...and I went to Mass at the Church of the Precious Blood at London Bridge, where an Ordinariate group has its base. They join with the longstanding parish for the 11am Mass.
Like all RC parishes in England and Wales, we had the Mass for the Ascension today.
DEAR BISHOPS: PLEASE CAN WE HAVE OUR PROPER FEAST-DAYS BACK? It's so absurd. Everything feels muddled.
It is time to end this experiment of moving certain feast-days to the nearest Sunday. It has caused confusion, irritation, and annoyance without achieving anything.
Moving the feast days to the nearest Sunday is done presumably because there would be a much higher attendance on a Sunday. I share your dislike of this innovation but I could not say that there was no rationale for it.
ReplyDelete"DEAR BISHOPS: PLEASE CAN WE HAVE OUR PROPER FEAST-DAYS BACK?"
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree!
Irritating though this is to you in a local context, should you ever decide to live abroad you would find the same thing everywhere, including Italy. The Continent has transferred these feasts for years and there has been little,if any,murmer of dissent.
ReplyDeleteHear hear! Our deacon preached eloquently as always, and included a reference to the significance of 40 as a biblical number. I didn't notice if his tongue was in his cheek...
ReplyDeleteand here in America....
ReplyDelete...AND THE PURSUIT
Ascension Thursday's Sunday
Corpus Christi got the boot
And this year since it's Saturday
All Saints' Day will be moot.
'Cause Saturday's by Sunday
And Monday just won't scoot
And two days in a row for God
That's yielding too much fruit.
So if we play our cards right
Let money trump all suits
We'll end all militant Sundays
Obliging happy pursuits.
At our diocese in upstate New York, Assension Thursday was celebrated on THURSDAy. Yea!! (And the church was packed....)If the bishops see that they can even receive a monetary reward by being able to take up an extra collection on Holy Days if celebrated on the correct date, that would be appreciated by many Catholics here. By the way, today is Memorial Day (Decoration Day) here in the states. But of course that's just because it's a Monday. The 31st is the actual date!
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Bernadette as France still celebrates Ascension Day on the proper day - Thursday. It is a public holiday and because it falls on a Thursday they get Friday off as well. If it were to be changed there would be uproar at losing their long weekend.
ReplyDeletePlease - Bishops - can we have our Feast Days back. I am lucky enough to be in a Parish where the Priest is bi-ritual celebrating both forms so I was able to celebrate Ascension Day on the proper day but the majority are not. Even the Church of England has Ascension Thursday so the change put us out of step with their calendar too.