WORCESTER, MA (December 11, 2015)—Assumption College has been named to the  45 Best College Holiday Events list released by Best College Reviews, a ranking service for American colleges and universities. Colleges and universities on this list were recognized for the number of “community events, concerts, campus lighting and parties that are often free of charge and high quality and can add to the joy of the season.” As an institution deeply rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition, Assumption offers an array of holiday programs in order to celebrate the season with the community, as well as a number of opportunities for the College to give back to those in need.

Kicking off the holiday festivities at Assumption is the annual Christmas Tree Lighting, which took place this year on Monday, December 7. The event featured special performances and caroling led by Assumption's own Chorale and Voce groups, as well as hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. New this year, the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Office of Student Affairs teamed up to sponsor sleigh rides around campus in a horse-drawn carriage. After the lighting, many students then enjoyed the Assumption Band Christmas Concert in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.

This photo always gets me. This boy’s father has presumably died in combat serving in the Marine Corps. Another Marine, likely one of the fallen’s comrades, presents a flag to the boy in memory of his father’s ultimate sacrifice of giving his life. The message of the presentation is extraordinarily bitter-sweet: “Remember the greatness of your father and his sacrifice while mourning his loss.”

Mercy, while not always comfortable, can be the balm for our suffering; the redemptive actions of our Lord alleviate us of our sins and shortcomings. And we cannot accept mercy and move forward if we don’t first look the past in the eye (in the boy’s case, the death of his father; in our case, the severity of our sins).

On November 3-4 the steering committee for the international Assumptionist education congress met at the provincial house in Paris to fine-tune the details of this first-of-its-kind Assumptionist/Oblate of the Assumption meeting of personnel from its secondary and post-secondary institutions. The congress will be held at Assumption College, an Assumptionist-sponsored university in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA), a short distance from Boston, from July 17-27, 2016.

Some 70 representatives from over 20 institutions on four continents will gather to compare notes, discuss common issues, and attempt to articulate a "charter of principles" to guide any academic institution inspired by the educational vision of their founder, Venerable Emmanuel d'Alzon. 

At the invitation of his friend Fr. Joseph Zhang, A.A., who is presently living in the Pavel House community in Brighton, Bishop Ignatius Wang visited the Assumptionist Center and celebrated a recent Sunday Liturgy.

Bishop Wang is an Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of San Francisco where he was appointed an auxiliary by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2002. He was the first Catholic Bishop of Chinese Ancestry and of Asian background to be appointed to the U.S.

Bishop Wang came to this country in 1974 and was a parochial vicar in several parishes in the Archdiocese. In 1982 he was appointed pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in San Francisco where he was the first Chinese pastor. In 1989 he was made a Monsignor and served in the Archdiocesan Tribunal and as Coordinator of the Chinese Apostolate.