We are sinners in constant need of forgiveness.  Our bodies must undergo corruption in order that God might give us, at the second coming of Christ, an incorruptible body that, like Mary’s, can dignify the presence of the creator with a purity that this world destroys.  However, what hope is ours because of Mary’s “Assumption into Heaven”.  Mary’s assumption becomes our second promise of resurrection.  The first is in Jesus resurrection when his body returns to life, renewed in the beauty of its holiness and most revealing of the power of Christ to transform our mortal bodies to be like His in glory.

            In the waters of Baptism, we believe that we die with Christ and rise with him to new life.  In baptism, we are called to a life, like Mary’s, that is reflective of total submission to the will of God, the Father.  Even though baptism “washes away original sin”, that is, we are made holy in Christ through the dying and rising to new life of baptism, we are still weakened by a world filled with the sorrows that Mary carried in her heart.  Sin is the scourge of the world, the destruction of all that is good.  Sin is what brings corruption to our bodies.

            Mary experienced the depth of the ravages of sin as she opened herself to the will of her heavenly Father.  Although she conceived and bore the Son of God giving him and entrance into this human world, she did so in the sure and certain hope that this “Son of God” would bring salvation to a broken world.

            Mary is our hope, our perpetual help, at all times and in all places.  Her life is and example of the total trust that we must have that the world, in all its sinfulness, will not overtake us.  Jesus is the Lord of all Life.  Jesus is the Lord of both the living and the dead.  “If we die in Christ, we shall live in Christ.”  Jesus himself tells us, “I am the resurrection and the life, the man who believes in me, even though he die, will come to life, and the man who believes in me will never suffer eternal death.

            Eternal death would be for our bodies to remain corrupt for all eternity, never to see the light of heaven.  But in Christ, and through his mother and ours, Mary, we know that salvation is ours.  As we live our baptismal promises and come to know God more and more and to live in his light we gain a spirit within us that reflects not only Mary’s surrender to the Father’s will, but the very life of her Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and the Savior of the world.

            All this, is why “The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary” is marked on the calendar of the Church as a “Holy Day of Obligation”.  All this is why the Church requires us to come to Mass, to join in the Celebration of the Liturgy of the Lord to give the greatest honor possible to the Mother of Jesus by worshiping her Son in her honor.

            Please pass this on to family and friends who have become lacks in their belief in the importance of Holy Days of Obligation.  Pray to Mary, for the continued conversion of hearts to her Son, Jesus.

May God +bless you, and yours now and forever,

Father Anthony

O Mother of  Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

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240 South Wellwood Avenue, 631-226-0208
Principal: Mrs. Carmela Lubrano 
Assistant Principal:
Mrs. Nancy Angelini
Nursery, Pre-Kindergarten, Grades K-8

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