Abbey-Roads2

In this province, the feast of the Ascension has been transferred to Sunday - so today is not Ascension Thursday.  Although, the novena of preparation for Pentecost begins today.  The first novena ever, began with the Apostles and Our Lady, who spent 9 days in prayer preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  (This is where Catholic’s got the custom of praying novenas in preparation for a feast or to obtain a special grace - we didn’t just make it up.)

Though it may appear to be an insignificant matter, I think it is one more accommodation that contributes to the confusion experienced by the faithful and discourages “active participation in the liturgy” when Ascension Thursday turns into Ascension Sunday.  The liturgy is more than Mass, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the liturgy, to be sure; however, in its entirety, the liturgy encompasses the prayer of the Church in the canonical hours as well. 

Tradition has it that 40 days after Easter, Christ ascended to the Father in Heaven.  10 days later, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles - 50 days after Easter - thus completing the Paschal season.  It is the liturgical life of the Church that guides and informs our faith, switching key feast days around is confusing, not to mention that, in a manner of speaking, it departs from Vatican II’s emphasis on liturgical reform to encourage the faithful to a more active participation in the liturgy. 

So why are feast days transferred?  Especially in the United States?  Supposedly it is for pastoral reasons, to lift the undue burden of a holy day of obligation because modern life is so stressful and hectic.

However, if someone has tickets to a Billy Joel concert mid-week, they will probably leave work early, have an early dinner and get to the concert that night.  The same story if someone has tickets for a baseball game or some other event - or maybe they just want to dash off to the casino for a couple of hours.  In other words, we can make time for everything else in our lives, but getting to Mass on a holy day of obligation is an undue burden.

It seems to me the breakdown of tradition has led to this.  Little, by little, traditions fall by the wayside…and then we wonder why there is so much liturgical abuse in the post-Conciliar Church.  Everything becomes optional, out of a ”pastoral concern” - which sometimes seems more like misplaced charity so as not to inconvenience anyone.

(I’m not the only one protesting this - Mitchell at Stella Borealis has a post on the “other” reason for the switching of the feast day.  It’s just as bogus as the “pastoral concerns” that I posted here.)