On this solemnity we honor Mary - a simple maiden without title or means.  She it was who in her very being bore the Christ.  She it was who heard the word, bore the Word, and then in her very being was a herald of the Word.  If this simple maiden girl can change the course of history with her fervent yes, can we not model our own lives after hers?  Just as God chose this simple maiden, so does God choose each of us.  The call to discipleship doesn't depend on titles or means.  It only depends on our own UNCONDITIONAL YES.  Is that too much to ask?

- Living Liturgy, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary -

"Let the entire body of the faithful pour forth-persevering prayer to the Mother of God and Mother of men.  Let them implore that she who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers may now, exalted as she is in heaven above all the saints, may she so until the people of the human family... are happily gathered together in peace and harmony into the one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and undivided trinity.

(Vatican II, The Church, par 69) 

Lord Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, we praise you and bless you for having so glorified your Mother in her soul and body.

If the day of death as the day of birth in heaven, your Mother was never so young as on the morning of her Assumption.

Help us to grow old as she did while continually becoming younger, until the day when we will be children enough to enter the Kingdom.

We ask this of you in the name of the love you have for your Mother, who is also our Mother and the first of all children of God.