An Excellent Defense of Ascension Thursday

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TheMc

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I just read an excellent post by the Knights of Divine Mercy blog. I wish I lived near enough to attend their meetings, but it’s never going to happen.

Read the full article at Knights of Divine Mercy.

Here’s some excerpts:
Today has been officially declared “Catholic Blogger Complaint Thursday.” [LOL! So true!] As we all know, today used to be known as Ascension Thursday, but that has been moved to Sunday to allow Catholic bloggers a day to complain about the state of the Church. So we can now distinguish today from every other day, which are considered unofficial Catholic Blogger Complaint Days.
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Making a day like Ascension Thursday a holy day of obligation sets apart Catholics from the rest of the culture. While I do believe that Catholics are to be immersed in society in many ways, we also need to have a strong Catholic identity so that we don’t drown in the prevalent culture. There has always been a thin line balancing our need to be part of the culture yet separate from it.
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When you tell your co-workers that you have to go to Mass at lunchtime, it sends a signal of your life’s priorities. This opens you up for conversations and inquiries about your Faith, which can lead others to it.

Some good stuff.
 
I must say I’m inclined to vote for Thursday. Most people who go to Mass or are forced to go to Mass on Sunday don’t want to be there anyway, so why not give them an extra day to be forced to go? Those who are really holy want to be in Mass as much as possible anyway (which says a lot about me, because I couldn’t be bothered to go yesterday… 😊)!
 
I would like to keep Ascension on a Thursday, however in our diocese it has been moved to a Sunday. I think the reasoning behind it has more to do with convenience, rather than spirituality or catechesis, which is sad indeed…But at least the feast is still celebrated. I wish however, that people would place God first as He intended, rather than personal convenience. There is much to be obtained when we make a sacrifice. However, those of us who will attend a weekday mass have much to be gained and will continue to do so.
I like it when people wish to be somewhere on a weekday, particularly mass rather than make it a sin when they do not attend.
 
TheMc said:
When you tell your co-workers that you have to go to Mass at lunchtime, it sends a signal of your life’s priorities. This opens you up for conversations and inquiries about your Faith, which can lead others to it.
Some good stuff.
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Interestingly enough, a similar sort of situation arose with me but it was due to a book I had on my desk. A coworker walked on by my cubicle a few weeks ago and started asking questions about when he saw it laying there. This interaction sparked a renewed interest in their faith.
 
And here I thought the correct “traditional” Catholic perspective was to do what your bishop told you to do. :rolleyes:
 
The problem is that it’s an “excellent defense” of pretty much anything. Anyone can say, “we need this to protect our Catholic identity” about almost anything. By that logic let’s never change anything, ever.

Holy Days of Obligation are from a time and place where they were actual work holidays as well as holy days. In today’s world, outside of a few exceptions, that’s simply not the case. The Church moves such days to Sundays as a way of not building up unnecessary burdens upon the faithful (Mt 23:4). This is tradition, not Tradition. Let’s not confuse the two…
 
NewEnglandPries said:
The problem is that it’s an “excellent defense” of pretty much anything. Anyone can say, “we need this to protect our Catholic identity” about almost anything. By that logic let’s never change anything, ever.

Holy Days of Obligation are from a time and place where they were actual work holidays as well as holy days. In today’s world, outside of a few exceptions, that’s simply not the case. The Church moves such days to Sundays as a way of not building up unnecessary burdens upon the faithful. This is tradition, not Tradition. Let’s not confuse the two…
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However, Father, even as late as the 1990s, this was not a problem. You could go to Mass earlier in the morning, during lunch time or after work. If people are willing to make the sacrifices to go to the gym and engage in other activities, going to Mass an extra day out of the week should not be seen as an unnecessary burden.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
And here I thought the correct “traditional” Catholic perspective was to do what your bishop told you to do. :rolleyes:
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This is exactly what happens when we have liberal (yup, I said liberal), I’ll even say it again, liberal bishops in charge. Things are swaying back the other way though:) It’ll take time. I ranted about this the other day too on another thread! Yes, I feel better!
 
benedictgal said:
However, Father, even as late as the 1990s, this was not a problem. You could go to Mass earlier in the morning, during lunch time or after work. If people are willing to make the sacrifices to go to the gym and engage in other activities, going to Mass an extra day out of the week should not be seen as an unnecessary burden.
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:extrahappy::clapping::tiphat:
 
benedictgal said:
However, Father, even as late as the 1990s, this was not a problem. You could go to Mass earlier in the morning, during lunch time or after work. If people are willing to make the sacrifices to go to the gym and engage in other activities, going to Mass an extra day out of the week should not be seen as an unnecessary burden.
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Actually it was a problem. Attendance on weekday Holy Days of Obligation (HDOs) has been steadily falling for decades. And now that some people are working two jobs or are afraid to do anything that might jeopardize their jobs its even more so.
Secondly, full observance of a HDO means to rest from work. Going to Mass on one’s lunch break doesn’t fully conform to the full intention of a HDO. HDOs weren’t put in place by the Church to be a right foot red, left hand yellow type of situation for people to juggle everything else to get to Mass. Making a HDO about simply going to Mass is actually not the spirit of HDOs.

Going to Mass earlier is not an option for people with several children on strict time tables to get to school.
Going to Mass at lunch is not an option for many people who only get 30 minutes for lunch and can’t get to Mass and back within the allotted time.
Going to Mass later is a hardship for people juggling many other things in life.

An obligation of Mass on a day that’s not a holiday is indeed a burden and hardship for many Catholics.

HDOs weren’t meant to be days of rushing into Mass and then rushing out. There were meant to be holy days and holidays. Unfortunately many of us don’t live in that world any more.

People don’t make sacrifices to go to the gym. They make it part of their routine because its healthy. Its not something that they’re told to drop and rearrange everything for on a singular day. And besides, we can play this game all day long. Anyone can accuse anyone of not being spiritual/holy/catholic enough because they take the time to do x, y, or z but not a, b, or c. Its a nice thing that makes us feel better about ourselves but does nothing to build up the Church.
 
To set aside Catholics from the others would be better to bring back the no meat Fridays, as the do in England.

There is a conflict between work and Holy Day:
  1. to attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days;
Most people should work, and there is no reason to make laws which cannot be kept.
 
NewEnglandPries said:
Actually it was a problem. Attendance on weekday Holy Days of Obligation (HDOs) has been steadily falling for decades. And now that some people are working two jobs or are afraid to do anything that might jeopardize their jobs its even more so.
Secondly, full observance of a HDO means to rest from work. Going to Mass on one’s lunch break doesn’t fully conform to the full intention of a HDO. HDOs weren’t put in place by the Church to be a right foot red, left hand yellow type of situation for people to juggle everything else to get to Mass. Making a HDO about simply going to Mass is actually not the spirit of HDOs.

Going to Mass earlier is not an option for people with several children on strict time tables to get to school.
Going to Mass at lunch is not an option for many people who only get 30 minutes for lunch and can’t get to Mass and back within the allotted time.
Going to Mass later is a hardship for people juggling many other things in life.

An obligation of Mass on a day that’s not a holiday is indeed a burden and hardship for many Catholics.

HDOs weren’t meant to be days of rushing into Mass and then rushing out. There were meant to be holy days and holidays. Unfortunately many of us don’t live in that world any more.

People don’t make sacrifices to go to the gym. They make it part of their routine because its healthy. Its not something that they’re told to drop and rearrange everything for on a singular day. And besides, we can play this game all day long. Anyone can anyone of not being spiritual/holy/catholic enough because they take the time to do x, y, or z but not a, b, or c. Its a nice thing that makes us feel better about ourselves but does nothing to build up the Church.
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Father, with all due respect, there is also the Vigil Mass the night before that the faithful can attend. Now, parents willingly make sacrifices to watch their children play in sports (as well as take them to practice), peform and receive awards. Like Holy Days of Obligation, these don’t happen very often. Yet, people are willing to re-arrange their schedules in order to be at these secular events. The same willingness should also apply to Holy Days of Obligation.
 
TheMc said:
It is. But there’s nothing wrong with prodding them along… 😃
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Either the Church has the keys of the kingdom or she doesn’t. I leave all the prodding to the so-called “Voice of the Faithful” who feel the Church needs their particular guidance.
 
benedictgal said:
Father, with all due respect, there is also the Vigil Mass the night before that the faithful can attend. Now, parents willingly make sacrifices to watch their children play in sports (as well as take them to practice), peform and receive awards. Like Holy Days of Obligation, these don’t happen very often. Yet, people are willing to re-arrange their schedules in order to be at these secular events. The same willingness should also apply to Holy Days of Obligation.
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Absolutely. People can always make time for a plethora of other things in their lives and never give it another thought, but can’t make the same sacrifice of time needed to attend Mass on an HDO. People can take afternoons off of work for this and that, but to take an afternoon off for God! ":nope: Our priest at our parish certainly sees things A LOT differently than our online counterpart does. Catholics need to remember to be holy and authentic or you’re just not doing it correctly. It’s what we are called to do.
 
benedictgal said:
Father, with all due respect, there is also the Vigil Mass the night before that the faithful can attend. Now, parents willingly make sacrifices to watch their children play in sports (as well as take them to practice), peform and receive awards. Like Holy Days of Obligation, these don’t happen very often. Yet, people are willing to re-arrange their schedules in order to be at these secular events. The same willingness should also apply to Holy Days of Obligation.
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What about the precept of he Church to avoid work?

What could be the reason to erode the requirement of the law, commanding impossible things?
 
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