Everyone older than 14 years of age is bound to observe the law of abstinence. Abstinence is to be observed on all Fridays within the season of Lent and on Ash Wednesday.
Years ago, when the Mass was in Latin (a language foreign to nearly every parishioner) it made sense to turn to private devotions during Mass to foster what you refer to as “spiritual communication” with the divine.
Canonically and theoretically, a Catholic funeral Mass may be offered on most Sundays during the year.
I suppose that a theological purist might say that there is no definitive church position on the ultimate fate of a miscarried child.
For my son’s 12th birthday, I took him to New York City, where we stayed in a Brooklyn rectory and did all the things a 12-year-old boy would naturally want to do in such a big place.
During the Eucharistic prayer, our diocese prays by name both for our current bishop and also for our retired bishop. Yet I have never heard our pope emeritus (Pope Benedict) mentioned during the Eucharistic prayer.
Here in Columbus, the solemnity of Mary (Jan. 1) is a holy day of obligation.
With so much of our lives concentrated on work, personal and family responsibilities, and the inevitable detours to our carefully planned calendars, the arrival of Sunday Mass can sometimes find us breathless and far from spiritually or otherwise prepared to deeply participate in the liturgy.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Just last year, Catholics were required to attend separate Masses two days in a row for the Sunday obligation and Monday’s Christmas Mass. Now, they have a similar opportunity this year with the feast of the Immaculate Conception falling on a Saturday — Dec. 8.
