Feast days of saints in the Catholic Church are ranked in accordance with their importance. In the current ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked (in descending order of importance) as solemnities, feasts or memorials.
Pope Paul VI in 1969 divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials". Commemorations were abolished both as a rank of liturgical day and as the addition of a second presidential prayers after the day's Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Prayer after Communion at Mass.
While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for that day. This allows priests more flexibility in their celebration of mass, since they are now permitted to choose between the memorial masses of saints on most days of the year.
Solemnity: This is the highest ranking type of feast day. It commemorates an event in the life of Jesus or Mary, or celebrates a Saint important to the whole Church or the local community, for example; January first each year, the Nigerian Church celebrate the solemnity of Mary Queen of Nigeria.
The Mass of a solemnity has proper readings and prayers, the Gloria and Creed are recited, and occasionally there will be use of incense, a processional hymn and procession, and a recessional hymn/recession. Outside of Advent, Lent and Eastertide, a solemnity falling on a Sunday is celebrated in place of the Sunday.
Solemnities are closely related to Holy Days of Obligation, because all Holy Days of Obligation are also Solemnities - however, not all Solemnities are Holy Days of Obligation, for example, The Nativity of the Lord Jesus (Christmas), is a Solemnity which is always a Holy Day of Obligation, whereas the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is usually not a Holy Day of Obligation. Also, in certain locales certain days which are celebrated as feasts or memorials in most of the Church are celebrated as Solemnities, for example, St. Patrick's Day is a Solemnity in Ireland, but is normally a Memorial for the rest of the Church; Our Lady of Sorrows is a Solemnity in Slovakia whereas it is a Memorial in all other places.
Feast; The rank of secondary liturgical days including lesser events in the life of Jesus, Mary or an Apostle (theologically speaking) or for major saints. The Gloria is recited but not the Creed, and there are proper readings and prayers for the feast. Example of such feast is that of saints Lawrence and Jude (AP).
Memorial; The celebration of a saint of lesser importance. Many memorials are optional or only observed in specific dioceses, regions or nations.
Seasonal Weekdaya weekday in a "strong" liturgical season (Advent, Christmastide, Lent, or Eastertide, on which no solemnity, feast, or memorial is observed.
Rev Fr Lawrence Sdv
Pope Paul VI in 1969 divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials". Commemorations were abolished both as a rank of liturgical day and as the addition of a second presidential prayers after the day's Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Prayer after Communion at Mass.
While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for that day. This allows priests more flexibility in their celebration of mass, since they are now permitted to choose between the memorial masses of saints on most days of the year.
Solemnity: This is the highest ranking type of feast day. It commemorates an event in the life of Jesus or Mary, or celebrates a Saint important to the whole Church or the local community, for example; January first each year, the Nigerian Church celebrate the solemnity of Mary Queen of Nigeria.
The Mass of a solemnity has proper readings and prayers, the Gloria and Creed are recited, and occasionally there will be use of incense, a processional hymn and procession, and a recessional hymn/recession. Outside of Advent, Lent and Eastertide, a solemnity falling on a Sunday is celebrated in place of the Sunday.
Solemnities are closely related to Holy Days of Obligation, because all Holy Days of Obligation are also Solemnities - however, not all Solemnities are Holy Days of Obligation, for example, The Nativity of the Lord Jesus (Christmas), is a Solemnity which is always a Holy Day of Obligation, whereas the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is usually not a Holy Day of Obligation. Also, in certain locales certain days which are celebrated as feasts or memorials in most of the Church are celebrated as Solemnities, for example, St. Patrick's Day is a Solemnity in Ireland, but is normally a Memorial for the rest of the Church; Our Lady of Sorrows is a Solemnity in Slovakia whereas it is a Memorial in all other places.
Feast; The rank of secondary liturgical days including lesser events in the life of Jesus, Mary or an Apostle (theologically speaking) or for major saints. The Gloria is recited but not the Creed, and there are proper readings and prayers for the feast. Example of such feast is that of saints Lawrence and Jude (AP).
Memorial; The celebration of a saint of lesser importance. Many memorials are optional or only observed in specific dioceses, regions or nations.
Seasonal Weekdaya weekday in a "strong" liturgical season (Advent, Christmastide, Lent, or Eastertide, on which no solemnity, feast, or memorial is observed.
Rev Fr Lawrence Sdv
Comments
Post a Comment