Votive Masses and the LOTH

[Razanir]

So I know there are votive Masses that can be offered on ferial days and, I think, optional memorials. Is there a similar rule for the LOTH? Like can you pray any of the commons if there’s nothing else going on that day?

Specifically, my college’s Newman Center is finishing construction on the new church this fall. If the dedication occurs on an open day, am I allowed to pray the Common of the Dedication of a Church? And if so, what parts do I use from the Common?

 

[OraLabora]

So I know there are votive Masses that can be offered on ferial days and, I think, optional memorials. Is there a similar rule for the LOTH? Like can you pray any of the commons if there’s nothing else going on that day?

Specifically, my college’s Newman Center is finishing construction on the new church this fall. If the dedication occurs on an open day, am I allowed to pray the Common of the Dedication of a Church? And if so, what parts do I use from the Common?

In short, yes as long as the hierarchy of celebrations is respected. From the General Instructions:

Option to Choose an Office

1. On weekdays when an optional memorial is permitted, for a good reason the office of a saint listed on that day in the Roman Martyrology, or in an approved appendix to it, may be celebrated in the same way as other memorials (see nos. 234-239).

1. For a public cause or out of devotion, except on solemnities, the Sundays of the seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, the octave of Easter, and 2 November, a votive office may be celebrated, in whole or in part: for example, on the occasion of a pilgrimage, a local feast, or the external solemnity of a saint.

 

[Razanir]

So I know that means it’s a yes to the Common. But how much of it would I pray? Memorial? Feast? (Oh, and I know it’s private recitation so it doesn’t matter as much, but I’d still like to get things right)

 

[OraLabora]

So I know that means it’s a yes to the Common. But how much of it would I pray? Memorial? Feast? (Oh, and I know it’s private recitation so it doesn’t matter as much, but I’d still like to get things right)

If it’s a celebration common to the area you live in, celebrate it as would the parish or diocese. For a saint from the martyrology but not on the calendar, as a memorial.