ASCENSION....
What will you be doing on Thursday? I shall be doing what Catholics across Europe will be doing - attending Mass. True, our Bishops have announced that in England the Mass for Ascension Day is not to be celebrated on its proper day, but arbitrarily and bleakly switched to Sunday. But there is nothing to stop me - or you , or all your friends - attending Mass on what most of the rest of the world, and notably our nearest Catholic neighbours, will be enjoying as Ascension Day.
And no, I don't mean that you have to seek out a Tridentine Rite Mass and go there - though generally I'd be in favour of people going to that if they want to do so. But not on Thursday. That will only serve to let our Bishops claim that Ascension Day, or any other special and important feast-day, is now for people who have specific tastes, WHICH COMPLETELY MISSES THE POINT. The whole point is that we want to celebrate with the whole Church, with people in - for example - Poland and Germany, Switzerland and Spain (who even get a holiday from work on this day).
Go to Mass on Ascension Day - preferably at your nearest Cathedral. I'll be at mine. Pass the word, and join in. And while you're about it, mark your diary: June 7th, Feast of Corpus Christi.
14 comments:
Will be at a Tridentine Rite with my family...
Well if commentators as eminent as Mrs Bogle treat people who go to the old rite as a subdivision of the Church, heaven help us! People ought not to go to Mass to make some point, as you recommend (and admittedly as some trads unfortunately do). You ought to unequivocally encourage people to attend the OR this Thursday, as the only actual option left for those who uphold your convictions re holy days!
I am, thrilled to see an English Protestant, if not Anglican spirit on your site, go ahead, ignore the Bishops and decide for yourself. This is the true spirit of Vatican II and the Reformation.The view of the individual is of greater value than that of the Church. Bishops, what do they know about anything ?
Well done.
Interesting concept - that making a special effort to attend Mass can be construed as disobedience to our bishops.
Catholicus - I don't thing Auntie Joanna was suggesting that those who attend the Old Rite are a subdivision of the Church. Her point was, that will be how it will be spun by Ecclestone Square. The important thing is that cathedrals and churches are packed to the doors on Thursday, as a demonstration of exactly how unreasonable it is to expect people to make time for the Lord on a weekday.
I entirely agree with your sentiments about the removal of Ascension day to the Sunday. It is a sad departure and one which many of us regret. BUT this has been done in the Diocese of Rome for some years and what applies there once applied to the Church worldwide. Where do we go next?
Hear, hear Joanna. I am still very upset that the Catholicism lite brigade has robbed us of the chance to celebrate Ascension Day with the rest of world. They gave flimsy reasons that people don't go to Mass on holy days - they have obviously never been to certain churches in Liverpool and Manchester on holy days. If we followed their lordship's logic we woould pack up completely.
Rome is a conundrum; the diocese, with the rest of Italy, keeps Ascension day on the Sunday (it was part of an agreement with the Italian State about limiting the number of Public Holidays), however, the Vatican and its territorial dependencies in Rome keeps Ascension Thursday.
Perhaps the best thing is to remember to begin the Novena of the Holy Spirit (which is the primordial novena) on Thursday; and there is no better way to begin than by attending Mass.
The Archbishop Cormac Murphy OConnor has decreed that Ascension Day will be celebrated on Sunday. My husband and I love the Latin Rite and the Novus Ordo equally. We were initially sorry to see it move but accept what has been done. If he were to change Christmas day to a Sunday we would still accept it. Obedience comes first. All the Saints who have gone before us, in their wisdom will tell you that. No matter how good the cause it how much better you can or wish to do for the Church, one must accept it. Anyone who celebrates Ascension is completely wrong and way off base.
I'd already decided to do this: not as an act of defiance(I shall still go to mass on Sunday!), but because I am saddened that the English bishops at a time when asserting our Catholic identity is more & more important have diluted the distinctiveness of the feast of the Ascension by shifting it to Sunday for the benefit of the lukewarm tendency
I overheard an enquiry at Westminster Cathedral today as to whether tomorrow is a holyday of obligation or not - probaby by a tourist. I believe there will be more people at Mass tomorrow expecting the 40th Day after Easter (the Ascension of Our Lord)to be celebrated.
It's good to have the Italian experience of keeping the Ascension on Sunday clarified. Does anybody know how many other countries have moved the Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christi to Sunday rather than the customary dates? I believe the practice has been in force abroad for many years, especially in non-European countries. Speaking from personal experience I have noticed for many years how the numbers are thinning out on Holy Days of Obligation observed on weekdays. Some do not know what one is in the first place. Part of the sadness of the recent decision is that the distinctiveness of of solemnities will fade. I understand that in some countries the fasting and abstinence rules governing Ash Wednesday and Good Friday have also been abrogated by Bishops Conferences, Belgium and the Netherlands, for instance. We really are living in a fading landscape.
Nobody has pointed out how profoundly anti-ecumenical this move is. I've just been listening to the Ascension Day 'Thought for the Day' on Radio 4, and the local Church of England parish has a special service for their church school, yet for the Catholic children in the school next door to me it is just an ordinary day. The Synod of Whitby achieved a united observance of Easter in these islands, now our bishops have achieved a divided observance of the Ascension!
I did not alow them to deprive me of my (holy day) cooked breakfast. Was this 'disobedience' of which the saints would have disapproved? It certainly does not compare with St John Fisher's standing up to his episcopal conference or St Athanasius' defiance of the bishops of almost the whole world!
What a daft argument: attending the Tridentine Rite sends a stronger argument to the Bishops. The point anyway is that you cannot attend an Ascension Day liturgy today(which is what we should all be celebrating, as you say) in the Novus Ordo. This is why the Birmingham Oratory are having an Old Rite mass: my family and I are off to it just now. (I think you might want to reconsider your position on the Tridentine option.)
God bless,
Simon Stacey.
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