Persevero and Tarap:
Neither Elijah or Mary was “ascended into heaven”, which in Catholic and Orthodox Theology means ascended by ones own power. That would only relate to Christ. Elijah was assumed by the Power of God, as was Mary.
Now, lets look at this in more detail. The fact that the Scriptures and Sacred Tradition [Apostles and Nicene Creed] speak of the “resurrection of dead” logically implies that all of us who are baptized into the Holy Trinity and remain faithful to God will one day “be assumed into heaven” by God’s power.
The Assumption of Mary is a prefiguration of the Resurrection of the Dead and thus the Assumption of all of us.
No that is not true...Christ's Resurrection from the dead is. He has the power over death and that power was never given to Mary.... Further by stating that Mary is you have usurped Christ in every way.
There is not one place in the New Testament that people pray to Mary or saints in the early church the apostles never wrote of it in the book of Acts or the epistles............ There is no Old Testament or New Testament teaching of praying to the dead...... and while they may be very much alive in heaven the Bible categorizes them as dead because they are no longer with us here on earth after their body is put to the ground.
I do indeed believe in the resurrection of the dead. I just don’t believe Mary got to be resurrected early. I believe she will be resurrected with you and me and everybody else, on the last day, like the Bible says.
Elijah and Enoch went to heaven directly, without dying. They were special cases. Not sinless. But they got to avoid dying, a great blessing.
Mary is not mentioned as having any special occurrence having to do with her death or any ascension into heaven.