It’s supposed to be exactly 40 days of fasting. That’s why Sundays are not counted in the 40 days and why Lent begins on a Wednesday.
It can’t be exactly 40 days - even without the Sundays (which as Constantine rightly pointed out are never fast days - East or West)…the solemn feasts of St. Josehp and of the Annunciation tend to fall during Lent…and those feasts are certainly NOT days of fasting.
says nothing about the readings. Or does it imply them with the “transfer” ? I haven’t read the authoritative Latin.
My OF parish had the same, my wife indicated that it was packed. I went to noon Mass yesterday at a parish near my work. The normal weekday crowd was there.My FSSP parish had an Ascension Thursday Mass yesterday evening. It was very well attended, I may add.
Must be all those disobedient people who don’t listen to their bishop when he tells them the feast has been transferred to Sunday.
There was nothing stopping anyone from attending Mass in the Ordinary Form, or any other form on Thursday.
This is because you “get something” at Ash Wednesday Mass, and people love getting stuff, even if it’s only ashes. The thing is, it happens once a year, so I think some people kind of get the idea that it’s more important than Communion just because of the rarity. As for Ascension Thursday, sure it might be a holy day in that diocese, but to people who don’t really know anything about their own religion, it’s just another Mass with different readings and there’s nothing special about it to them.The Archdiocese of Omaha is one of the handful that still have Ascension Thursday as an HDO. My fiancee and I met for Mass yesterday at noon. We went to the same parish at the same time for Ash Wednesday this year. I found it curious that the Ash Wednesday Mass (not an HDO) was packed, maybe standing room only while yesterday’s Mass was sparsely populated.
My daily parish had its normal Mass times but it was a longer Mass…celebrated as if it were a HDO …but in our diocese it has been transferred to Sunday…so I’ll get it twice:thumbsup:
But they “get something” at every Mass in the Eucharist. I know, something different. I see the same phenomenon with Palm Sunday every year. Mass attendance is the same throughout Lent and suddenly Palm Sunday is standing room only.
So the solution is to give something special out here and there. Perhaps we can have Bobblehead Sunday or something?
They were passing out roses on Mother’s Day.
I like that idea. We could start with bobbleheads for each of the Popes and then move on to the saints. Maybe also something like one lucky Mass attendee wins a relic? Of course, to make sure people stay for the duration of the Mass, these items would need to be handed out after Mass as you are leaving.
But it would have to be worth more then the opportunity to be the first one out of the parking lot…
With respect to your “feeling”, I call bs.I’m not talking about you personally bluecake, but I get the *feeling *that there are a whole bunch of people who rarely go to weekday Mass but are complaining that they were somehow cheated out of a weekday Mass. It’s like they complain that they were cheated out of an obligation to go to Mass which they wouldn’t have gone to anyway had they not been obligated…
Probably for the same reason we don’t complain that Septuagesima (70 days before), Sexagesima (60 days before) and Quinquagesima (50 days before) Sundays in the 62 calendar aren’t accurately set either.