Whatever happened to celebrating feast days?

Catholic Register, 30 March 2017

Lent gives us two solemn feasts, St. Joseph and the Annunciation of the Lord. Both fell in the last weeks of March, and it is likely that a majority of Canadian parishes did not celebrate both of them; a great many likely celebrated neither.

Have Canadian pastors suddenly lost their piety? Hardly the case. But we have lost our liturgical culture. Central to any culture is how it thinks about time and the rhythms according to which common life is lived. Last week was a good example of how far a Catholic culture has eroded.

St. Joseph’s feast is usually March 19, but this year it fell on Lent Sunday, so the feast was transferred to Monday, March 20. In a great many parishes where only one priest is assigned, there is no Mass scheduled on Monday, given that it is the priest’s day off. I don’t begrudge that, but when the solemn feast of the patron saint of Canada — and patron of the universal Church — falls on a Monday, liturgical time should take priority, not the civic calendar. But I discovered even parishes named for St. Joseph skipped Mass on their own patronal feast!

Newman House ManagerMarch 30, 2017Catholic Register, Church Affairs, Liturgy, Canada