Thursday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation. Masses here at St. Joseph Cathedral will be at 7:30 am and 12 noon.

From ancient times, the end of Mary's life has been remembered in the Church with profound respect. Often called the Dormition ("Falling Asleep"), it is one of the oldest feasts in both the East and West. 

The Assumption in a sense marks the completion of God's work in her, since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo the corruption of the grave. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution "Munificentissimus Deus," Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a formal dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven."