On the days of August 14 and 15, the Church of Jerusalem gathered around the Blessed Virgin Mary to celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption. The moments of prayer, presided over by the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Ielpo, offered the faithful an intense opportunity for communion and hope.

On Friday night, the celebration began in the Garden of Gethsemane and then proceeded in procession into the Basilica of the Agony. Before the many religious and consecrated people present, Fr. Ielpo sprinkled the statue of the Virgin with white rose petals soaked in nard: a prophetic gesture to renew the response of love of those present to the call of the Lord and to consecrate their lives to the proclamation of the Gospel.

In his homily on the occasion of the vigil, Fr. Ielpo recalled the greeting addressed by the angel to Mary: “The Lord is with you!” This phrase represents God's call, a call that the Virgin welcomed with a faith that remains an example for the whole Church.

On the morning of Saturday, August 15, at the Basilica of Gethsemane, the Solemn Mass was celebrated. At the conclusion of the Eucharist, the statue of Our Lady was carried in procession in the garden of the Basilica. The Mass took on an even deeper meaning as Fr. Meye Claude Lundungisa made his first religious vows, thus officially beginning his journey in the Order of Friars Minor.

The Custos emphasized in his homily that the Assumption reminds the faithful that welcoming one's vocation means letting God guide us in everyday life with the same faith with which Mary pronounced her “Fiat”.

In the afternoon, after Second Vespers in the Grotto of the Apostles, the friars and the faithful walked towards the Tomb of Mary. A moment of deep devotion that is repeated only once a year: according to the Status Quo regulating the Holy Places, the Tomb of Mary is today guarded by the Greek Orthodox and Armenian communities. The Solemnity of the Assumption is the only occasion on which the Franciscan family can cross the threshold of the sanctuary and evoke, in the silence of prayer, the transit to Heaven of the Mother of God.