Liturgical calendar question

[vinessa]

Hi – I’m in RCIA and learning. I have a question about Holy Days of Obligation.

Obviously there are saint feast days all year, but Wikipedia lists the following as the Roman Catholic canonical Days of Obligation:

– 1 Jan: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
– 6 Jan: the Epiphany
– 19 Mar: Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– Thursday of the sixth week of Easter: the Ascension
– Thursday after Trinity Sunday (which is the Sunday after Pentecost): the Body and Blood of Christ
– 29 Jun: Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles
– 15 Aug: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– 1 Nov: All Saints
– 8 Dec: the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– 25 Dec: the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ (Christmas)

My question is, why these days? And where is Ash Wednesday, or Good Friday? They seem like important non-Sunday celebration days to me.

I appreciate your help!

 

[Joannm]

Ash Wendnesday is simply the first day of the liturgical season of Lent. There is nothing specific that we are celebrating other than the beginning of the season. Even receiving ashes in not mandatory (although you would never know it)

Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation because there is no mass celebrated on Good Friday. Acutally the Triduum consists of one liturgy that extends over three days. It would be impractical to have the obligation to attend all three liturgies because there would be no room to hold all the people if it were an obligation. The way I see it, the Triduum is the most solemn and most holy days of the year, and those who see it that way will come because they want to, because they need to, not because they are oblligated to.

 

[YADA]

Ash Wednesday [although a high attendance day - like Christmas and Easter in numbers] and Good friday are not Holy days of obligation …

Every country has slightly different obligatory days beyond Sunday, Christmas and Easter which are universal Holy days of obligation …

Your parish probably provides a calendar this time of year that should list all the Holy Days of Obligation, identify fast and abstinance days and other various feast days for saints and such… it should also idnetify the liturgical color for theday … green - ordinary time, white Christmas, Easter and other special days, Purple for Advent and Lent, red - Pentacost, Good Friday and the feast days of martyrs …

Also, Good Friday is the only day of the year where a Mass is not celebrated … It is a communion service …

Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through the Easter Vigil is packed full of Liturgies … while all of them [Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil] are not obligatory per say I encourage to make attendance at these litugies a life long practice [they are of course most Holy Days]…

And if your diocese has the Mass where the oils are blessed during this week … attend it as well … you will not regret the time spent with our Lord and in the company of other faithful Christians … your spiritual life will be impacted in positive ways …

 

[Jguerra]

Congratulations on signing up for RCIA classes. While Wikipedia is useful, I wouldn’t rely on it as the ultimate authority on things spiritual. The link below is from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and will take to the definitive list of Holy Days of Obligation:

usccb.org/liturgy/q&a/general/obligation.shtml

Peace,

Joe

 

[Phemie]

Congratulations on signing up for RCIA classes. While Wikipedia is useful, I wouldn’t rely on it as the ultimate authority on things spiritual. The link below is from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and will take to the definitive list of Holy Days of Obligation:

usccb.org/liturgy/q&a/general/obligation.shtml

Peace,

Joe

Wikipedia is not wrong however, they are simply naming the Holy Days of Obligation as listed in the Code of Canon Law. The various national Bishops’ Conferences are free to decide which of the days listed they will observe, which they will abrogate and which they will transfer to a Sunday.
The US has the ones you indicated with your link while Canada has only January 1 and December 25. Epiphany, Ascension & Corpus Christi are transferred to the next Sunday and the rest are abrogated.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Hi – I’m in RCIA and learning. I have a question about Holy Days of Obligation.

Obviously there are saint feast days all year, but Wikipedia lists the following as the Roman Catholic canonical Days of Obligation:

– 1 Jan: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
– 6 Jan: the Epiphany
– 19 Mar: Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– Thursday of the sixth week of Easter: the Ascension
– Thursday after Trinity Sunday (which is the Sunday after Pentecost): the Body and Blood of Christ
– 29 Jun: Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles
– 15 Aug: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– 1 Nov: All Saints
– 8 Dec: the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
– 25 Dec: the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ (Christmas)

My question is, why these days? And where is Ash Wednesday, or Good Friday? They seem like important non-Sunday celebration days to me.

I appreciate your help!

Many people are suprised to learn the Good Friday, Holy Thursday and Ash Wednesday are NOT holy days of obligation. By the number of people that show up you would think they were.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Ash Wednesday [although a high attendance day - like Christmas and Easter in numbers] and Good friday are not Holy days of obligation …

Every country has slightly different obligatory days beyond Sunday, Christmas and Easter which are universal Holy days of obligation …

Your parish probably provides a calendar this time of year that should list all the Holy Days of Obligation, identify fast and abstinance days and other various feast days for saints and such… it should also idnetify the liturgical color for theday … green - ordinary time, white Christmas, Easter and other special days, Purple for Advent and Lent, red - Pentacost, Good Friday and the feast days of martyrs …

Also, Good Friday is the only day of the year where a Mass is not celebrated … It is a communion service …

Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through the Easter Vigil is packed full of Liturgies … while all of them [Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil] are not obligatory per say I encourage to make attendance at these litugies a life long practice [they are of course most Holy Days]…

And if your diocese has the Mass where the oils are blessed during this week … attend it as well … you will not regret the time spent with our Lord and in the company of other faithful Christians … your spiritual life will be impacted in positive ways …

Technically there also is not a Holy Saturday Mass either.

 

[benedictgal]

Because you are in RCIA, you will probably have to participate in the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil), since, depending on where you’re at, you will probably be received into the Church on the night of the Easter Vigil.

It would also do you well to attend the Ash Wednesday Mass as well as all of the Lenten Sundays. I believe that there is also a Rite of Election (in my diocese, it happens on the First Sunday of Lent) for the Catechumens. You do not indicate if you are a candidate for Full Communion (baptized non-Catholic Christian) or if you are a Catechumen (non-baptized person). This ritual happens in the presence of the Bishop and the names of the Catechumens are enrolled in the Book of the Elect. On the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent, the Catechumens go through the Scrutinies, which you will soon learn about in the course of the RCIA process.

Now, even though Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation, there is something intrinsic within all of us that reminds us that we are sinners and that we are mortal. Even though folks may just go to church once a year, something deep within them yearns for Something (or Someone) greater than themselves.

For the Church, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil make up one complete liturgy. As Pope Benedict rightly notes, we can’t take these three days as separate entities. We cannot have the Cross without the Last Supper and the Resurrection, and we cannot have the Resurrection without the Cross and the Last Supper. And, the Cross and the Resurrection are anticipated in the Last Supper. These are the Three Great Days. This is the Church’s highest and holiest time of the year, even greater than Christmas.

 

[vinessa]

Thank you so much for your generous help! I’m an RCIA candidate (baptized Lutheran), but I have attended a variety of different Protestant services over the years. My knowledge of Protestantism is more theological and spiritual, less liturgical since Protestant liturgies either vary widely, or there isn’t one at all. [see the creative, “made up” services popular in.evangelical mega-churches, or the wide-range spontaneous worship in the Pentecostal churches]

I was mainly interested in why this list was chosen. Perhaps my assumption of these days being more important than others (thus obligatory) is wrong? It’s interesting to learn also that the list of days varies by country. It just seems like some crucial days are missing – and I’m not sure why Corpus Christi would be more important than Pentecost (say), or why the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) is less important than All Saints. I appreciate everyone helping me understand!

P.S. Yes, we have our Rite of Election day scheduled – one person in our group is getting baptized, the others are recovering Protestants! We are preparing for acceptance during Holy Week.

Thank you so much!

 

[AJV]

I was mainly interested in why this list was chosen. Perhaps my assumption of these days being more important than others (thus obligatory) is wrong? It’s interesting to learn also that the list of days varies by country. It just seems like some crucial days are missing – and I’m not sure why Corpus Christi would be more important than Pentecost (say), or why the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) is less important than All Saints. I appreciate everyone helping me understand!

I would like to try and type a longer response when I have more time, but the short of it is:
Pentecost falls on a Sunday and all Sundays are days of obligation
At one time, very many of these days that you note were HDoO. The HDoO as you know, is twofold (1 attend Mass (2) abstain from servile work. The Church gradually decreased this number so as not to impose a burden upon the working faithful (of course, one can argue that the excessive pruning seen in some countries today is not desirable either)

 

[AJV]

I was mainly interested in why this list was chosen. Perhaps my assumption of these days being more important than others (thus obligatory) is wrong? It’s interesting to learn also that the list of days varies by country. It just seems like some crucial days are missing – and I’m not sure why Corpus Christi would be more important than Pentecost (say), or why the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) is less important than All Saints. I appreciate everyone helping me understand!

I would like to try and type a longer response when I have more time, but the short of it is:
Pentecost falls on a Sunday and all Sundays are days of obligation
At one time, very many of these days that you note were HDoO. The HDoO as you know, is twofold (1 attend Mass (2) abstain from servile work. The Church gradually decreased this number so as not to impose a burden upon the working faithful (of course, one can argue that the excessive pruning seen in some countries today is not desirable either)

Anyhow, as to the list:
Almost all the feasts with the rank of “solemnity” are Holy Days of Obligation. The ones that aren’t are either Sundays (on which they are then, by default) or these: the Sacred Heart, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and the Annunciation.

The Holy Days of Obligation are for the principal mysteries of the life of Christ, hence most of those which are not recalled on Sundays are HDoO.

For the Virgin Mary, her feast par excellence, from which derives all her privileges- the Mother of God - and the two principal mysteries of her life- her Conception and Assumption.

Ss. Peter and Paul because they are the patron saints of the Roman Church and, despite the fact that it is now spread over the whole globe, it is still Roman

St. Joseph because the last few Popes (relatively speaking) have emphasized his role as guardian of the Church and the family. I suppose it was either him or St. John the Baptist, and there is a greater devotion and symbol connected to him. Technically though, the Church has usually placed St. John the Baptist ahead of St. Joseph ** on account of him being the messenger, Christ’s words about him and the fact that he was born with sin.

And All Saints because that is a “one size fits all” day to venerate and recognize that we are part of the glorious communion.

I would argue that the Sacred Heart is not observed because it is an “idea” feast. So is Corpus Christi for that matter, but that recalls the mystery of the Eucharist which is the principal treasure of the Church, and also has a much longer and venerable history of being marked by solemnity. The Annunciation was actually removed by St. Pius X - I’m guessing that a possible reason mught be that if one wishes to curtail the number of days of obligation, the the Annunciation and the Nativity are on par with each other.

The Triduum (Holy Thursday to Saturday) was removed back in the 17th century. I suppose one reason for that was that the liturgy for these then were FAR longer than they are today. (Though IMHO, if you’re going to attend a long liturgy, I cant think of any days more appropriate). Another explanation that I’ve heard, is that the Church only solemnizes festal days with the obligation (attend Mass and abstain from servile work) not penitential days. HDoO are, to put it in a certain way, “second Sundays” and so are expressions of joy.

** the Church puts certain saints in a heirachy of precedence. First (of course!) comes the BVM. Then come the angels, St. John the Baptist, then St. Joseph, then the Apostles, then martyrs and so on. You can look at the Litany of Saints for an indication of this order.