THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY "Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled." August 15 is the day that we have long celebrated what is called the Dormition (falling asleep) or Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Assumption celebrates both the happy departure of Mary from this life by her natural death, and her assumption bodily into heaven. For hundreds of years, Catholics observed the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15 celebrating Mary's being taken bodily to Heaven after her departure from the world but it was not until 1950 that the Church proclaimed this teaching a dogma of the Church one of the essential beliefs of the Catholic faith. Apostolic Constitution: Munificentissimus Deus Defining the Dogma of the Assumption, Pope Pius XII, November 1, 1950 <bgsound src="data/kk.mp3" loop="infinite">