The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Day of Obligation

Mass times for the Solemnity of the Assumption 2026

On 15 August, the Church celebrates Christ taking his Mother up to Heaven, a dogma defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

In Australia, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15 August) is a holy day of obligation.

“Holy Days of Obligation” are special occasions on which Catholics are obliged to attend Mass. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body” (#2185).

At St Mary's Mass times for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be as follows:

• Vigil Mass (14/8/2026): 7:00pm (Led by the Black Nazarene Community)
• Mass of the Day (15/8/2026): 10:00am

Reflection

There are a number of feasts of Mary that carry with them a special note of joy, such as the feast of her Immaculate Conception (December 8) or that of her birth, (September 8). Actually, any feast of Our Lady ought to lift up our spirits. However, if we think carefully about it, today’s celebration should top the list in terms of joy on her behalf. It marks the final and most remarkable reward she merited, through the grace of Christ—her being taken up body and soul into heaven. In addition, though our focus should rightly be on Mary’s joy— joy on being reunited with her Son and experiencing the vision of the Blessed Trinity—this feast also should serve to remind us of God’s love for each one of us.

What Mary received is what we are also promised—to one day be with God and with all those who have come to love Him, to be a part of and to enjoy His new creation. When Jesus rose from the dead in a glorified body that was no longer subject to suffering, weakness or vulnerability, He gave foundation to this new creation. The new creation is the grace that He won for us and which we now receive through Him. It is also His very body which was from the start free from original sin but with the resurrection became definitively immune to death. Finally the new creation is one day destined to include the resurrected bodies of all those who have died in Christ. Then there will also be “a new heaven and new earth” that will form the proper “place” for the sons and daughters of God. The redeemed will, like Our Lady does

now, see God as He is in Himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with all the beauty, harmony and goodness that He is. Each will experience the love of God and love Him wholeheartedly in return.. In other words, we will know what Our Lady now experiences, provided, of course, that we die united to Christ.

Sometimes we hear of scientists who speculate about parallel universes. Sadly, these speculations may simply be a kind of psychological escape from having to explain the evidence pointing to creation by God of the one universe we actually know. Yet we could say that the angels make up a kind of “parallel universe”, which mingles—in a communion of love—with our own. Then again, we might also be allowed to think of Our Lord’s and Our Lady’s holy and glorified bodies as another mini universe destined to expand through the transforming of our own. It is better, however, to use the word “universe” as it was originally meant to be used, meaning all that God, in his goodness, has created with their different

orders of being and His call for them to exist in a harmony of love. At the summit there is and always will be Our Lord Jesus Christ, who said “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself” (John 12.32). At his side, there is Mary, Queen of the universe and our Mother, interceding for us as we make our way through this as yet imperfect

world—imperfect since we, unlike her, too often fail to submit with love to the wise and loving will of our almighty Father God.