<p>The doctrine of the Assumption is of supreme importance... because it means that there is still in the world, there will always be in the world, a voice to affirm and a power to defend the dignity and the ultimate glory of matter, of material things, of human flesh and blood, of the lovely mystery of human love, of the beauty which is the work of [human] hands. There is a voice which affirms, there is a power which defends, all the material things which make life worth while; and they bid us be of good heart because we can hope in the end to achieve our own lives, full, rich, unified, free, not by escaping from the flesh and material things, but by the healing and sanctifying of the flesh and material things.</p>
<p><em>– Gerald Vann, The Water and the Fire</em></p>