The Solemnity of the Assumption on Tuesday, Aug. 15, is a Holy Day of Obligation, and It Starts With Vigil Masses on Monday Evening

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Immaculate Heart of Mary

On Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, the Catholic Church marks the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. Catholics are required to participate in Mass (or Eastern Rite Catholic Divine Liturgy) on Tuesday, or on Monday evening at a Vigil Mass.

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary honors the Blessed Mother, with a special focus on the dogma that, with her entry into Eternal Life, she was Assumed Body and Soul into Heaven.

To miss Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation is a grave sin, absent a sufficient, valid excuse.  In addition to the threat of eternal damnation, a grave sin bars a Catholic from receiving Holy Communion unless and until going to Confession to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

In the United States there has been a slight modification of the guidelines for Holy Days, by which U.S. Catholic Bishops have indicated that the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not, currently, a Holy Day of Obligation if it falls on a Saturday or Monday. This year, of course, it falls on a Tuesday, and it is the Vigil Mass for Tuesday that takes place on Monday evening, so the Obligation is in force.

With regard to the Dogma of the Assumption, Venerable Pope Pius XII held, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus Defining The Dogma Of The Assumption:

“… 44. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor 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. …”

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