Real Catholic Blog

Here’s a report from the Vatican on Pope Benedict’s Angelus message on the Feast of the Assumption (Catholic Encylopedia). I like to tell people who doubt the Assumption something I heard during a homily a few years ago. It seems that Chamber of Commerce types, local governments and tourism boosters during the era of the Church’s early years (yes, they had them then, too) always were eager to proclaim sights related to saints in their cities and villages. This attracted pilgrims who spent money there. It was good for the local economy.

They would, at the slightest bit of evidence, or at the best guess of evidence (or legend), market sites related to significant figures of the Church: this saint ate here, this saint preached here, that saint died over there. So, there is ample reason to suspect that if the Blessed Mother was not assumed body and soul into Heaven, there would be some landmark, somewhere, marking the spot of her death or burial. There is none. Hmmm.

Also, it is important to know that, as Catholics, we believe Mary, in her complete human body, was assumed into Heaven, because as the Mother of Christ, just as she brought Him into the earthly world with a soul uncorrupted by original sin, so, too, her body left this world uncorrupted.

Pope Benedict XVI calls believers to entrust themselves to Mary, who “assumed into heaven, has not abandoned her mission of intercession and salvation.”

Here’s part five of Father Frank Pavone’s insightful and inspirational series on praying to end abortion. Father Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life. You can see part four here from which you can backtack to part three and prior.

We’re all affected by original sin. It has darkened our minds, making it difficult to understand the moral truth. It has weakened our wills, making it more difficult to choose what is good. When we pray, we invite the grace of God into our own lives and the lives of others. When that grace comes it does two things: it enlightens the mind and strengthens the will that’s been weakened by sin. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to properly understand the relationship of all creation to God and to see the value of it.

Praying to end abortion brings into our lives and the lives of others the grace to strengthen the will to choose what is right, and to resist the temptation to abort or to compromise with evil. That grace will give them the strength to say no to evil and yes to the sacrifices necessary to choose life. Let’s increase the intensity of our prayer every day to end abortion that this grace might enlighten the mind and strengthen the will of so many people who otherwise might choose death.

 We’re all affected by original sin. … When we pray, we invite the grace of God into our own lives and the lives of others.

Ben Stein is one of my favorites. The man who stole the show in ’80s movie classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (the teacher who repeated in his monotone, “Bueller? Bueller?”) and constant TV ad pitchman truly is a Renaissance man: actor, writer, presidential advisor, comic, securities lawyer, economist, professor, conservative thinker and pro-life supporter, among many other things, and an incredibly smart man. So smart, in fact, he even hosted his own game show in the late 1990s called Win Ben Stein’s Money, where winning contestants won his paycheck for each show in which they answered more questions correctly than he. That’s how confidently intelligent Mr. Stein is.

Once, Mr. Stein lost, in part, by getting the meaning of The Immaculate Conception wrong (see Jennifer Hartline of Catholic Online). He was adamant that the Holy Day celebrated the conception of Christ into the Blessed Virgin Mary’s womb. He’s not alone. Most non-Christians, protestants and Catholics themselves think this. I’ve even had Catholics tell me tell me they were taught this in their formation! What else could it mean, after all, if Jesus was conceived not by man and woman but by the Holy Spirit through Mary? Ask most any Catholic and they will tell you this feast day celebrates the Lord’s conception.

For those who attended Mass yesterday, you should know. Still, it is important that we, as Catholics, understand what the Feast Day is about so as to not let misunderstandings undermine the Faith from within — Catholics trying to explain something to non-Catholics that isn’t correct to begin with — and to correct those misunderstandings by those of other faiths who think they know what we believe, and use this incorrect understanding in an attempt to misguide others about Catholicism.

In short, the Feast of The Immaculate Conception (see Catholic Encyclopedia) is the belief that in order for Christ to come into the world, He of no sin, would have to born without original sin. For that to happen, his parents would have to be free of original sin. God, the Father, of course is, but his human mother would have to be as well. Thus, Mary, at her conception and birth, was blessed by God to have been born without original sin, the only human to be born so.

That is the Feast of The Immaculate Conception. Next question, Ben.