Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This Wednesday, August 15th, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of Mary – a Holy Day of Obligation. We will have Masses at 8:30 a.m. and again at 7:00 p.m. in the evening. This feast dates back over 1,500 years in the life of the church, though Pope Pius XII solemnly announced it a dogma of our faith on November 1st, 1950. After the horrors of the 2nd World War, and after the death camps, and the use of the first nuclear weapons, we Christians needed to be reminded once again of the holiness of creation. And so, Pius XII declared what we Catholics long believed: that after Mary’s death, God raised her mortal body and now she lives with God forever. On this day, we rejoice that our broken world will be made new again. The barren, the poor, the unloved and even the dead will be raised into glory. This day is sometimes spoken of as Mary’s “harvesting” into heaven. This is a day to thank God for the bounty of creation that surrounds us – all garden vegetables, herbs and flowers. We remember today Mary’s song of praise from the Gospel of Luke,  "The Lord has lifted up the lowly. The Lord has filled the hungry with good things."