Solemnities, Feasts, Memorials
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Solemnities, Feasts, Memorials
ROME, 8 OCT. 2008 (ZENIT)
Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: We as Catholics commonly use the word "feast" to cover everything from church feasts of various saints and the Blessed Mother, to Corpus Christi, etc. We also understand that there are three kinds of feasts/celebrations: memorial, feast, solemnity. Could you kindly elaborate on these three categories? Also, why is Corpus Christi not a holy day of obligation? — R.D., Enderamulla, Sri Lanka
A: Effectively we use the word "feast" to cover all levels of celebration, even though the word also has a precise technical meaning in the hierarchy of celebrations. There is no great difficulty in this, as the context usually clarifies whether we are speaking technically or in general.
The three basic classes are those mentioned by our reader, although memorials are often divided up into obligatory and optional. There are some other means of classifying the celebrations which give different numbers and categories. For example, if one classifies on the basis of which Masses may be celebrated on a given day, one comes up with seven groupings of celebrations.
The difference between the three basic categories resides in their importance, which in turn is reflected in the presence or absence of different liturgical elements.
Solemnities are the highest degree and are usually reserved for the most important mysteries of faith. These include Easter, Pentecost and the Immaculate Conception; the principal titles of Our Lord, such as King and Sacred Heart; and celebrations that honor some saints of particular importance in salvation history, such as Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. John the Baptist on his day of birth.
Solemnities have the same basic elements as a Sunday: three readings, prayer of the faithful, the Creed and the Gloria which is recited even when the solemnity occurs during Advent or Lent. It also has proper prayer formulas exclusive to the day: entrance antiphon, opening prayer, prayer over the gifts, Communion antiphon, and prayer after Communion. In most cases it also has a particular preface.
Some solemnities are also holy days of obligation, but these vary from country to country.
A solemnity is celebrated if it falls on a Sunday of ordinary time or Christmastide. But it is usually transferred to the following Monday if it falls on a Sunday of Advent, Lent or Easter, or during Holy Week or the Easter octave.
A feast honors a mystery or title of the Lord, of Our Lady, or of saints of particular importance (such as the apostles and Evangelists) and some of historical importance such as the deacon St. Lawrence.
The feast usually has some proper prayers but has only two readings plus the Gloria. Feasts of the Lord, such as the Transfiguration and Exaltation of the Holy Cross, unlike other feasts, are celebrated when they fall on a Sunday. On such occasions they have three readings, the Gloria and the Creed.
A memorial is usually of saints but may also celebrate some aspect of the Lord or of Mary. Examples include the optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus or the obligatory memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
From the point of view of the liturgical elements there is no difference between the optional and obligatory memorial. The memorial has at least a proper opening prayer and may have proper readings suitable for the saint being celebrated. The readings of the day may be used, and the lectionary recommends against an excessive use of specific readings for the saints so as not to interrupt too much the continuous cycle of daily readings.
On the other hand, the specific readings should always be used for certain saints, above all those specifically mentioned in the readings themselves, such as Martha, Mary Magdalene and Barnabas.
During Lent and Advent from Dec. 17 to 24 memorials may be celebrated only as commemorations. That is, only the opening prayer of the saint is used and all the rest comes from the day.
Nov. 2, All Souls' Day, is something of a special class that, without being a solemnity, still has precedence over a Sunday.
It is also important to note that the same celebration may have a different classification in various geographical areas, as some celebrations and saints are venerated more in one place than in another. For example, St. Benedict, an obligatory memorial in the universal calendar, is a feast in Europe since he is one of its patrons. But he rates a solemnity in the diocese and abbey of Montecassino where he is buried.
Finally, the decision on whether a solemnity such as the Body and Blood of the Lord is a holy day of obligation falls primarily upon the bishops' conference, which decides based on the pastoral reality of each country. Some have maintained the traditional Thursday celebration and kept it as a holy day; others might have maintained the day but without the obligation. Many have preferred to transfer the celebration to the following Sunday so as to ensure its celebration with the greatest number of faithful.
The Vatican, for example, continues the traditional Thursday celebration and thus the Holy Father's procession with the Blessed Sacrament is held on that day. The Diocese of Rome, however, along with the rest of Italy, celebrates it on the following Sunday.
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Follow-up: Solemnities, Feasts, Memorials [10-21-2008]
Our Oct. 8 column on solemnities, memorials and feasts brings to mind a question from a priest based in Oregon. He asked: "[Jan. 3] is listed in the Ordo as an 'optional memorial' of the Holy Name of Jesus and it says that this feast was recently introduced into the Sacramentary. I should like to have offered that Mass, but have no approved texts for it. Is there some source where I could have found such a text (e.g., a Website)? There are similar celebrations throughout the year, some of them even mandatory memorials for which no texts are readily available."
The difficulty of some new celebrations with no corresponding proper texts is a temporary one that should be resolved within a few years.
The cause of this difficulty is that Pope John Paul II, on the occasion of the publication of the new Latin missal, took the initiative to add some new celebrations or restore some older ones that had been dropped from the old calendar. Among these restored celebrations were the Holy Name of Jesus and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Even after the publication of the missal, he added one or two more saints to the universal calendar such as St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
The problem arises because, although they already form part of the calendar, the proper texts of some of them have yet to receive an officially approved rendering into English. There is a certain degree of logic to this situation. Since the translation of the entire missal is currently under review, it makes sense to do everything as part of a single project even though it means that these feasts will not have proper texts for another couple of years.
Some bishops' conferences have taken a different approach. For example, the Italian bishops have produced an elegant but economic supplement containing a translation of all the new texts with the same typeset as the altar missal. It is thus possible to celebrate these memorials in Italian even though the definitive Italian translation of the missal is still in the pipeline. I don’t know if any English-speaking conference has done something similar.
An Italian-language Website called maranatha.it contains most of these texts online. This site also has large portions of other sacramental rites and blessings and little by little is including the Latin texts of the missals of John XXIII and Paul VI. I am unaware of an English-speaking site that has the translations of these new liturgical texts, and it is likely that their publication would infringe on legitimate copyright.
Therefore, what to do? For some feasts such as the Holy Name of Jesus there appears to be little to do but wait for the definitive translation of the missal.
The new saints can be celebrated using texts from the common of the saints: Martyrs, Pastors, Virgins, etc., as best fits the saint in question.
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