In pre-Christian times, the pagan religions of ancient Greece and Rome had a very interesting insight into the human soul.  Some of their myths described how great heroes from past ages used to do battle with the gods, either physically or through a contest of wits.  When a human being won such a battle, their reward would be to avoid death and hell (there was no belief in heaven) by being turned into a constellation of stars in the night sky.  

By becoming a constellation, they achieved a kind of immortality, because the divine stars, so they thought, never change.  In that way, they also would inspire and guide future generations, because the stars were used to guide ocean navigation before the invention of the compass.  

This charming ancient sentiment was purely mythological and legendary, but it appealed to artists and poets for many centuries.  It seemed to be in harmony with a basic human instinct: the instinct for heaven, and they felt the need for help to get there.

When Christianity came around, this image from pagan poetry found its true fulfillment.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, a human being just like you and me, conquered evil, with the help of God's grace, through her humility and obedience, undoing the ancient sin of Eve.  And God rewarded her by assuming her, lifting her, into heaven.  From heaven, she is an inspiration and guide for us who are still traveling through the troubled waters of life on earth.

From very early times, the Church began to call Mary the "Star of the Sea", "Stella Maris" in Latin.  In the darkness and storms of life, her example and prayers will never fail to show us the way to follow Christ.

Pope Benedict called this ancient tradition to mind in his second encyclical. He wrote:

"With a hymn composed in the eighth or ninth century, thus for over a thousand years, the Church has greeted Mary, the Mother of God, as "Star of the Sea": Ave maris stella. Human life is a journey. Towards what destination? How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by - people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us? With her "yes" she opened the door of our world to God himself; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom God took flesh, became one of us, and pitched his tent among us (cf. John 1:14).  [Spe Salvi, 49]

Mary is now in heaven, body and soul.  Just as Christ the King governs his Church from there, so too Mary his Queen Mother intercedes for sinners there and sends us help and encouragement.  This is reason behind the many apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout history.  It is also the reason why the Church encourages all of us, old and young, men and women, boys and girls, to have a strong devotion to Mary.

However, we must understand clearly what true devotion to Mary really includes.  It does not consist mainly in pretty pictures or saying a lot of prayers - those are devotions, not devotion.  It is possible to kneel in front of pretty pictures and say ten Hail Marys and then go back to work and start gossiping, lying, nagging, cheating, or otherwise making other people's lives miserable.

That is not true devotion to Mary.  The beautiful paintings and the simple, profound Marian prayers are meant to stir up in our hearts a strong desire to imitate Mary's Son, to follow in Christ's footsteps, just as she did.

Mary shows us exactly what that entails.  After her encounter with the angel Gabriel, she didn't become obsessed with her own self-importance as the mother of the Messiah.  Instead, she went in haste to her older cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, and spent the next three months taking care of and helping her.  True devotion to Mary means doing that: self-forgetfully giving our lives for the good of those around us, just like our Mother.  

Today as we renew our faith in Christ's power by contemplating the great miracle of the Assumption, let's ask our heavenly Mother to obtain for us that all-important grace of gradually changing our selfish hearts into self-giving, Christian ones.