By Christina Hermoso
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle will celebrate a high mass at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish on Asuncion Street, Malate, Manila, in solemn commemoration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the principal and the oldest feast of the Holy Mother.
Luis Cardenal Tagle
(Ali Vicoy/Manila Bulletin File Photo)
Masses will also be held at 6 a.m. and at 12 noon. A Marian procession was held yesterday after the 6 p.m. mass. Novena masses were held from August 6 to 14. Solemn processions, Eucharistic celebrations, and novena prayers will be also held in several Catholic churches, Marian shrines, convents, and seminaries tomorrow.
Observed as a holy day of obligation by Roman Catholics and as a public holiday in some countries, devotees consider the Feast of the Assumption as the Holy Mother’s “heavenly birthday” in remembrance of her glorious departure from her earthly life and her physical assumption into heaven.
The belief was defined as a dogma of faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950. The Second Vatican Council states that the “Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of all things.”