Holy Day of Obligation

[Athanasias]

Happy feast of Mary mother of God in the ordinary form,

And Happy Feast of the Circumcision of Christ in the Extraordinary form!

 

[All4Christ]

Blessed feast!

(What does ordinary and extraordinary form mean?)

 

[Athanasias]

Blessed feast!

(What does ordinary and extraordinary form mean?)

Thank you! Good question!

Ordinary means the order of Mass currently we have in the Roman rite that is in the vernacular.

Extraordinary means the older form or Latin Mass that has a different liturgical calendar and is beautiful and yet very different. Many Young folks are going to it.

 

[All4Christ]

On January 1st, we (Orthodox Christians on the New Calendar) celebrate the Circumcision of Christ and commemorate St Basil the Great

Our human form hast Thou taken on Thyself without change, O greatly-compassionate Master, though being God by nature; fulfilling the Law, Thou willingly receivest circumcision in the flesh, that Thou mightest end the shadow and roll away the veil of our sinful passions. Glory be to Thy goodness unto us. Glory be to Thy compassion. Glory, O Word, to Thine inexpressible condescension.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Thank you! Good question!

Ordinary means the order of Mass currently we have in the Roman rite that is in the vernacular.

Extraordinary means the older form or Latin Mass that has a different liturgical calendar and is beautiful and yet very different. Many Young folks are going to it.

Interesting.

I think I heard reference to Ordinary and Extraordinary time. I got the impression it shifted within a parish and I thought maybe it was a function of the liturgical year.

So essentially you have two different liturgical cycles with different feasts going on at the same time? I may still be confused.


Blessed feast(s) to you!


We are commemorating the Circumcision (and St. Basil the Great) this evening/tomorrow.

 

[Shane R]

It is a quiet two week period on my Ordo Calendar. There is the Circumcision of Christ on the 1st, Epiphany on the 6th, the commemoration of Blessed William Laud on the 10th, and the feast day of St. Hilary of Poitiers on the 14th (St. Hilary's feast is usually the 13th but the Archbishop habitually transfers lesser feasts to the following day if they fall on a Sunday).

 

[Athanasias]

Interesting.

I think I heard reference to Ordinary and Extraordinary time. I got the impression it shifted within a parish and I thought maybe it was a function of the liturgical year.

So essentially you have two different liturgical cycles with different feasts going on at the same time? I may still be confused.


Blessed feast(s) to you!


We are commemorating the Circumcision (and St. Basil the Great) this evening/tomorrow.

Yes you got it! Happy Feast of the Circumcision to you too!

 

[Paidiske]

Interesting.

I think I heard reference to Ordinary and Extraordinary time. I got the impression it shifted within a parish and I thought maybe it was a function of the liturgical year.

There is ordinary time which is different in meaning from this again (which is, I think, what you're referring to). "Ordinary time" in this sense is the Sundays which fall outside the two great liturgical cycles of the year (Advent-Nativity-Epiphany and Lent-Easter-Pentecost). It is so called because the weeks are counted (The 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc Sunday after Epiphany or after Pentecost) and the term has its roots in the Latin for being counted or numbered.

That is completely different to the ordinary or extraordinary form of the calendar.

Confused yet?

 

[Athanasias]

There is ordinary time which is different in meaning from this again (which is, I think, what you're referring to). "Ordinary time" in this sense is the Sundays which fall outside the two great liturgical cycles of the year (Advent-Nativity-Epiphany and Lent-Easter-Pentecost). It is so called because the weeks are counted (The 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc Sunday after Epiphany or after Pentecost) and the term has its roots in the Latin for being counted or numbered.

That is completely different to the ordinary or extraordinary form of the calendar.

Confused yet?

Well put! Thank you!

 

[~Anastasia~]

There is ordinary time which is different in meaning from this again (which is, I think, what you're referring to). "Ordinary time" in this sense is the Sundays which fall outside the two great liturgical cycles of the year (Advent-Nativity-Epiphany and Lent-Easter-Pentecost). It is so called because the weeks are counted (The 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc Sunday after Epiphany or after Pentecost) and the term has its roots in the Latin for being counted or numbered.

That is completely different to the ordinary or extraordinary form of the calendar.

Confused yet?

I think I have remained so!

We have a pretty complex lectionary too which I haven't completely figured out how to calculate because I haven't needed to - it's all done for me. But knowing the Gospel readings, the Epistle readings, the Saints to be commemorated, the proper hymns, and verses, for each service, is something that takes many books to bring it all together. I know our Gospel readings are based off the Sundays in relation to Pascha, and the Saints are simply the yearly calendar. But getting it all to fit and figuring out how they relate is beyond me as I haven't really studied it.

It doesn't surprise me then that others would have complex systems either. I was curious once to understand a "for Dummies" version of how we all compare in our liturgical cycles, but I never got a basic enough understanding of how any of us work.

Yes, I'm confused lol. And not just by the terminology.

 

[dzheremi]

The lay Copts' "for dummies" version of our calendar (i.e., what I and everyone else I know follows):

Q: Are we fasting?
A (usually): Yes.

or

Q: Are we fasting?
A: No. We are somewhere in the holy 50 days of the Resurrection.

The end.

 

[All4Christ]

The lay Copts' "for dummies" version of our calendar (i.e., what I and everyone else I know follows):

Q: Are we fasting?
A (usually): Yes.

or

Q: Are we fasting?
A: No. We are somewhere in the holy 50 days of the Resurrection.

The end.

Is your fast similar in requirements to the EO fast?

 

[dzheremi]

I would assume so, though we do not have anything like your cheesefare week, and we allow oil for cooking purposes so long as it is used only moderately and not animal-based. (Ful would be pretty inedible without it, and that's what a lot of people eat during the fasts, obviously without the eggs that you see in the picture in that article unless it's during a non-fasting time.)

 

[All4Christ]

I would assume so, though we do not have anything like your cheesefare week, and we allow oil for cooking purposes so long as it is used only moderately and not animal-based. (Ful would be pretty inedible without it, and that's what a lot of people eat during the fasts, obviously without the eggs that you see in the picture in that article unless it's during a non-fasting time.)

That looks like it could taste pretty good!

 

[dzheremi]

It's pretty good, yeah. I'm sad I'm not around Egyptians anymore at the moment, because it sure beats the heck out of anything I could make.

 

[dzheremi]

More on topic question for the OP: that it is a holy day of obligation basically means that you are required to attend mass that day, right? Like you're in trouble if you don't go unless you have some serious reason (e.g., illness, death, chased by a bear in the woods...something on that level)?

That's how I understood it when I was RC, but as that time fades I'm getting a bit shaky on the particulars. What if anything happens if you don't attend on those days? And how many are there in the year?

 

[Athanasias]

More on topic question for the OP: that it is a holy day of obligation basically means that you are required to attend mass that day, right? Like you're in trouble if you don't go unless you have some serious reason (e.g., illness, have to watch or take care of a sick person, death, chased by a bear in the woods...something on that level)?

That's how I understood it when I was RC, but as that time fades I'm getting a bit shaky on the particulars. What if anything happens if you don't attend on those days? And how many are there in the year?

Yes you are correct. It is a mortal sin to miss any holy days of obligation unless you have some serious (e.g., illness, death, taking care of a sick person, chased by a bear in the woods or other wise restricted somehow). This includes all sundays and about 6 extra days a year like Christmas, The Assumption of Mary, The Ascension of Christ, Immaculate Conception of Mary, Feast of the Holy Theotokos, All Saints day.

If you refused to go then you put your soul into mortal danger. Its basically easy to understand. The Church gives us the Liturgy as dress rehearsal for heaven in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist Jesus just wants us to receive him and to give us more and more of himself and unite us to his Passion and resurrection and to develop a relationship with us and with all of heaven. If we freely say no thank you understanding what that means then, God will honor our free will and we will not have to be with him(provided we do not repent).

 

[dzheremi]

Would that be the same for your Eastern Catholic compatriots? I'm assuming they probably don't have the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on their calendars unless they are particularly Latinized, so I'm wondering how/if they could maintain the same requirement, or if the theology of their mother churches influences how they handle this sort of situation.

More generally I'm asking because the OO don't have and to the best of my knowledge from asking priests have never had anything like this; a long-absent person would need to prepare and to confess before communing, of course (same as anyone), but it is my understanding that -- especially in a historical context, but also in some sense currently -- being able to attend liturgy regularly was by no means guaranteed, and hence we couldn't enforce something like that, because what if _____ (stuff that actually did/does happen: the church building gets blown up, or taken over by non-Orthodox or non-Christians, or the road to the church/monastery is infested with terrorists as we have seen recently with regard to the route to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, etc.)? I'm wondering if maybe the rules might be a bit different in some hot spots where there are a lot of Catholics in regions that are embroiled in religious civil war, like the Islam-dominated north of Nigeria, where churches do get attacked.

I'm not sure how to phrase this, but it seems like having this kind of rule is a luxury that probably a lot of your brethren would love to be able to abide by.

 

[Athanasias]

Would that be the same for your Eastern Catholic compatriots? I'm assuming they probably don't have the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on their calendars unless they are particularly Latinized, so I'm wondering how/if they could maintain the same requirement, or if the theology of their mother churches influences how they handle this sort of situation.

More generally I'm asking because the OO don't have and to the best of my knowledge from asking priests have never had anything like this; a long-absent person would need to prepare and to confess before communing, of course (same as anyone), but it is my understanding that -- especially in a historical context, but also in some sense currently -- being able to attend liturgy regularly was by no means guaranteed, and hence we couldn't enforce something like that, because what if _____ (stuff that actually did/does happen: the church building gets blown up, or taken over by non-Orthodox or non-Christians, or the road to the church/monastery is infested with terrorists as we have seen recently with regard to the route to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, etc.)? I'm wondering if maybe the rules might be a bit different in some hot spots where there are a lot of Catholics in regions that are embroiled in religious civil war, like the Islam-dominated north of Nigeria, where churches do get attacked.


I'm not sure how to phrase this, but it seems like having this kind of rule is a luxury that probably a lot of your brethren would love to be able to abide by.

In principle yes the eastern Catholics would hold that all Sundays and holy days are obligated for them. They may have different holy days and a different calendar then the west does. They may not have the IC on their calendar(I am not really sure) but instead may celebrate the conception of Mary in St. Anns Womb which was the precursor to the IC. But in principle do hold to the IC.

 

[dzheremi]

I see. Thank you.