. The first consideration is Mary in heaven as the model, image and beginning of the pilgrim Church. This is followed by her relation to the suffering and heavenly Church. The final chapter ponders the texts of the liturgical feast of the Assumption. It is in the liturgy of the feast that we experience God's love for the human family; Mary's inseparable union with Christ her Son and Savior, and the joy that we are called to experience once our pilgrimage of faith is over. For, taken up to heaven we join Mary in the communion of saints in union with Christ our Lord.

In Mary’s Bodily Assumption, Matthew Levering presents a contemporary explanation and defense of the Catholic doctrine of Mary’s bodily Assumption. He asks: How does the Church justify a doctrine that does not have explicit biblical or first-century historical evidence to support it? With the goal of exploring this question more deeply, he divides his discussion into two sections, one historical and the other systematic. Levering’s historical section aims to retrieve the rich Mariological doctrine of the mid-twentieth century. He introduces the development of Mariology in Catholic Magisterial documents, focusing on Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Munificentissimus Deus of 1950, in which the bodily Assumption of Mary was dogmatically defined, and two later Magisterial documents, Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium and Pope John Paul II’s Redemptoris Mater. Levering addresses the work of the neo-scholastic theologians Joseph Duhr, Aloïs Janssens, and Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange before turning to the great theologians of the nouvelle théologie—Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Louis Bouyer, Joseph Ratzinger—and their emphasis on biblical typology. Using John Henry Newman as a guide, Levering organizes his systematic section by the three pillars of the doctrine on which Mary’s Assumption rests: biblical typology, the Church as authoritative interpreter of divine revelation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the fittingness of Mary’s Assumption in relation to the other mysteries of faith. Levering’s ecumenical contribution is a significant engagement with Protestant biblical scholars and theologians; it is also a reclamation of Mariology as a central topic in Catholic theology.

This is an open access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The ancient Dormition and Assumption traditions are a collection of over sixty different narratives, preserved in nine ancient languages, that commemorate the end of the Virgin Mary's life. These traditions have long been overlooked by scholars of early Christianity, no doubt largely because this complicated corpus was insufficiently well known. The present study aims to remedy this situation with a detailed analysis of the earliest traditions of Mary's death, including liturgical and archaeological evidence as well as the numerous narrative sources. Several of the most important narratives are translated in appendices, many appearing in English for the first time. The book will be of interest to all scholars of early Christian literature.

The New "Mary" Question Mary--Another Redeemer? explores Roman Catholic teachings about Mary from a biblical and historical perspective. Skilled and knowledgeable author James White traces how the Mary of the Bible--esteemed mother of the Lord, obedient servant and chosen vessel of God--has become the Immaculately Conceived, Bodily Assumed Queen of Heaven, viewed as Co-Mediator with Christ, and now widely recognized as Co-Redeemer by many in the Catholic Church. A calm, even-handed look at the woman the Bible calls "blessed among women"--and an invitation to single-minded devotion to God's truth.

From the cross Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother, too: a singularly holy model, consoler, and intercessor for our spiritual journey. Yet most Protestants, and too many Catholics don't understand the role that God wants her to play in our lives. In Behold Your Mother, Tim Staples takes you through the Church's teachings about the Blessed Virgin Mary, showing their firm Scriptural and historical roots and dismantling the objections of those who mistakenly believe that Mary competes for the attention due Christ alone. Combining the best recent scholarship with a convert's in-depth knowledge of the arguments, Staples has assembled the most thorough and useful Marian apologetic you'll find anywhere. Relevant and essential -- Mary matters. Read Behold Your Mother and find out just how much.