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Each church celebrates as a Solemnity its Feast of Title, and, if it is consecrated, the Anniversary of Dedication. These celebrations may, for pastoral reasons, be transferred to an ordinary Sunday or other suitable day. Holydays
of Obligation Eucharistic
Fast A priest who,
on the same day, celebrates the blessed Eucharist twice or three
times may consume something before the second or third celebration,
even though there is not an hour’s interval. (Canon 919.2) Reception
of the Eucharist a Second Time on the Same Day Fasting
and Abstinence 1. The new Code of Canon Law reminds us that all of Christ’s faithful are obliged to do penance. The obligation arises in imitation of Christ himself and in response to his call. During his life on earth, not least at the beginning of his public ministry, Our Lord undertook voluntary penance. He invited his followers to do the same. The penance he invited would be a participation in his own suffering, an expression of interior conversion and a form of reparation for sin. It would be a personal sacrifice made out of love for God and our neighbour. It follows that if we are to be true, as Christians, to the spirit of Christ, we must practise some form of penance. 2. So that all may be united with Christ and with one another in a common practice of penance, the Church sets aside certain penitential days. On these days the faithful are to devote themselves in a special way to prayer, self-denial and works of charity. Such days are not designed to confine or isolate penance but to intensify it in the life of the Christian right through the year. 3. Lent is the traditional season of renewal and repentance in Christ. The New Code reaffirms this. It also prescribes that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are to be observed as days of fast and abstinence. Fasting means that the amount of food we eat is considerably reduced. Abstinence means that we give up a particular kind of food or drink or form of amusement. Those over eighteen are bound by the law of fasting until the beginning of their sixtieth year, while all over fourteen are bound by the law of abstinence. Priests and parents are urged to foster the spirit and practice of penance among those too young to be the subjects of either law. 4. Because each Friday recalls the crucifixion of Our Lord, it too is set aside as a special penitential day. The Church does not prescribe, however, that fish must be eaten on Fridays. It never did. Abstinence always meant the giving up of meat rather than the eating of fish as a substitute. What the Church does require, according to the new Code, is that its members abstain on Fridays from meat or from some other food or that they perform some alternative work of penance laid down by the Bishops’ Conference. 5.
In accordance with the mind of the Universal Church, the Bishops
of England and Wales remind their people of the obligation of
Friday penance, and instruct them that it may be fulfilled in
one or more of the following ways: 6. The form of penance we adopt each Friday is a matter of personal choice and does not have to take the same form every Friday. Failure to undertake this penance on a particular Friday would not constitute a sin. However, penance is part of the life of every Christian and the intention to do penance on Friday is of obligation. We are confident that the faithful of England and Wales will take this obligation to heart in memory of the passion and death of Our Lord. Funeral
Mass Masses
for the Dead, Nuptial Masses, Ritual Masses, Masses and Prayers
for Various Needs and Occasions, Votive Masses Choice
of Eucharistic Prayer Fulfilment
of Obligation |
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