One of the Catholic vocab words that we are probably very familiar with is the term Holy Days of Obligation. These are days that we are obligated to attend Mass on. The first & primary Holy Day of Obligation is Sunday, but there are also 9 other Holy Days of Obligation throughout the liturgical calendar. These 9 Holy Days of Obligation are: the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God on January 1st, the Epiphany, the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19th., the Ascension, the Solemnity of Ss. Peter & Paul on June 29th, the Assumption, All Saints’ Day, the Immaculate Conception, & Christmas.

  Though these 9 are Holy Days for the universal Church, it is left up to each local Bishops’ Conference to drop the obligation from some of the days or transfer them to Sundays. So for example, here in the United States, the Solemnities of St. Joseph & Ss. Peter & Paul are not considered to be Holy Days of Obligation & in many Dioceses, the Solemnity of the Ascension is transferred to the 7th Sunday of Easter, while in some Dioceses & in many other parts of the world the Ascension is celebrated on a Thursday. The Epiphany is also always celebrated on a Sunday here in the U.S., so for us, of the original 9, there are 6 Holy Days of Obligation that we celebrate as Holy Days of Obligation.

  One other “twist” is that if the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Assumption, or All Saints’ Day fall on either a Saturday or a Monday the obligation to attend Mass is lifted. This year, November 1st, All Saints’ Day, is a Monday so, while we will still celebrate Mass on that day at each parish, it is not a Holy Day of Obligation. Since Fr. Clyde will be out of town that week (& I quite haven’t learned how to bilocate yet ;)) we will have a 9:00 am Mass at St. Patrick’s & a 6:30 pm Mass at St. Vincent De Paul. Also that week, while it isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation, All Souls’ Day is celebrated on November 2nd where we remember those who’ve gone before us. We will have a special All Souls’ Mass at St. Patrick’s on November 2nd @ 7:00 pm & a special All Souls’ Mass at St. Vincent de Paul on November 3rd @ 7:00 pm (please also note that there won’t be a morning Mass at either parish on November 3rd).

Have a Blessed week!