Category: Liturgical Year

Although August 15 is the celebration of the Assumption of Mary, there is no obligation to attend Mass today in the United States. Among the complementary norms for the U.S. is the following:

Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15,
the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All
Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass
is abrogated [SOURCE].

Now, I’ve had some folks write in asking whether there is an obligation to rest today. You might think that, for the general law regarding holy day obligations reads as follows:

Can.  1247 On Sundays and other holy days of
obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.

Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and
affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the
Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body.

Since the complementary norm mentions the suspending of the obligation to attend Mass but not the obligation to abstain from certain works and affairs, you might conclude that the latter obligation is still in place.

Unfortunately, the situation is more complex than that. For a start, the canon is badly drafted. You’ll note that the canon refers to avoiding works and affairs that interfere with "the joy proper to the Lord’s day." Well, the Lord’s day is Sunday and Sunday only. Not other holy days. This raises a question of whether the second obligation specified in the canon is directed to Sundays or to all holy days.

The answer is that it does apply to other holy days; I’m just pointing out how sloppily the Church drafts its law on this subject so the reader will be put on guard against trying to read the law over-precisely when it comes to this stuff. The Church is painting with broad brush when it comes to the law on this topic. It hasn’t sat down and spelled matters out rigorously.

It’s really hard to imagine that the bishops would say "It’s asking too much to tell people they have to go to Mass on Monday when they just went on Sunday, but we will ask them to treat Monday just like Sunday in all other respects, with all the rest requirements that we haven’t preached on for forty years and when 99.44% of people are required by their employers to work on this day."

It’s not plausible that the bishops intended to put people into a multi-bind situation where they are NOT required to go to Mass BUT are required to rest EXCEPT for the fact that their employer requires them to work AND the people are almost totally unaware of the obligation to rest in the first place due to lack of preaching and knowing what the obligation even means in our culture. If it seems hard to you to imagine how you’d be expected to conduct yourself on such an overly complicated day, it’s for very good reasons and the same reasons suggest that that’s not what the bishops intended.

Thus it’s no surprise when one discovers that there is a recognition at the USCCB also that both
obligations are gone when August 15 falls on a Monday. The Bishops
Committee on Liturgy Newsletter simply says:

 

August 15 (the Assumption) is a day of obligation only when it falls on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday (35 Years of the BCL Newsletter, 1557).
 

It therefore appears that the most likely explanation for all this is that the U.S. bishops intend both obligations to be suspended when the day falls on a Monday (or a Saturday). They simply phrased themselves with customary sloppiness following the Vatican’s example.

At a minimum we have a doubt of law situation, and in that circumstance our old friend, Canon 14, kicks in to tell us:

Can. 14 Laws,
even invalidating and disqualifying ones, do not oblige when there is a doubt
about the law.

Bottom line, you don’t have to navigate the multi-bind kind of day mentioned above. Think about what God did for Mary and go to Mass if you want to, but don’t feel obligated to treat the day as a quasi-semi-maybe Sunday.
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Although August 15 is the celebration of the Assumption of Mary, there is no obligation to attend Mass today in the United States. Among the complementary norms for the U.S. is the following:

Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15,

the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All

Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass

is abrogated [SOURCE].

Now, I’ve had some folks write in asking whether there is an obligation to rest today. You might think that, for the general law regarding holy day obligations reads as follows:

Can.  1247 On Sundays and other holy days of

obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.

Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and

affairs which hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the

Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body.

Since the complementary norm mentions the suspending of the obligation to attend Mass but not the obligation to abstain from certain works and affairs, you might conclude that the latter obligation is still in place.

Unfortunately, the situation is more complex than that. For a start, the canon is badly drafted. You’ll note that the canon refers to avoiding works and affairs that interfere with "the joy proper to the Lord’s day." Well, the Lord’s day is Sunday and Sunday only. Not other holy days. This raises a question of whether the second obligation specified in the canon is directed to Sundays or to all holy days.

The answer is that it does apply to other holy days; I’m just pointing out how sloppily the Church drafts its law on this subject so the reader will be put on guard against trying to read the law over-precisely when it comes to this stuff. The Church is painting with broad brush when it comes to the law on this topic. It hasn’t sat down and spelled matters out rigorously.

It’s really hard to imagine that the bishops would say "It’s asking too much to tell people they have to go to Mass on Monday when they just went on Sunday, but we will ask them to treat Monday just like Sunday in all other respects, with all the rest requirements that we haven’t preached on for forty years and when 99.44% of people are required by their employers to work on this day."

It’s not plausible that the bishops intended to put people into a multi-bind situation where they are NOT required to go to Mass BUT are required to rest EXCEPT for the fact that their employer requires them to work AND the people are almost totally unaware of the obligation to rest in the first place due to lack of preaching and knowing what the obligation even means in our culture. If it seems hard to you to imagine how you’d be expected to conduct yourself on such an overly complicated day, it’s for very good reasons and the same reasons suggest that that’s not what the bishops intended.

Thus it’s no surprise when one discovers that there is a recognition at the USCCB also that both

obligations are gone when August 15 falls on a Monday. The Bishops

Committee on Liturgy Newsletter simply says:

 

August 15 (the Assumption) is a day of obligation only when it falls on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Sunday (35 Years of the BCL Newsletter, 1557).

 

It therefore appears that the most likely explanation for all this is that the U.S. bishops intend both obligations to be suspended when the day falls on a Monday (or a Saturday). They simply phrased themselves with customary sloppiness following the Vatican’s example.

At a minimum we have a doubt of law situation, and in that circumstance our old friend, Canon 14, kicks in to tell us:

Can. 14 Laws,

even invalidating and disqualifying ones, do not oblige when there is a doubt

about the law.

Bottom line, you don’t have to navigate the multi-bind kind of day mentioned above. Think about what God did for Mary and go to Mass if you want to, but don’t feel obligated to treat the day as a quasi-semi-maybe Sunday.
20

CNS is carrying the following story:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An international Vatican advisory board said the sooner new English translations of Mass prayers are ready the easier they will be for Catholics to accept. Members of the Vatican-appointed "Vox Clara" Committee, which advises the Vatican on English translations, said they share the concerns of bishops about how the new texts will be accepted by their faithful, but they also "expressed their conviction that this reception would be impeded by delays in a timely completion of the project." The committee met July 5-7 at the Vatican to review "various and recent draft translations" of the Latin edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 2002. The missal contains all the prayers and readings used for Mass in the Latin rite [SOURCE].

Today–June 1–is St. Justin Martyr’s day on the liturgical calendar.

This is special to me for several reasons:

• St. Justin Martyr is a main patron saint of apologists (myself being an apologist).
• He also was a philosopher (myself being a philosopher by training).
• St. Justin was a very early apologist, living in the second century.
• He also was native to the Middle East, being born in what is modern Nablus.
• Justin was, in his way, the greatest apologist of "the Age of the Apologists," when Christianity was struggling (not for the last time) with gaining intellectual respectability in an age hostile to it.
• He also gave his life for his faith, as the sobriquet "Martyr" tells you.
• He’s just a really cool guy, okay!

So I hope you’ll join me in celebrating his day.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ST. JUSTIN MARTYR.

AND MORE.

Or read his writings:

THE FIRST APOLOGY.

THE SECOND APOLOGY.

DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO THE JEW.

A reader writes:

It is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that the Ascension is celebrated today (Thursday) only in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and the New England states. Everywhere else in the U.S., the feast has been moved to this Sunday. How is a diocese able to move a holy day from Thursday to Sunday? And why the lack of uniformity across the entire church?

I can’t vouch for the geographical information you list. I know that here in California we have Ascension Thursday transferred to Sunday, but I don’t know about the practice in other provinces. I suggest checking your diocesan web site to see what the status is in your area.

Here’s the deal: The U.S. bishops got permission from the Vatican to move Ascension Thursday to a Sunday on a province by province basis.

Here’s the relevant complementary norm:

In accord with the provisions of canon 1246§2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states: "… the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See," the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States decrees that the Ecclesiastical Provinces of the United States may transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter according to the following procedure.

The decision of each Ecclesiastical Province to transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension is to be made by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the bishops of the respective Ecclesiastical Province. The decision of the Ecclesiastical Province should be communicated to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops [SOURCE, keep scrolling].

A reader writes:

It is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that the Ascension is celebrated today (Thursday) only in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and the New England states. Everywhere else in the U.S., the feast has been moved to this Sunday. How is a diocese able to move a holy day from Thursday to Sunday? And why the lack of uniformity across the entire church?

I can’t vouch for the geographical information you list. I know that here in California we have Ascension Thursday transferred to Sunday, but I don’t know about the practice in other provinces. I suggest checking your diocesan web site to see what the status is in your area.

Here’s the deal: The U.S. bishops got permission from the Vatican to move Ascension Thursday to a Sunday on a province by province basis.

Here’s the relevant complementary norm:

In accord with the provisions of canon 1246§2 of the Code of Canon Law, which states: "… the conference of bishops can abolish certain holy days of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday with prior approval of the Apostolic See," the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States decrees that the Ecclesiastical Provinces of the United States may transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter according to the following procedure.

The decision of each Ecclesiastical Province to transfer the Solemnity of the Ascension is to be made by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the bishops of the respective Ecclesiastical Province. The decision of the Ecclesiastical Province should be communicated to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops [SOURCE, keep scrolling].

No blogging today (by me at least) in commemoration of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

NO FURTHER BLOGGING TODAY (at least by me) IN COMMEMORATION OF OUR LORD’S CRUCIFIXION.

WHY IT IS CALLED "GOOD FRIDAY."

SUGGESTION: If you have The Passion of the Christ on DVD, you might want to watch it again today.

I’m not a baker so I can’t vouch for the recipe, but the accompanying picture of hot cross buns made the buns look yummy.  I couldn’t help but wince at this tidbit included with the article:

"Babka isn’t the only Easter bread.

"The season for hot cross buns usually begins the first day of Lent and lasts until Easter.

"The sweet yeast rolls, which often are flavored with dried fruits, originated in medieval England and commemorate Good Friday. A cross is slashed in the top of the bun, which is decorated with confectioners’ sugar icing after baking. In pagan times, the cross was said to ward off evil spirits, writes Sister Schubert in her cookbook ‘Secret Bread Recipes’ (Oxmoor House, 1996)."

The cross was said to ward off evil" in pagan times? Sigh. Written in such a sloppy manner, this gives the impression that Christ’s own cross was just the ultimate good-luck charm.  Perhaps this could have been re-written: "The cross, especially meaningful to Christians because Christ was put to death by crucifixion, is a shape used since pagan times in attempts to ward off evil."

Revised that way, the cross-shape that was perhaps used by ancient pagans in a superstitious manner becomes a prefigure of the Cross through which God’s work of salvation would definitively triumph over evil.