This Sunday, 15th August, is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Along with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), the Assumption is a principal feast of the Blessed Virgin and a Holy Day of Obligation – one of the most important feasts of the Church year.  On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared as a dogma revealed by God that ‘Mary, the Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven’.  Likewise, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium 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 over all things (n. 59)’.

This week at Holy Spirit, we value stewardship.  The earth and all life on it are part of God’s creation and we are called to respect this gift.  We are responsible for taking care of the world we live in and for sharing all the wonders and resources the earth gives us.  Our changing environment prompts us to stop and think about how we live on our planet.  As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to respond and to adopt new ways of living.  

God bless.

Caroline Fuller