Solemnities, Feasts, Holy days, etc

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KarenElissa

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Can someone please explain the difference between solemnities, feast, holy days, and all of that. Which are most important? Which are always celebrated and which are optional? Which parts of Mass are used for which ones? Which ones have special things in the LOTH?
 
KarenElissa said:
Can someone please explain the difference between solemnities, feast, holy days, and all of that. Which are most important? Which are always celebrated and which are optional? Which parts of Mass are used for which ones? Which ones have special things in the LOTH?
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The most important day is a Holy Day of Obligation, you are required to attend Mass on that day. If you dont attend, it will count as a mortal sin. Here is a list of Holy Days:
January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God;
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension;
August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary;
November 1, the solemnity of All Saints;
December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception;
December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Also, everyone Sunday you are required to attend Mass.
Here’s what the Code of Canon Law says about Holy Days:

*Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass; they are also to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body.

Canon 1248
  1. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.
  2. If because of lack of a sacred minister or for other grave cause participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the liturgy of the word if it is celebrated in the parish church or in another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families. *
The next important day is a Solemnity, it is not as important as a Holy Day of Obligation and you are not required to go to Mass on a Solemnity. There are several Solemnities throughout the Church Year.

The next important day is called a Feast Day or sometimes called a Memorial Day. It is a special dayset aside in the Church Year to remember important people such as saints and events through the course of the Catholic faith from the time of Mary’s birth all the way through today. The calendar of saints has been changed throughout Church history to remove saints so that others may be celebrated also. There are many feast days throughout the Church Liturgical Year. Almost every day of the month has a special saint of the day. For a list of all Solemnities, Feast Days & Memorial Days go to this website: cwo.com/~pentrack/catholic/romcal.html

Also, the final day is called a Feria (Latin for “free day”). A Feria is a day of the Liturgical Year on which there are no set Saints to honor.

God Bless! +
 
Ok, it is becoming clearer, but more questions… 😃

What is the difference between feasts and memorials? In the link from music, some were feasts and others memorials. And then some had a Saint assigned to them, but weren’t listed as anything. Do those days have a name?

Also, so what does all of this mean for Mass? I know on Friday we had three readings instead of the usual two for weekday Masses, I assume this always happens on Solemnities? (and Holy Days of Obligation?) Does it happen on any other days? Which days to we use the Gloria? The Creed? On which days do the priest’s vestments change?

Thanks! 😃
 
musicmantg11 said:
The most important day is a Holy Day of Obligation, you are required to attend Mass on that day. If you dont attend, it will count as a mortal sin. Here is a list of Holy Days:
January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God;
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension;
August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary;
November 1, the solemnity of All Saints;
December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception;
December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Also, everyone Sunday you are required to attend Mass.
Here’s what the Code of Canon Law says about Holy Days:

*Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass; they are also to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body.

Canon 1248
  1. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.
  2. If because of lack of a sacred minister or for other grave cause participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the liturgy of the word if it is celebrated in the parish church or in another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families. *
The next important day is a Solemnity, it is not as important as a Holy Day of Obligation and you are not required to go to Mass on a Solemnity. There are several Solemnities throughout the Church Year.

The next important day is called a Feast Day or sometimes called a Memorial Day. It is a special dayset aside in the Church Year to remember important people such as saints and events through the course of the Catholic faith from the time of Mary’s birth all the way through today. The calendar of saints has been changed throughout Church history to remove saints so that others may be celebrated also. There are many feast days throughout the Church Liturgical Year. Almost every day of the month has a special saint of the day. For a list of all Solemnities, Feast Days & Memorial Days go to this website: cwo.com/~pentrack/catholic/romcal.html

Also, the final day is called a Feria (Latin for “free day”). A Feria is a day of the Liturgical Year on which there are no set Saints to honor.

God Bless! +
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Bear in mind not all of those are HDOs in all countries, some of them such as the Ascension, can be changed to the following Sunday and are in different dioceses.

In terms of the priest ‘changing their vestments’ (I presume you mean the colour of them) ordinarily you should only see one of two colours on a feast, solemnity, holy day or memorial. The first and most common is white, which can be replaced by gold or silver, or possibly blue in the case of days pertaining to Our Lady. The other is red, used on feasts of martyr saints, Pentecost and perhaps one or two others such as Good Friday and Sacred Heart perhaps (but don’t quote me - I’ve honestly never paid that much attention).

Green is only for ‘ordinary’ time (ie days with no special feast or solemnity attached) and purple/violet for Lent and Advent and funerals (unless, again, there’s some special feast or solemnity). There are two Sundays of the year (fourth Sunday of Lent and third Sunday of Advent) where priests can choose to wear rose (never call it pink!) instead of the purple/violet.

Memorials, IIRC, are optional commemorations of saints or what have you, as opposed to feast which are obligatory. Obviously there are saints, and other things such as titles of Our Lady, commemorated on each and every day of the year, priests aren’t obligated to celebrate each and every one of them but are given the option to do so on some days.
 
KarenElissa said:
Ok, it is becoming clearer, but more questions… 😃
(snip) On which days do the priest’s vestments change?Thanks! 😃
Click to expand...
In the calendar, each saint and day is assigned a “rank”. The reason for this is due to the overlapping of cycles.
  • The fixed cycle: The church has a fixed cycle consisting of feasts that fall on the same calendar day every year- e.g. Aug 15 is Assumption, Dec 25 is Christmas, Jan 1 is the Mother of God, December 7 is St. Ambrose and so on.
  • the moveable cycle: this consists of both a few feasts and days in particular seasons. So for example, feasts like Easter, Pentecost, Ascension, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart and so forth. The seasons like Eastertide and Lent are also moveable.
Because these two cycles overlap, we need to know which day to observe liturgically. For e.g. if St. X coincides with Easter, what do we do? For this reason we have ranks for feasts.
  • “Solemnity” is the highest rank given to only the most special feasts of Jesus, Mary and the saints. Solemnities are distinguished liturgically in many small ways- for example, you can say the Gloria as you do for Sunday Mass. They also begin the evening before. Some solemnities include Christmas, Assumption, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, and the feast of the patron saint of your church.
  • “Feasts” is the term given to the feasts that the Church wishes to highlight but which are not so important as “Solemnities”. Examples are things like the Birthday of the BVM (Sept 8) or the Holy Cross (Sept 14).
  • “Memorial” is the term given to all other saints days and feasts. It can be either “obligatory” which means the saint must be celebrated on that day, or it can be “optional” - you can choose whether you want to celebrate it or not.
On some calendars, the Optional Memorial is indicated by the saint’s name written in italics
  • “Feria” - a feria is a weekday on which, usually, no saints’ days are observed. Thus, sometimes people might say “the feriae of Lent”- they are talking about weekdays in Lent. “Feriae” in the weekdays of Advent, Lent and Easter have their own special Mass. “Feriae” in Ordinary Time do not have a special Mass but have special readings from the lectionary.
  • “Commemoration” is remembering one feast/day while celebrating another, when two feasts/days overlap.
e.g. In this past Lent, some saints had their feast days. Because Lent is a penitential time, the church gives the option of whether to celebrate the feasts- expressions of joy- or not. When we do observe them, they are “commemorated”. What this means is that though the Mass may be of the day in Lent, we remember the saint by saying his Opening Prayer (Collect). In the Divine Office, we add an antiphon and prayer at the end to remember the saint.

Commemorations are allowed only in Lent, and from Dec 17-24. At all other times, when two days/feasts coincide, we celebrate one and omit the other. If the one to be omitted has the rank of “Solemnity” we do not omit it, but transfer it to another day.

Solemnities and Sundays have 3 readings (and psalm)
All other days have 2 readings (and psalm.
The readings for the saints depend on their rank -
Solemnities - Proper or Common
Feasts - Proper or Common
Other saints (memorials) - Proper, Ferial or Common

Proper means a special reading is given for that Mass.
Common means the reading is taken from the general ‘class’ of the saint. There is a Common of the BV Mary, a Common of Pastors, a Common of Virgins, a Common of Men Saints, etc.

Ferial refers to the lectionary reading for that day e.g. Thursday in Week 3 of Ordinary Time. Every day in the liturgical year has 2 readigns and a psalm assigned ot them

For Memorials, it is encouraged that if there isn’t a special reading, the priest choose the ferial reading. This is because the ferial readings follow a sequence, so the idea is not to disturb that as much as possible. But if the priest wants he can choose a reading form the appropriate Common.

There are other types of Masses as well. Votive Masses, Ritual Masses, Masses for various needs and Masses of the Dead. You can read about them here. The GIRM actually covers most of your questions. (see “The choice of Mass and its parts”). For the colour of the vestments see number 346 here
 
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