Holy Days of Obligation - What Obligation? What Holy Days?

As I understand it, the Vatican told the various Bishops’ Conferences that, while various Holy Days of Obligation could be moved to the nearest Sunday, or have the obligation to attend Mass on them suppressed “for pastoral reasons” (to be cynical, does that mean the “faithful” couldn’t be trusted to go to Mass on weekdays, since the bishops feared that even Sunday Mass-goers wouldn’t bother?), for some sort of largely symbolic reason – lest no Holy Days of Obligation remain, in which case it seems bizarre to have them mentioned in Canon Law at all – at least one solemnity of the Lord (i.e. Christmas) and one of Our Lady had to be retained as Holy Days of Obligation.

This thinking seems confused: if, out of fear for souls lest the lazy be damned for not going to a Mass on a weekday, all but two Holy Days of Obligation are either transferred or have the obligation suppressed, why then retain two? Even more confusingly, while the obligation to attend church on Good Friday was suppressed in the seventeenth century, it still remains far more well-attended than many a Sunday! Wouldn’t it be more rational to make Christmas and Good Friday the two remaining Holy Days of Obligation, since that is how what remains of popular piety regards them? After all, despite the importance of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, it is nowhere near as popular as those two days in terms of attendance at the Liturgy.

For the record, according to Canon Law (Can. 1246 §1) the following ten solemnities are the Holy Days of Obligation for the whole Roman Rite:

1. Christmas
2. Epiphany
3. Ascension
4. Corpus Christi
5. Mary Mother of God (the Octave Day of Christmas)
6. Immaculate Conception
7. Assumption
8. St Joseph
9. SS Peter and Paul
10. All Saints

In Australia, these three Holy Days, all solemnities of the Lord, have been transferred to the nearest Sunday, as provided for in Canon 1246 §2:

• Epiphany
• Ascension
• Corpus Christi

And the obligation to attend Mass has been suppressed for these five solemnities of Our Lady and the Saints, here in Australia (as also allowed for in Can. 1246 §2):

• Mary Mother of God (the Octave Day of Christmas)
• Immaculate Conception
• St Joseph
• SS Peter and Paul
• All Saints

Does not this send the dangerous message that devotion to the Saints is of little importance?

Here in Australia, therefore, Christmas and the Assumption as the only two Holy Days of Obligation remaining; just as, by a similar process of minimalization, not to say failure of nerve and dumbing-down, the days of fasting and abstinence also have been reduced to two: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (the minimum mandated by Canon Law – Can. 1251).

The bishops of England and Wales – not, as a body, known for their burning zeal in recent decades; so there is hope for us all – have restored the precept of abstaining from fleshmeat on all Fridays (excluding those falling on solemnities), which still is the norm throughout the Roman Church (Can. 1251), despite the perception in Australia, by those old enough to remember the former rule, that all that was abandoned as one of the “fruits” of Vatican II (the young, of course, have in many cases never even heard of it). It is wonderful to hear of bishops actually doing something for a change.

In recognizing the importance of reviving a custom that was once one of the universally known hallmarks of Catholic practice, the good bishops have imitated dear Fr Wells, a long-retired priest I remember from my university days, who told us at Mass one Sunday long ago that he had gone back to the discipline of meatless Fridays “Because I realized I was doing nothing instead”. It may be candidly admitted that few know, or care, that we are still meant to do some form of penance on Fridays – as usual, Paul VI’s efforts in that regard were singularly fruitless. Did he achieve anything?

If we are to start to rebuild, we need to restore disciplines – since the current drift into slackness and indifference simply indicates that Catholics have little commitment to anything, since they value the Faith so little. If we cared, if we actually believed, we would be willing to endure much. In the days of persecution, Catholics in England and Ireland stood firm in the face of adversity; these days, what firmness would be manifest? But I suppose if so few nominal Catholics even go to Sunday Mass, let alone bother with the occasional confession, let alone bother to get married before undertaking the marital act, let alone follow dear Paul VI's advice regarding that holy intimacy, well, no wonder even the bishops decided ditching a few more disciplines wouldn't matter.

In everything, we see the abandonment of the Catholic worldview, and a sort of play-acting in its place. We play children's games in the ruins.

The Penitential Psalms

If not abstaining from flesh-meat on Friday, then what? I have usually followed the advice of Paul VI to either give alms, or to pray. A redoubled focus on prayer on Friday is surely appropriate, given Our Lord's three hour agony on Calvary, when He himself prayed during His great self-offering as our High Priest and Sacrifice.

One sensible choice, then, would be to meditate on His Passion – as by reciting the Fifteen Oes of St Bridget (eminently pious prayers probably composed in mediæval England which ought be disentangled from the superstitious and unapproved promises too often linked with them under the pretext of their attribution to St Bridget of Sweden); or by praying with Our Lord Himself the Passion Psalms (Pss 21:1 to 30:6 inclusive), which mediæval authors conclude He meditated upon as He hung upon the Cross, given their first and last verses being among His Seven Last Words. So, too, attendance at Mass would unite one to the Passion of Christ (as celebrated by some, all too painfully – offer oneself up as a victim soul); as would, at a lesser level, the singing prayerfully of hymns in honour of the Passion, such as the Vexilla Regis.

But Friday is not merely the weekly commemoration of the suffering and death of the Son of God – it is moreover the time for the sons of men to smite their breasts (as once did the mocking crowd at Golgotha as shamefaced they stole away), realizing that it is our sins that impelled Jesus to shed His Blood to save us, and that we Christians who backslide do but recrucify Our Lord.

For this reason, the Penitential Psalms (beloved of St Augustine, who had them written out and affixed to the wall of his bedchamber as he lay dying during the Vandal siege of Hippo) are excellent passages to "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest". However, while praying all seven – Psalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129 and 142 – is the ideal, mayhap circumstances preclude this: what then? 

Now two of the Penitential Psalms are better known (or ought be) than the others: the Miserere (Psalm 50) and the De profundis (Psalm 129), which are par excellence  the psalm-prayers of penitence and for the souls in purgatory (where repentant sinners go, ere their penance be complete). I first came across these said together as a devotion in a Monastic Breviary, which prefixed certain verses of Psalm 2, and appended the Collect for Good Friday – the whole being appointed for use while taking the discipline (a practice never to be undertaken without permission of a prudent spiritual director, be it noted!).

Since I have a good memory – which is a real help in the matter of praying the Psalms and indeed of internalizing Scripture, in the hope it may melt the hard heart and engender virtue – I long since learnt those two Psalms by heart. I customarily add to the first the "Glory be" and some preces (threefold Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, versicles and a collect for forgiveness of sins), and to the second "Eternal rest" and some more preces (versicles and the collect Fidelium for the faithful departed). It strikes me that Our Lord prayed for sinners (the living dead) as He died, that they might truly live; and that the merits of His atonement extend to Purgatory also. For this reason, when – as often – I have not the Penitential Psalms easily to hand, I can at least pray these two thereof.

A calculation demonstrates that saying the Miserere and De profundis thrice each, with the usual prayers appended, equates to the whole Seven Penitential Psalms: which I take to be a reasonable and rational measure of suitable prayer for Friday penance. Usually I pray them according to the Vulgate text, but also in English sometimes (I know them in the Grail version, from using the modern Liturgy of the Hours for years), adding these customary preces in the Latin tongue:

Preces for Psalm 50 

(after concluding with the Gloria Patri)

Kyrie, eleison. R/. Christe, eleison. Kyrie, eleison.

Pater noster, (secreto) qui es in cælis: Sanctificetur nomen tuum: Adveniat regnum tuum: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie: Et dimitte nobis debitas nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

V/. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. R/. Sed libera nos a malo.

V/. Salvos fac servos tuos. R/. Deus meus, sperantes in te.

V/. Esto nobis, Domine, turris fortitudinis. R/. A facie inimici.

V/. Nihil proficiat inimicus in nobis. R/. Et filius iniquitatis non apponat nocere nobis.

V/. Domine, non secundum peccata nostra facias nobis. R/. Neque secundum iniquitates nostras retribuas nobis.

V/. Mitte nobis, Domine, auxilium de sancto. R/. Et de Sion tuere nos.

V/. Domine, exaudi orationem meam. R/. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

Oremus.

Or. Deus, cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere: suscipe deprecationem nostram; ut nos, et omnes famulos tuos, quos delictorum catena constringit, miseratio tuæ pietatis clementer absolvat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen.

Preces for Psalm 129 

(after concluding with Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis.)

V/. A porta inferi. R/. Érue, Dómine, ánimas eórum.

V/. Dómine, exáudi oratiónem meam. R/. Et clamor meus ad te véniat.

Orémus.

Or. Fidélium, Deus, ómnium cónditor et redémptor, animábus famulorum famularúmque tuárum remissiónem cunctórum tríbue peccatórum: ut indulgéntiam, quam semper optavérunt, piis supplicatiónibus consequántur. Qui vivis et regnas per omnia sæcula sæculorum. R/. Amen.

V/. Requiéscant in pace. R/. Amen.

Do I Do Penance or Not?

All men should do penance – myself not least.

Of course, Fridays not being solemnities are appointed days of penance by Holy Mother Church; and, in Australia, there is no obligation to fulfil this by abstaining from fleshmeat except on Good Friday (and also on Ash Wednesday), but some proportionate penance ought be done in order to fulfil this obligation.

That said, while on Friday I normally avoid eating meat in order thus to do an acceptable, traditionally hallowed penance of abstinence from flesh, but sometimes instead I spend some time in prayer – for a long time, I tended to say the Penitential Psalms for this purpose – if for whatever reason meat appears on the menu.

Now, in the more particular of the present case, do I or do I not need to do Friday penance this Friday?  Because, in the Office I pray, to-day is Ember Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, and is a first-class feast; but, as I have no 1962 Mass to attend, if I did go to church to-day it would be just a Friday in Ordinary Time (horrid term!).

As it is, while walking down to town earlier I used my new iPhone (free advertisement for Apple, please note – and yes, I use Apple for all my computing needs) to read Matins and Lauds according to the Roman Rite via Divinum Officium, that excellent website. Perhaps I'll say a bit more...  Hmmm, perhaps a Missa sicca... (I remember myself and a seminarian friend, years ago, who wickedly emailed our long-suffering theology lecturer to invite her to a pretend Dry Mass, complete with elevation of a "relic", actually an animal-bone: don't worry, it was all in good fun.)

It seems to me that I do follow the Extraordinary Form, so does that suffice to prove I'm not bound by the law of Friday penance to-day?