At his weekly public audience on August 24, Pope Francis wrapped up his series of catechetical talks on old age, with a reflection on the Assumption of the Virgin.

Mary remains a model for all Christians at the end of her earthly life, the Pope said. For her, as for all Christians, death is like a second birth. “Our whole life appears like a seed that will have to be buried so that its flower and fruit can be born,” the Pope said.


The Pontiff concluded the meditation by saying that “the life of the risen body will be a hundred and a thousand times more alive than we have tasted it on this earth.”