Dear Parishioners,

This Tuesday, Aug. 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Holy Day of Obligation. We will being have a Vigil Mass on Monday, Aug. 14 at 5:30 pm at St. Mary’s and on Aug. 15 the Mass will be at 9 am at St. Joseph’s.

Mary was taken body and soul to heaven where we hope to follow. The Assumption is about heaven. Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “precisely because Mary is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us. While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is actually within all of us, Mary shares this closeness of God.” She “knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness. She always listens to us, and, being Mother of the Son, participates in the power of the Son and in his goodness. We can always entrust the whole of our lives to this Mother's.”

Assumed into heaven, Mary reveals our own destiny. That transformation of Mary’s material body into a heavenly body is what we look forward to and she can help us get there.