The Assumption of Mary, Rubens, circa 1626. On August 15, the Feast of the Assumption or simply, “The Assumption” is widely celebrated all over Christendom. This holy day marks the occasion of the Virgin Mary’s bodily ascent to heaven at the end of her life

Pope Francis: Mary’s Assumption was a ‘giant leap for mankind’

Source: Catholic San Francisco

VATICAN CITY — On the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis said that Mary’s assumption into Heaven was an infinitely greater achievement than man’s first steps on the moon.

“When man set foot on the moon, he said a phrase that became famous: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ In essence, humanity had reached a historic milestone. But today, in Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, we celebrate an infinitely greater achievement. Our Lady set foot in Heaven,” Pope Francis said Aug. 15.

“This step of the little Virgin of Nazareth was the giant leap forward of mankind,” the pope added.

Speaking from the window of the Vatican’s apostolic palace to the pilgrims spread out throughout St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said that in Mary’s assumption into Heaven, one sees life’s end goal: “not to gain the things here below, which are fleeting, but the patrimony above, which is forever.”

Catholics around the world celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15. The feast commemorates the end of Mary’s earthly life when God assumed her, body and soul, into heaven.

“Our Lady set foot in Heaven: she went there not only in spirit, but with her body as well, with all of herself,” he said. “That one of us dwells in the flesh in Heaven gives us hope: we understand that we are precious, destined to rise again. God does not allow our bodies to vanish into nothing. With God, nothing is lost.”

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Dr. Zia H Shah, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

Comments and suggested reading by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven (often shortened to the Assumption) is, according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodoxy,^[3] among others, the bodily taking up of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Heaven at the end of her earthly life.

In the churches that observe it, the Assumption is a major feast day, commonly celebrated on 15 August. In many countries, the feast is also marked as a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church.

The 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”.^[4] This doctrine was dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950, in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus by exercising papal infallibility.^[5] While the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church believe in the Dormition of the Mother of God (Dormition of the Theotokos or “the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God”),^[6] whether Mary had a physical death has not been dogmatically defined. 

The holy Quran has a chapter named after mother Mary and she is the only lady mentioned by name in the Quran. She is mentioned in Surah Tahreem as a role model for not only women but also for believing men.  Yet no where does it claim that she bodily went to heaven.

Who is right, Islam’s logical view or the Christian dogmatic view? You be the judge and I am merely suggesting some reading and viewing.

The Muslim Times is a great promoter of interfaith tolerance but we want all of our brothers and sisters to live in reality and not in fiction. With that in mind a few suggestions:

Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother of Seven?

Video: How Jesus Became God, by Prof. Bart Ehrman?

If the Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins!

Science: The Only Present Day Arbiter Between Religions?

Refuting William Lane Craig’s: ‘The Birth of God’

Maria: Pope Benedict XVI on the Mother of God

Did Noah Take Kangaroos with Him in the Ark?

Only one in four Scots believes in the resurrection