Today is a key holy day on the Catholic liturgical calendar: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This day is important to Catholics because it is the day we mark Mary’s “heavenly birthday” – in other words, the day that she was received into heaven. We see Mary’s entrance into heaven as a symbol of Christ’s promise to us: that whoever “endures to the end” (Matthew 10:22) will also be received into paradise.

Scripture supports the idea that Mary was assumed into heaven. In Revelation 12:1-2, 5, Saint John describes her as appearing bodily in heaven:

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. … she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

The physical depiction of Mary is different from others in heaven who appear to only be disembodied souls, such as those mentioned in Revelation 6:9-10.

The late Pope John Paul II in his August 15, 2004 homily, also cited John 14:3 in connection with the Assumption:

And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Mary is not only Jesus’ mother, she is our mother as well, as we see in Revelation 12:17:

Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.

Let’s make sure we take the time to remember our spiritual mother on this great feast day!

You’ve probably read the famous “Footprints” poem about seeing only one set of footprints in the sand during life’s more difficult times. Postcards, coffee mugs, and other items displaying the poem list the author as “unknown,” but apparently multiple people are claiming to be the author and fighting over the copyright ownership.

Remember that this coming Friday, August 15, is a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States: The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (we Catholics love our prepositional phrases). A post on Musings From A Catholic Bookstore tells “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Holy Days of Obligation.” An interesting read.

Before attending some Olympic events, President Bush began his Sunday in China attending a worship service at Beijing’s Kuanjie church, which is an officially recognized Protestant congregation. He remarked:

Laura and I just had the great joy and privilege of worshipping here in Beijing, China. You know, it just goes to show that God is universal and God is love. And no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.

(Watch the YouTube clip)

That last remark was apparently an allusion to the millions of Chinese who brave harassment and arrest to worship at unregistered “house” churches.

This raises an important question for us comfortable Americans: if you were threatened with serious social ostracism or government arrest for going to church, would you still go?

After reading that the University of Georgia (my alma mater) is receiving a $9.2 million grant to fund embryonic stem cell research, I wrote this post to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s article:

True service to humanity begins with respect for human life. Since embryonic stem cells are obtained by destroying an embryonic human being in its early development, this type of research is gravely immoral. Shame on UGA and the NIH for their involvement in this deliberate killing of human life!

On June 13 of this year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a new statement on the topic of embryonic stem cell research (PDF 100K). Two weeks later, Richard Doerflinger wrote a great article, “Why the Embryo Matters,” which explains why it was important for the bishops to have issued this statement at this time:

Two things are new. First, the national policy debate is about to be renewed in a more intense way. Next year a new Congress and President will face this issue, and currently no presidential nominee supports President Bush’s position against funding stem cell research that requires destroying human embryos. This is a good time to remind Catholics and others what is at stake.

Second, this debate has reached a turning point in the scientific and medical community, though many politicians are slow to notice this. For years, the pro-life movement has said there are other and better ways to pursue the medical promise of stem cell research. It has become increasingly obvious that this is exactly right. Stem cells from adult tissues and umbilical cord blood have been used in clinical trials to repair heart damage, restore sight, and treat conditions like multiple sclerosis and juvenile diabetes. A new technique for “reprogramming” adult cells has produced cells with the properties of embryonic stem cells, without creating or destroying embryos – and prominent experts are abandoning embryo research in favor of this approach.

The article concedes that new technologies won’t simply make the embryonic-versus-adult-cell debate go away. But the hope is that talk of the supposed “unique promise” of embryonic research “may die down enough to allow the moral argument to be heard. If we have two promising ways to advance medicine, and one of them is free of moral problems, wouldn’t everyone prefer that route?”

Football season is just around the corner, and in these parts, anticipation is high: the Georgia Bulldogs are expected to do great things. The USAToday Coaches’ Poll just issued their preseason NCAA rankings and the Dawgs are at the top of the heap: preseason #1, baby!

As a UGA alumnus and the curator of DawgFan.com, I proudly sport many rather obnoxious Georgia Bulldogs items – not the least of which is a statue of Uga, our beloved mascot, which is prominently displayed just outside our front door.

Living here in the Bible belt, it’s not unusual for door-to-door missionaries to drop by. But it just occurred to me that none of them has ever mentioned anything about our family’s Uga statue. I’m sure if it were a statue of the Virgin Mary or some other saint, this would have set off the missionary’s graven-image-worshipping-Catholic radar. Their spiel would have quickly brought up Exodus 20:4-5 and its supposed prohibition against making statues, then accusing me of some form of idolatry. My response would have pointed out that God forbade the worship of statues, not the use of statues – not even the religious use of statues. In fact, scripture reveals that God commanded the use of statues in worship (see Exodus 25:18-20…a mere five chapters after the supposed condemnation of statues mentioned above). [If you’re interested in reading more, see Catholic Answers’ helpful article Do Catholics Worship Statues?]

But our statue of Uga never had an effect on these missionaries. Why not? Perhaps the statue isn’t large enough to notice. Maybe I need to upgrade to something that might be closer to waist height to get their attention? Who knows? Maybe I’ll ask them what they think of my “graven image” of Uga the next time they come a-callin’. It could spark an interesting conversation that might steer them in the direction of the Catholic Church. Or at least turn them into Dawg fans.