Feast Day this Friday

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vin_dedvukaj

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Since this Friday is the Feast of St. Thomas are we excused from the Friday penance ?, which for me is not eating meat. I know for memorials that would not apply but I was wondering about feast such as this one ?
 
There is no penance if the Friday in question is a Solemnity. Since July 3rd is a Feast, Friday penance still holds.
 
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A good Catholic calendar on your wall will take care of all such questions. I find mine indispensable, which I get from TAN Books.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
There is no penance if the Friday in question is a Solemnity. Since July 3rd is a Feast, Friday penance still holds.
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Plus, even in places where it is celebrated as a Solemnity, the liturgical color is red. So for me, I would still do penance, even if celebrated as a Solemnity because we are remembering a martyr.

@vin_dedvukaj

My rule of thumb, if the liturgical color is Red, Violet or Green; Friday penance stays.
 
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No, feasts don’t excuse it. Only solemnities.

St. Thomas’ day is not a solemnity on most calendars.

Edited to add, might be a solemnity in certain countries named after him or where he is especially revered, such as parts of India.
 
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phil19034 said:
even in places where it is celebrated as a Solemnity
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Ah yes, I overlooked that nuance. If a Feast in the universal calendar is a Solemnity in the calendar of a specific locale and it falls on a Friday, penance is not obligatory in that locale.
 
The Church’s ruling is about the rank of the celebration, not the color.
 
so would this rank of feast day not require me to a Friday penance?
 
I do the alternative penance on Fridays, so it doesn’t really matter to me. Mileage in other countries may vary.

But this brings up a related question – why do Catholics have so many feast days, but never have any actual feasts? I come from Pentecostal and Baptist backgrounds; we feast at the drop of a hat, and there are plenty of people who will supply the hat.

D
 
In Europe and some Latin American countries, I believe they truly do (at least, that’s been my experience). We Americans try to keep our days more routine based on our work week and weekends and have minimized the role of the liturgical calendar. (unfortunately)
 
Cor_ad_Cor said:
The Church’s ruling is about the rank of the celebration, not the color.
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Yes, I know.

However, I said “my rule of thumb.” To me (not the Church), if I lived in an area where the Feast of St. Thomas was being celebrated as a Solemnity, I would still do penance myself (even if not required) because he was martyred.

But that’s just me.
 
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I’m embarrassed that I completely forgot tomorrow is the feast of St. Thomas. Thanks for the reminder, at least being a feast there’s no first Vespers so I’m OK on that front. Fortunately tomorrow is not here yet so I’m good! If you guys hadn’t reminded me, tomorrow at Lauds I would have just blasted through the regular Friday Lauds. I know I should check my Ordo more often. It’s on my phone even.

Too bad though, we miss Ps. 50 this week.
 
phil19034 said:
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My rule of thumb, if the liturgical color is Red, Violet or Green; Friday penance stays.
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When the Solemnity of Apostles Saints Peter and Paul (June 29) occurs on a Friday such as it did in 2018, we Byzantine Catholics just finished a penitential season of fast and abstinence for the weeks preceding that Solemnity, so we celebrate.
 
Unless I’m mistaken, the next Friday solemnity is Christmas Day. And that’s followed a week later by another solemnity, Mary, the Mother of God. Two Meat Fridays in a row! Something to look forward to.
 
In the general calendar, yes. There may be some local and/or religious order solemnities in between.
 
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