2,500 attend Assumption Mass at Good Help Shrine

Ray Dufano still honors his mother.

The 77-year-old Green Bay man showed his appreciation with about 2,500 others Wednesday at the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“This is our spiritual mother and when we need something, we ask her for it. She helps us throughout life,” he said of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

''The ceremony is held each Aug. 15 to celebrate the Roman Catholic belief that the body and soul of the Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven at the end of her life.

The feast dates back to at least the 7th century, where it was celebrated in Jerusalem and Rome, according to the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The Mass was held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, 4047 Chapel Drive.

“It’s an uplifting experience every time I come up here,” Dufano said, while looking at the visitors nearby who sat under the sun in lawn chairs in front of the chapel. “All of these people come for the same reason, because they feel the same way I do.”

It was the shrine’s second Assumption Mass since it was declared in December 2010 the site of a Marian apparition, the only one in the United States. An estimated 3,000 people attended the ceremony last year.

continue at GBPG(some very nice photos as well)