On Tuesday 15 August the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a holy day of obligation, and so in addition to the usual 7.30am and 12.30pm Masses there will be a Solemn Mass at 6pm, at which Bishop Philip Moger will preside.
The Assumption of Our Lady has been proclaimed by the Church since antiquity, is foreshadowed in Scripture, and attested by Tradition. The doctrine of the Assumption was finally defined dogmatically by the Ven.
Pius XII in 1950 using the following words: “for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honour of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”.