Holy Day of Obligation: Assumption

[Angel_Gabriel]

We’re finishing the Dormition fast, but will there be a spare minute in the day to celebrate the Dormition with a feast? It seems unlikely.

Agreed. Both of the summer Fasts seem to be downplayed in regards to any celebration that follows. ( FWIW, I’m going to have a little mini feast for the kids at home. They start school the following day anyway.)

At least with Great Lent we get Pascha and with Nativity Fast there is Christmas. Unfortunately in this day and age, Christmas has lost most of it’s meaning in mainstream society. Christmas songs can be heard on the radio mid November, but come Dec 26 they all disappear from the airwaves. The stores start stocking Valentines then…it’s sickening really. I’m so so so tired of the secular takeover of our Holy Days! To be sure, Christmas warrants a celebration…12 days worth, following not before!!! And don’t get me started on St. Patrick’s Day…

 

[Phemie]

Acadians still celebrate the day as Our Lady of the Assumption is their patron but it is much more cultural than religious. Most will party but I’m not sure a significant number will attend Mass.

 

[OraLabora]

For the OP, no it is not a HDO in Canada.

No, it isn’t. Most important solemnities in Canada are transferred to the Sunday, to which Canadians Catholics are still obligated. This applies to Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christi, All-Saints.

So Canadians still get the specific Mass for those occasions. The realities of our societies with work and school obligations (thank you babochka for pointing out the realities of family life), is such that most would not be able to make it on a weekday, But by transferring it to the Sunday they get to understand the liturgical significance of these feasts that they would otherwise miss.

“Ordinary” means, in this instance, ordinal, or “regular”. It doesn’t mean plain. And it is by no means boring if you pay attention to the calendar, the readings, and pray the Liturgy of the Hours. I happen to love the rhythm of Ordinary Time both in its own right, and as a backdrop to contrast the other seasons and celebrations. It also provides a sense of order and ritual to the Liturgy.

Not every day can be “special”. One of the problems with the old calendar in fact was just that, and for those reciting/chanting the Divine Office, they were so often in the festival psalter that the serial psalter could not seriously be considered a 1-week cycle. In theory it was, in reality it rarely was.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

@angel_gabriel we could probably get secular society to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas if we could tie gifts to it. I don’t think a partridge in a pear tree is going to do it, but gifts of candy, wine, or other luxuries would have the stores pushing those days in a big way.

 

[Angel_Gabriel]

LOL! you’re probably right! I am glad that the older I get the more I realize what a beautiful holiday Christmas is…and that it doesn’t have to revolve around presents and indeed is more joyous when it’s kept simple . I love how symbolic it is coming in the dead of winter. Christ, the light of the world, coming in the dead darkness of winter.

Speaking of symbolic feast days, the Dormition (Assumption) comes near the very end of the Byzantine Church year. Mary’s Nativity comes very near the beginning of our Church year (it begins on Sept 1st). I love how the Church year coincides with Mary’s life.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

@theCardinalbird
When traveling (which I seem to recall that you might have mentioned), travelers observe their home diocesan laws concerning Holy Days; however, the traveler has the extra benefit of being “excused” if no Mass is available/reasonably reachable from the area you’re traveling through…

 

[theCardinalbird]

When traveling (which I seem to recall that you might have mentioned), travelers observe their home diocesan laws concerning Holy Days; however, the traveler has the extra benefit of being “excused” if no Mass is available/reasonably reachable from the area you’re traveling through…

I thought that if you travel you observe the Holy Days of Obligation in that country

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

I thought that if you travel you observe the Holy Days of Obligation in that country

No…

When traveling (which I seem to recall that you might have mentioned), travelers observe their home diocesan laws concerning Holy Days; however, the traveler has the extra benefit of being “excused” if no Mass is available/reasonably reachable from the area you’re traveling through…

 

[OraLabora]

No it isn’t said. It’s realistic. What is sad is that you have such a low opinion of the faithful that you think they would rather sit on their duffs watching TV instead of going to Mass. People’s lives are quite another reality.

When I was still working before I retired, I had to commute a minimum (if the traffic was good) two and a half hours a day. I’d get up at 4 am and leave at 5 to beat the traffic. If I was really lucky, I’d manage to make it to the 7 am Mass at St. Joseph’s Oratory, but often I’d miss it because of the traffic. I would rarely get home before 7 pm. Then, like most folks, I’d have to eat dinner. By the time that’s over, and cleaned up, it would be 8 pm or later. Do you think I had the energy to go to Mass after that (another 30 minutes in the car btw)??? I could barely keep my eyes open by then, and I’d have to be in bed by 9 pm to start the cycle all over again the next day.

I know plenty of people with menial jobs having to hold down two jobs to make ends meet; that work shift work; that have young kids to care for; that work for inhuman employers that expect them to do overtime almost every day (some of it unpaid).

It is for those people that the Church has transferred the HDOs to the nearest Sunday, Canadian Catholics stil have the obligation to go to Mass 52 other days of the year.

Offer more Mass times you say? OK, but then there’s the issue of vocations. In our area 2 priests cover a half a dozen churches. Priests can only offer Mass so many times in a day.

Perhaps you should wake up and realize it’s not 1954 any more.

I won’t argue with you on the old vs new calendars. I found the old one just overloaded with “special” days that crept in, that those actually involved in liturgy by practicing it every day, barely had time to breathe. The new calendar is a breath of fresh air. You’re entitled to your opinion, and I to mine. Mine btw, corresponds to the Church’s.

 

[OraLabora]

What can I say the Church disagrees with you and I happen to agree with the Church.

The Pius X breviary changes btw, were tinkered with by Pius XII and John XXIII who reduced the classes of feasts. The Liturgical Movement started much before Vatican II. The Pius X breviary was still too heavy for most diocesan clergy, was also out of reach of the laity, and at the same time managed to toss overboard many laudable traditions that irritated even a lot of people back then.

We now have the Liturgy of the Hours which is a gift to both clergy and the laity. It doesn’t prevent communities bound to choir, such as the Benedictines, to have a much longer breviary, such as the traditional Benedictine schema, still in use 1500 years later in both pre- and post-Conciliar forms. Or implement reformed breviaries such as that used by my abbey which still does all 150 psalms in a week.

The Church has simply (finally) recognized that we’re not all monks…

 

[Augustinian]

Modern liturgical reform was already well underway by the 1950’s. The Dialogue Mass was introduced in the 1920’s, encouraging the faithful to start speaking up in church- quite an innovation. Missals for the lay people to follow along originated in the 19th Century and picked up steam throughout the 20th Century. The reforms of Pius X in regards to reducing the age for 1st Holy Communion and encouraging recipiency of the sacrament much more frequently was a reform which changed the way many people heard Mass.

The especially huge reforms in the 1960’s/70’s weren’t quite as large, as smaller steps were taken over an extended period of time to help prepare the people for a new paradigm.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

it is in Australia,

 

[OraLabora]

That’s news to me. When I pray a non-Monastic Office, as I am now due to time constraints, I use Les Heures Grégoriennes, an excellent and easily available (though pricey) Latin-French diurnal Antiphonary noted for Gregorian chant, which I use every day for the Office. For Vigils, or the Office of Readings, I use Liturgia Horarum in Latin. You can even select Latin in iBreviary. I even created my own Nocturnale for the OOR in Latin noted for chant from the prescriptions in Ordo Cantus Officii; I like to tinker with things liturgical. There is also Antiphonale Romanum II that came out in 2010, from Solesmes, for Vespers of Sundays, solemnities and feasts, and Liber Hymnarius containing all the hymns.

And yes I do spend about 2 hours a day doing all that. But unlike clergy, I’m retired.

The issue with overstretched clergy is as much interruptions as time. It is no longer licit to rattle off the entire day’s Offices in one sitting, as was common before the council, to “get it over with”. While some flexibility is allowed, Lauds must still be early in the morning for instance. A shorter office means less chance of it being interrupted, or the ability to quickly finish it if, for instance, a sick call comes in or a distraught parishioner calls for counsel.

That a layman should dictate what is or isn’t appropriate for a clergyman’s prayer life is laughable. Such disrespect would never be tolerated in pre-Conciliar days which just goes to prove how selective “traditionalists” are in the traditions they purport to support.

 

[mVitus]

@(name removed by moderator) HDOs are meant to be days of celebration and rest. What OraLabora is describing is anything but celebration and rest. So transferring the days is a valid decision of the bishops.

 

[OraLabora]

Indeed! I also live near a Benedictine monastery. They observe all solemnities on their proper day. However they properly observe them as days of celebration and rest. They get the day off from their assigned work, and they get wine at lunch and are exempt from fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, their two traditional fast days outside Lent.

So for the big ones like Ascension Thursday, I attend Mass at the abbey (as I also do every Sunday).

 

[Gertabelle]

@(name removed by moderator) HDOs are meant to be days of celebration and rest. What OraLabora is describing is anything but celebration and rest. So transferring the days is a valid decision of the bishops.

Thank you so much for bringing this up!

Yes, my son and I are rearranging schedules and will be able to get to a vigil mass this evening. His non-Catholic dad is dropping him off at my school, where we have Back-To-School Night, which means I’ll be attending mass for a solemnity in my school t-shirt – don’t even get me started on appropriate attire for mass.

I’ll be leaving BTS Night early to get us to mass on time. Then I’ll be driving 30 minutes to get my son back to his dad’s house, and then drive another 20 minutes to get home so I can go to bed and be ready for my students’ first day of school tomorrow.

The Solemnity of the Assumption is supposed to be a great day of rest and feast and celebration. No fasting is allowed on such solemnities.

I am absolutely willing to make the sacrifices – sometimes extreme sacrifices for our family situation – to get myself and my son to mass on HDOs, but that is opposite of how we are to be observing these holy days.

On the upside, we have the opportunity to learn and practice what it means to hold the feast in our hearts, since there will be no resting and no feast in real life.

 

[Augustinian]

HDOs are meant to be days of celebration and rest. What OraLabora is describing is anything but celebration and rest. So transferring the days is a valid decision of the bishops.

That’s exactly true, and something our grandparents certainly knew. The idea of a HDO being a day where the Catholic people were supposed to make it to mass after or before their work day wasn’t the usual protocol.

The Darr Mine disaster in Van Meter, PA in 1907, was considered to be a miracle by Greek Catholic miners as it occurred on the feast of St. Nicholas, a Byzantine HDO, when the Greek Catholic miners took the day off.

 

[babochka]

What can I say the Church disagrees with you and I happen to agree with the Church.

I believe these might be the best words you have ever written on this forum and you have contributed so much of value.

 

[YourNameHere]

Mary is united with Jesus in Heaven. What a blessed day!

 

[OraLabora]

Umm, no. Most of the reforms were drafted by clergy and the movement itself was spurred on by clergy.

Prosper Guéranger, Pius X, Maurice de la Taille, Annibale Bugnini (appointed by Pius XII to look at liturgical reform), Pius XII, all were involved in the movement and all were clergy at various levels.

It was not butchered, it was reformed, just as Pius X reformed it 60 years previous. The Pius X overhaul was fairly massive in its own right, taking the Divine Office down from 250 psalms per week to 150, separating the Laudate psalms traditionally grouped together at Lauds, re-dividing the psalms, necessitating a new antiphonary, giving Compline a variable psalter (something the LOTH restored as it is licitly allowed to use psalms 4, 90 and 133 at Compline every day, which is what I do), and chopping 3 psalms off of Vigils.