“Death being the punishment of sin, it would seem that the Divine Mother, all holy, and exempt as she was from its slightest stain, should also have been exempt from death, and from encountering the misfortunes to which the children of Adam, infected by the poison of sin, are subject. But God was pleased that Mary should, in all things, resemble Jesus; and as the Son died, it was becoming that the Mother should also die; because, moreover, He wished to a live the just an example of the precious death prepared for them, He willed that even the most Blessed Virgin should die, but by a sweet and happy death.”  St. Alphonsus, the Glories of Mary, Discourse VII, on the Assumption of Mary