Full Text and Pics From the Pope Benedict's Holy Day Assumption Angelus 2008!!!

Our Papal Assumption pics from today's Assumption Mass and related going ons are courtesy of the Ratzinger Forum in two of their Italian photo sections here and here. They are labeled as the posts that have Festa dell'Assunta... by them. I expect more to be added later.

Where is the English translation of the Pope's Assumption Angelus? Well I am still waiting for it but I will post it as soon as my usual sources translates this icky Italian full transcript from the Vatican .

Until later this afternoon or evening you will have to make do with this very icky google translate version complainers!!

So Bookmark and come back :)

Update II- Finally got the English translation from the Ratzinger Forum. It is below

Dear brothers and sisters!

At the heart of what the Latins called feriae Augusti, the August holidays - from which comes the Italian word ferragosto (the bank holiday celebrated in Italy on August 15), the Church celebrates today the Assumption of the Virgin, body and soul, to heaven. In the Bible, the last reference ti her earthly life is found in the Acts of the Apostles, which presents us with Mary gathered together with teh Apostles in prayer at the Cenacle awaiting the Holy Spirit (1,14). Subsequently, a double tradition - in Jerusalem and Ephesus - attests to her 'dormition', as the Eastern Churches say, namely, her having 'gone to sleep' in God. That preceded her passage from the earth to heaven, as professed bin the uninterrupted faith of the Church. In the eighth century, for instance, John Damascene, establishing a direct relationship between Mary's dormition and the death of Jesus, affirmed explicitly the truth of her bodily assumption.

He wrote in a famous homily: "It has to be that she who had carried in her womb the Creator as a baby should live with him in the tabernacle of heaven" (Homily II on the Dormition, 14, PG 96, 741 B). As we know, this firm conviction of the Church was crowned in the dogmatic definition of the Assumption proclaimed by my venerated predecessor Pius XII in 1950. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, the Most Blessed Mary must always be part of the mystery of Christ and the Church.

In this perspective, "the mother of Jesus, just as she is glorified henceforth, body and soul, in heaven - the image of the first fruits of the Church, which should find its fulfillment in a future age - likewise shines on earth as a sign of sure hope and comfort for the People of God in journey until the day of the Lord comes" (cfr 2 Pt 3,10)(Cost. Lumen gentium, 68). From Paradise, our Lady continues to watch over her children - especially in difficult times of trial - as Jesus himself had entrusted to her before dying on the Cross.

How many testimonies of her maternal solicitude one sees visiting the shrines dedicated to her! I think at this moment specially of that singular world citadel of life and hope that Lourdes is, where, God willing, I will visit in a month to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions that happened there. Mary assumed into heaven shows us the last goal of our earthly pilgrimage.

She reminds us that our entire being - spirit, soul and body - is destined for the fullness of life; that whoever lives and dies in in the love of God and his neighbor will be transfigured to the image of the glorious body of the risen Christ; that the Lord humbles the proud and exalts the humble (cfr Lk 1,51-52). This is what Our Lady proclaims eternally in the mystery of her Assumption. Praise be to you always, O Virgin Mary! Pray to the Lord for us.

After the prayers, this was his greeting in English:

I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus prayer. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, we are invited to raise our eyes to heaven and contemplate Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother. She who on earth believed in God’s word is now glorified in body and soul. May Mary’s prayers and example guide you always and renew your hearts in faith and hope. May God grant you and your families abundant blessings of peace and joy!