This past Monday on August 15, the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.  What's this beautiful feast day all about you may ask?   EWTN has this brief history of this oldest feast day of Our Lady.

In this video, Scott Hahn tells how he explained this feast day to a non-Catholic Christian friend in a quick 8 minutes or so.  Well worth your time to watch and listen to what Hahn has to say about Our Blessed Mother and it just may give you more insight into the Church's teaching on the feast of the Assumption of Mary!  I know it did for me!

In 1950, the Assumption dogma was announced by Pope Pius XII, which means that this teaching has always been believed and taught through the centuries since the time of Jesus on earth, but it was in 1950 that the dogma was "officially" declared in the Church.  The video below shows the Assumption proclamation in Rome, Italy.  700,000 people came to fill St. Peter's Square to witness this sacred, historic day!




To celebrate the feast of the Assumption this year, we went to a beautiful morning Mass at our parish where our priest wore white vestments (to symbolize our Blessed Mother's purity) and we sang heavenly Marian hymns.

Here is a photo I took of my children after Mass standing in front of the new Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in our parish' side garden that is a welcomed site as you enter the front of our church.  Since our homeschool is named Sacred Heart Academy, this statue and what it symbolizes holds a special place in our family's heart.


When we got home from Mass, three of my children did a simple craft to help explain the Assumption of Mary.  I got the idea and free printable from Real Life at Home.  My younger children enjoyed making the craft and I think they did a beautiful job! 


Our family loves celebrating the liturgical year and I have documented our feast day and Saint celebrations through the years on my A Slice of Liturgical Life page.  I hope that if you visit the page you will also see that Catholicism is filled with beautiful treasures of truth, goodness and beauty.  For me, Catholicism is a bottomless treasure chest because the more I learn about the Catholic faith the more I realize I don't know and want to learn more!
 
It is my hope and prayer that by doing fun and simple crafts like this Assumption one, that seeds will be planted in my children's hearts so that as they grow older they will continue to embrace our beautiful Catholic faith and always strive to know, love and serve God more intimately and joyfully!