With regard to assumption

[azirtsed]

did the virgin mary died when she was assumed into the heaven?

 

[regression]

My understanding is the Church doesn’t say one way or the other, just when she was done with her earthly life, her body was assumed into heaven. This article talks about the tomb of Mary, so in my opinion, she did die.

ewtn.com/faith/Teachings/maryc3c.htm

 

[hansard]

This is one of those cases where sacred tradition is allowed absolute priority over sacred scripture (or, rather, in the absence of scripture).
Believe it if you will, but it will not alter your relationship with God one bit if you don’t.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

This is undefined. You can believe either way.

Many Latin (Roman) Catholics tend to believe that she did die. (One priest told us that since her Son died, she would not want to exempt herself from death.)

Many Eastern Catholics tend to believe that she fell asleep but did not die (they call this the “Dormition,” or falling asleep). This also makes a certain amount of sense, as death is a result of original sin, and Mary was born without original sin and never committed any personal sin.

Either way, we know that Mary is now in heaven, body and soul, and this gives us hope that we will enjoy the same privilege some day.

 

[ZacharyMartinez]

Well, before that article I was going to say that I believed her to have been assumed before she had died because of the fact that no one had ever claimed to have her body; which people have always claimed for key figures in the New Testament (The Apostles, Martyrs, Jesus).

But after reading the article, I suppose that her dying would not really change much of my understanding because she didn’t suffer body deterioration.

In the end, though, as was stated before hand, if you don’t believe it than

it will not alter your relationship with God one bit

 

[FrDavid96]

did the virgin mary died when she was assumed into the heaven?

This is going to sound like a strange way to respond at first, but bear with me here.

This depends upon one’s definition of the word “die” or “death”

If we use the word “die” to mean the end of a person’s life here on earth–and nothing more than that, then yes, she did die.

If we use the word “die” in the sense of the end-of-life with all the pains and uncertainty, the corruption of the body, and even the judgment and punishment which results from death, then no she did not die. God did judge her, but unlike any other human being (except Christ), He found her to be completely without sin.

It’s a problem we have with our vocabulary. Only two sinless human beings ended their lives here on earth: Christ and His Mother. When we use the word “die” we naturally mean that in the sense that we always mean the word, in reference to how everyone dies. Since the end-of-life of Christ and Mary are so unique, it’s difficult for us to find the right vocabulary. We don’t hesitate to say that Christ died on the cross–in fact we must say it. Yet His death was unlike any other, and so when we say that He died, we necessarily must attach a lot more explanation to that (the resurrection, the ascension, etc. etc.)

It is difficult for us as human beings to use the word “to die” without also including everything else that comes with death, or as a result of it. It is this “everything else” which does not apply when we speak of the end-of-life-on-earth of Mary. So while we can say that “she died” we also must qualify that to mean that we aren’t using the word in the same way that we use it when speaking of anyone else’s death. We mean simply that her time on earth ended.

If we say that the Blessed Mary died in the sense that the rest of us die, then no.

 

[bpbasilphx]

The Virgin’s soul DID separate from her body–which is death–howsoever briefly.

All of the Eastern Churches, including those in communion with Rome, make it clear that Our Lady did die. The Icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, shows the Savior receiving His Mother’s soul into His arms and illustrates this truth.

Furthermore, in the Roman office for the feast promulgated in 1950 when Pius XII dogmatized the Assumption, the fifth Matins lesson, quoting St. John of Damascus, says “But she yielded obedience to the law established by him to whom she had given birth, and, as the daughter of the old Adam, underwent the old sentence, which even her Son, who is the very Life Itself, had not refused”–that is, physical death. Lex orandi, lex credendi. If it’s in the liturgical formularies of the Church, it’s the teaching of the church.

 

[nkbeth]

From: ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm53.htm
MARY AND THE HUMAN DRAMA OF DEATH
Pope John Paul II

Having been closely associated with Christ’s redemptive work, it was fitting for Mary to share the experience of death before partaking of the Resurrection
“The experience of death personally enriched the Blessed Virgin: by undergoing mankind’s common destiny, she can more effectively exercise her spiritual motherhood towards those approaching the last moment of their life”, the Holy Father said at the General Audience of Wednesday, 25 June, as he reflected on the dormition of the Mother of God. Here is a translation of the Pope’s catechesis, which was the 53rd in the series on the Blessed Mother and was given in Italian.

1. Concerning the end of Mary’s earthly life, the Council uses the terms of the Bull defining the dogma of the Assumption and states: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over” (Lumen gentium, n. 59). With this formula, the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, following my Venerable Predecessor Pius XII, made no pronouncement on the question of Mary’s death. Nevertheless, Pius XII did not intend to deny the fact of her death, but merely did not judge it opportune to affirm solemnly the death of the Mother of God as a truth to be accepted by all believers.

Christ made death a means of salvation

Some theologians have in fact maintained that the Blessed Virgin did not die and was immediately raised from earthly life to heavenly glory. However, this opinion was unknown until the 17th century, whereas a common tradition actually exists which sees Mary’s death as her entry into heavenly glory.

1. Could Mary of Nazareth have experienced the drama of death in her own flesh? Reflecting on Mary’s destiny and her relationship with her divine Son, it seems legitimate to answer in the affirmative: since Christ died, it would be difficult to maintain the contrary for his Mother.

The Fathers of the Church, who had no doubts in this regard, reasoned along these lines. One need only quote St Jacob of Sarug (d. 521), who wrote that when the time came for Mary “to walk on the way of all generations”, the way, that is, of death, “the group of the Twelve Apostles” gathered to bury “the virginal body of the Blessed One” (Discourse on the burial of the Holy Mother of God, 87-99 in C. Vona, Lateranum 19 [1953], 188). St Modestus of Jerusalem (d. 634), after a lengthy discussion of “the most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God”, ends his eulogy by exalting the miraculous intervention of Christ who “raised her from the tomb”, to take her up with him in glory (Enc. in dormitionem Deiparae semperque Virginis Mariae, nn. 7 and 14: PG 86 bis, 3293; 3311). St John Damascene (d. 704) for his part asks: “Why is it that she who in giving birth surpassed all the limits of nature should now bend to its laws, and her immaculate body be subjected to death?”. And he answers: “To be clothed in immortality, it is of course necessary that the mortal part be shed, since even the master of nature did not refuse the experience of death. Indeed, he died according to the flesh and by dying destroyed death; on corruption he bestowed incorruption and made death the source of resurrection” (Panegyric on the Dormition of the Mother of God, n. 10: SC 80, 107).

1. It is true that in Revelation death is presented as a punishment for sin. However, the fact that the Church proclaims Mary free from original sin by a unique divine privilege does not lead to the conclusion that she also received physical immortality. The Mother is not superior to the Son who underwent death, giving it a new meaning and changing it into a means of salvation. Involved in Christ’s redemptive work and associated in his saving sacrifice, Mary was able to share in his suffering and death for the sake of humanity’s Redemption. What Severus of Antioch says about Christ also applies to her: “Without a preliminary death, how could the Resurrection have taken place?” (Antijulianistica, Beirut 1931, 194f.). To share in Christ’s Resurrection, Mary had first to share in his death.

1. The New Testament provides no information on the circumstances of Mary’s death. This silence leads one to suppose that it happened naturally, with no detail particularly worthy of mention. If this were not the case, how could the information about it have remained hidden from her contemporaries and not have been passed down to us in some way?

As to the cause of Mary’s death, the opinions that wish to exclude her from death by natural causes seem groundless. It is more important to look for the Blessed Virgin’s spiritual attitude at the moment of her departure from this world. In this regard, St Francis de Sales maintains that Mary’s death was due to a transport of love. He speaks of a dying “in love, from love and through love”, going so far as to say that the Mother of God died of love for her Son Jesus (Treatise on the Love of God, bk. 7, ch. XIII-XIV).

Mary’s death was an event of love

Whatever from the physical point of view was the organic, biological cause of the end of her bodily life, it can be said that for Mary the passage from this life to the next was the full development of grace in glory, so that no death can ever be so fittingly described as a “dormition” as hers.

1. In some of the writings of the Church Fathers we find Jesus himself described as coming to take his Mother at the time of her death to bring her into heavenly glory. In this way they present the death of Mary as an event of love which conducted her to her divine Son to share his immortal life. At the end of her earthly life, she must have experienced, like Paul and more strongly, the desire to be freed from her body in order to be with Christ for ever (cf. Phil 1:23).

The experience of death personally enriched the Blessed Virgin: by undergoing mankind’s common destiny, she can more effectively exercise her spiritual motherhood towards those approaching the last moment of their life.

 

[JulieAA]

I have a question, as well, regarding the Assumption of our Blessed Lady.

Of course, this is just speculatory on your part. Seeing that Mary was/is the mother of our Lord, why do you suppose that the Assumption was not actually recorded by any of the apostles in Sacred Scripture? In the OT, there were recordings of the prophets ascending into Heaven. Why would the apostles not give the mother of our Lord this honor as well? Maybe if it was, Mary would have more of an impact on our protestant brothers and sisters.

 

[PhilotheaZ]

I have a question, as well, regarding the Assumption of our Blessed Lady.

Of course, this is just speculatory on your part. Seeing that Mary was/is the mother of our Lord, why do you suppose that the Assumption was not actually recorded by any of the apostles in Sacred Scripture? In the OT, there were recordings of the prophets ascending into Heaven. Why would the apostles not give the mother of our Lord this honor as well? Maybe if it was, Mary would have more of an impact on our protestant brothers and sisters.

Perhaps it is because of Mary’s deep humility. She always points us to Jesus.

 

[nkbeth]

Perhaps it is because of Mary’s deep humility. She always points us to Jesus.

Yes.

God does all things in His good time; we can’t understand all His reasons. He didn’t bring Christ into the world right after Adam and Eve’s sins; you could ask, why not? He didn’t bring Mary into the world until the world was ready for Christ. He didn’t bring Mary to the greatest honor until after His Church was well established in the world and Scripture was written. The apostles knew of Mary’s greatness (all things were revealed to them); but God didn’t want them to proclaim her glory to all at first. He made Mary the Mother of His Church, and He wanted her to be proclaimed in the tradition of that Church, not so much in Scripture.

Protestants miss so much by accepting only Scripture as their guide. Mary is one of the foremost things they miss.