The Blessed Virgin lived on earth about eleven
years after the Ascension of Our Lord. They buried her in a tomb, and
tradition tells us that after her burial the angels carried her body to
Heaven, where she now sits beside her Divine Son. This taking of her
body to Heaven is called the Assumption. This feast was celebrated in
the Church from a very early age. A very strong proof of the Assumption
is that no persons ever claimed to have any part of the body of the
Blessed Virgin as a relic. We have the bodies of some of the Apostles,
especially St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James transmitted to us; and
certainly if it had been possible the first Christians would have
endeavored to get some portion, at least, of the Blessed Virgin's body.
Surely St. John, who knew her so well, would have given to the church he
established some part of her body as a relic; but since her entire body
was taken to Heaven, it was never possible.

After the Sorrowful Mysteries come the five Glorious Mysteries, and they
are: (1) The Resurrection of Our Lord; (2) The Ascension of Our Lord;
(3) The Coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles; (4) The Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin; and (5) The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in
Heaven. All but the last have been explained in foregoing parts of the
Catechism. In this last Mystery we consider our Blessed Lady just after
her entrance into Heaven, being received by her Divine Son, our Blessed
Lord, and being crowned Queen of Heaven over all the angels and saints.
In saying the Rosary we are, as I have told you before, to stop after
mentioning the Mystery and think over the lesson it teaches, and thus
excite ourselves to love and devotion before saying the "Our Father" and
"Hail Marys" in honor of it. Generally what we call the beads is only
one third of the Rosary; that is, we can only say five mysteries on the
beads unless we go over them three times. If you say your beads every
day you will say the whole Rosary twice a week and have one day to
spare.

On Sundays, except the Sundays of Advent and Lent, we should say always
the Glorious Mysteries. You see, the Mysteries run in the order in which
they happen in Our Lord's life. So on Monday we say the Joyful
Mysteries, on Tuesday the Sorrowful, and on Wednesday the Glorious. Then
we begin again on Thursday the Joyful, on Friday the Sorrowful, on
Saturday the Glorious. In Advent we say the Joyful, and in Lent the
Sorrowful Mysteries on every day. In