Ascension Thursday

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My archdiocese no longer requires attendance at Mass for the Ascension of Our Lord. My “home parish” is not offering any extra masses while my TLM parish has added masses before and after regular work hours on Thursday. Additonally, the Father in the TLM parish is saying we must attend mass on Thursday.

I’ve been away from the Church for awhile so doing away with Holy Days of Obligation is a shock. I guess that is one reason why a TLM parish drew me back to the Church.

Is the dropping of Holy Days of Obligation widespread or limited to just a few dioceses?
 
At least in my diocese, the Ascension is being celebrated on Sunday instead of Thursday (with permission of Rome).
 
The Feast is being moved to Sunday ???

Thank goodness in our Parish it is still Thursday - and we are having more Masses than on Ash Wednesday - 7 in total 5 in one Church and 2 in the other.
 
The Church has not done away with Holy Days of Obligation. In some dioceses, Ascension Thursday is moved to the following Sunday in order to allow more people to attend this very important Solemnity. That’s it – plain and simple.
 
In some dioceses, the obligation is still there to go to Mass on Ascension Thursday. Check with your parish priest.
 
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MLJ:
The Church has not done away with Holy Days of Obligation. In some dioceses, Ascension Thursday is moved to the following Sunday in order to allow more people to attend this very important Solemnity. That’s it – plain and simple.
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Not so simple for my simple mind. If the Church no longer requires you to go to Mass on Thursday, how can it be a Holy Day of Obligation? There is no obligation on Ascension Thursday. In reality, moving it to Sunday just does away with the Ascension of Our Lord as a Holy Day.
 
My goodness! You can’t expect people to give up Survivor or American Idol to attend Mass, can you?

This is a Very Important Solemnity and many more people can attend on Sunday. See, there aren’t that many good teevee shows on Sunday morning.

I’m in favor of doing away with obligatory Mass attendance altogether. Only require Catholics to attend twice a year, at Christmas and Easter. Then, to make it more convenient, give them the option of watching Mass on teevee on those days, that way they don’t even have to leave their house! Although, it is pretty inconvenient for people to do that. To have to sit for an hour watching Mass? In their own home? Oh, the horror!

Maybe we could just require people to say an Our Father on those two days. That should suffice. But they would only be required to do that if there was another person in their house with whom they could hold hands while saying it.

Although, even that seems awfully inconvenient. Hmmmmm…I know! On Christmas and Easter, if a Catholic takes the Lord’s name in vain, that would fulfill their obligation!

Brilliant! Think of all the converts we’ll get with these new rules! I’m composing my letter of suggestion to the Holy Father right away!
 
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SnorterLuster:
My archdiocese no longer requires attendance at Mass for the Ascension of Our Lord. My “home parish” is not offering any extra masses while my TLM parish has added masses before and after regular work hours on Thursday. Additonally, the Father in the TLM parish is saying we must attend mass on Thursday.

I’ve been away from the Church for awhile so doing away with Holy Days of Obligation is a shock. I guess that is one reason why a TLM parish drew me back to the Church.

Is the dropping of Holy Days of Obligation widespread or limited to just a few dioceses?
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Well it is obvious that someone is not paying attention to the Bishop! I would guess that the Bishop transfered the obligation to the next Sunday. Somebody is just not paying attention to the announcments from the Bishops office. Note the Holy Day is still the Feast of the Ascension it is just not a day of obligation, the obligation is transfered to Sunday.
 
Many of the dioceses recognize that most folks work on Ascension Thursday here in the United States. With myself, I can leave the office , someone will cover for me, no problemo.

But folks tied down to an assembly line or a fast food drivethrough don’t have the same ability.

Its certainly understandable what the archbishop has in mind, to make the Ascension liturgy more accessible to the Catholic people.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
Well it is obvious that someone is not paying attention to the Bishop! I would guess that the Bishop transfered the obligation to the next Sunday. Somebody is just not paying attention to the announcments from the Bishops office. Note the Holy Day is still the Feast of the Ascension it is just not a day of obligation, the obligation is transfered to Sunday.
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The parish or chapel in question operates under the indult for the Tridentine Mass. According to that indult’s kalendar, there is no transfer of Ascension Thursday; hence, the priest is correct in observing the feast on Thursday and was not ignoring any directives from the bishop.

My parish is in the same situation.
 
Br. Rich SFO:
Well it is obvious that someone is not paying attention to the Bishop! I would guess that the Bishop transfered the obligation to the next Sunday. Somebody is just not paying attention to the announcments from the Bishops office. Note the Holy Day is still the Feast of the Ascension it is just not a day of obligation, the obligation is transfered to Sunday.
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In our area [Los Angeles] the feast [Solemnity] is transferred. the mass, and office, on Thursday is for the Thursday of the sixth week of Easter. The mass and office of the Ascension are celebrated on Sunday and the Seventh Sunday after Easter is suppressed.
 
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Kielbasi:
But folks tied down to an assembly line or a fast food drivethrough don’t have the same ability.
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Does an employer have some kind of obligation to allow employees some flexibility for such days? I know an employer is required to allow some time off to vote, jury duty and even some religious holidays. An employer is required to allow National Guard and Reserves leave for training and service.

Could an employee be fired for planning some time off for a Holy day of obligation? Or is it OK to fire a Catholic under such conditions?
 
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Chatter163:
The parish or chapel in question operates under the indult for the Tridentine Mass. According to that indult’s kalendar, there is no transfer of Ascension Thursday; hence, the priest is correct in observing the feast on Thursday and was not ignoring any directives from the bishop.

My parish is in the same situation.
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The Bishop should be the one to clarify this. Can the old calendar still be used? I will have to go off and read up on this as someone pointed out below. Some places the obligation is lifted for Thursday but the Mass and readings still remain the readings for Ascension, in others the Mass readings as well as the Liturgy of the Hours is transfered. This is almost like the question about if All Souls and All Saints falls on a Saturday and Sunday is the Saturday evening Mass All Souls or All Saints? I believe it was the Office was All Saints until midnight, but the Mass was ALL Souls after 4PM.
 
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cargopilot:
Does an employer have some kind of obligation to allow employees some flexibility for such days?
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I believe that the individual needs to set forth the priority from the beginning with his or her employer. Or at least start now.

For example, in college, I worked at a hospital, and I made it perfectly clear (not in a demanding way, but firm) that I wasn’t to be scheduled on Sunday morning. And I never was.

We need to start viewing the job as a means to the end, and not the end as many so often do.

DD
 
We were told at Mass today that the “Bishops in the United States” have moved the solemnity to Sunday. I’m not sure if that ment the USCCB as a whole or most Bishops, but it’s been fairly common for a while now. It isn’t like a new conspiracy or anything, ya know.

My Brevary has prayers for Thursday in the 6th week of Easter, followed by an optional set of prayers for Ascension “Thursday”.
 
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