Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation. On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption. Thus he solemnly proclaimed that the belief whereby the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the close of her earthly life, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, definitively forms part of the deposit of faith, received from the Apostles. To avoid all that is uncertain the Pope did not state either the manner or the circumstances of time and place in which the Assumption took place--only the fact of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, is the matter of the definition.

The Memorial of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (1894-1941) is universally celebrated by the Church today. St. Maximilian was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland as Raymond Kolbe. He consecrated himself to the Lord in the Franciscan Order. Filled with love for the Virgin, he founded the Militia of the Immaculate Mary and, with his preaching and writing, undertook an intense apostolic mission in Europe and Asia. Imprisoned in Auschwitz during the Second World War, he offered himself in exchange for the father of a large family who was to be executed. He was given a lethal injection when he failed to die fast enough from starvation in the concentration camp and died on August 14, 1941. Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed him the "Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century."

Today is the Optional Memorial of Saints Pontian (Pontianus), Pope and St. Hippolytus, Priest (d. 235). St. Pontian was a victim of the persecution of Alexander Severus, who directed his attention particularly against the leaders of the Church. St. Pontian governed the Church from 230 to 235. He was exiled to the mines of Sardinia and died in exile. St. Hippolytus, a priest and a person of some importance in the Church in Rome at the beginning of the third century, provoked a schism which lasted for some years. He was exiled to Sardinia with St. Pontian, where he was reconciled with the Church and died for the faith in 235.