So from this discussion I conclude that this year the Annunciation
churchyear.net/annunciation.html does not involve abstinence.
It is March 25th
It is a Friday in Lent
It a Solemnity
[in the Lord of the Rings it is the day the Ring was destroyed and the world was saved from darkness]
On our Church calendar it is marked with a fish (abstinence) and the symbol is incorrectly applied… Correct?
In general, the best thing to do with questions of this nature is to consult with your own diocese:
“During the Lenten season, certain feasts occur which the liturgy or local custom traditionally exempts from the Lenten spirit of penance. The observance of these will continue to be set by local diocesan regulations; in these and like canonical questions which may arise in connection with these pastoral instructions, reference should be made to article VII of
Poenitemini and the usual norms.”
usccb.org/lent/2007/Penance_and_Abstinence.pdf
This is my reading of the rules, however:
In the general instructions for the liturgical year, days within the Octave of Easter, Ash Wednesday, the Sundays of Lent, and all the days of Holy Week (as examples) take precedence over Solemnities of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of saints listed in the general calendar, which in turn take precedence over weekdays of Lent. In cases when a solemnity is impeded by a liturgical day that takes precedence over it, the rules say that the solemnity should be transferred to the closest day that doesn’t pose an impediment for other reasons (i.e., has a liturgical rank that is too high).
IOW, since the Solemnity of the Annuciation, one of the Solemnities of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has the rank that it has, if it falls on a penitential day that takes precedence, it is transferred, not omitted for the year (as a feast day of a lower rank would be.) Whether or not it is transferred, the observance of this Solemnity takes precedence over the other observance for the day. As a Solemnity, it is observed beginning with vespers on the day preceding, provided again that the vespers of a day of higher rank does not take precedence.
The Solemnity of the Annuciation is transferred when it falls during Holy Week, for instance, but not when it merely falls on a Friday of Lent, as it does this year. I think the printer put the little fish on that day by mistake.
IMHO, it is nice, when the liturgical calendar removes fasting as an observance of a Friday, to substitute almsgiving and prayer, which are never inappropriate observances of even the greatest solemnity. If Christmas falls on a Friday, then, and turns that Friday from fast to feast, why not be all the more certain that you give that much more?
