While the Acension of Jesus to heaven is a source of great hope for us, Jesus being immortal God makes the event unreachable for us mortals.  Mary, however, was a human creature -- granted, a very special creature -- as we are. The feast of Assumption is therefore a source of even greater hope that one day we will also have a good death (this feast is called the Holy Dormition in Orthodox churches) and that we will go to heaven to join our Holy Mother.

On The Assumption of Mary, by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church, Founder of the Redemptorist Order [Scripture] Scriptural support for the dogma of Mary's Assumption, University of Dayton [Tradition] The Assumption of Mary: A Belief Since Apostolic Times, by Father Clifford Stevens How to Argue for Mary's Assumption, by Jason Evert, Catholic Answers The Feast of the Assumption, Catholic Encyclopedia Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Rober Keffer, O.Cist. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Women of Faith and Family Feast of the Assumption of Mary, by Catherine Fournier A GREAT SIGN APPEARED IN HEAVEN, by Abbot John Eudes Bamberger Homily for August 15: Catholic Doors Ministry The Assumption of Mary, by Dave Kopel

• University of Dayton: Survey of Art centered on the Assumption (Very complete. Be sure to click on arrows on lower left of each page.)
• The Belles Heures of Jean of France, Duke of Berry, 1406–09
• Mary, Queen of Heaven, c. 1485/1500
• Caravaggio: Assumption of the Virgin Mary
• El Greco
• Kiev School: The Assumption (Dormition) of the Virgin, end of the 12th--beginning of the 13th century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
• Peter Paul Ruben, The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1626
• Titian: Assumption of the Virgin (1516-1518)

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