Epiphany

[HallamPhil]

I heard that they wanted to remove the sense obligation and replace it with a deeper sense of celebration.

[mcb]

I would rather celebrate feasts on their correct days.

I'm glad so many are moved to Sundays. I can think of very few occasions, in very few churches, when a weekday 'holy day of obligation' has been celebrated with the care and richness it deserves. My prototypical recollection is of the usual mumbled weekday Mass with a small gathering of the usual diehards, happy to get it over with quickly. Now instead we routinely celebrate the feast as it deserves, because there's a large gathering of people and the will, the energy and the time to make something special out of it.

[John Ainslie]

From a pastoral angle, mcb has a good point. I cannot remember the Epiphany being celebrated on a weekday with half the numbers or festivity that a full church could (and did) muster yesterday. I have no problem with Corpus Christi being moved to a Sunday in Ordinary Time, but I have to say that the Ascension's transfer does get up my nose...

What has not been considered, apparently, is the loss of the readings from the superseded Sundays, notably the Gospels. Now that the Second Sunday of Christmas has disappeared from our calendar, and unless you were present (and attentive) at a late morning Mass on Christmas Day (or attend weekday Mass on December 31), you will never hear the incomparable prologue of St John's Gospel proclaimed, for centuries the 'Last Gospel' at all Masses. The same goes for John chapter 17, read in three sections over three years on the erstwhile 7th Sunday after Easter - still on the weekdays of that week but now never on a Sunday.

[MaryR]

I would rather celebrate feasts on their correct days.

I'm glad so many are moved to Sundays.

I'm not sure I agree. It seems to me that the church has taken the easy option here, in transferring the feasts to Sundays, instead of investing time and effort in educating and reminding the people of the importance of such celebrations, and encouraging them to attend. I agree that feasts falling on week days seem less splendid than a Sunday celebration, but that's because the choir, the altar boys and other ministers aren't told how important it is for them to be there. Once again, there is failure to communicate, inform and, indeed, form our lay ministers and the laity in general. It seems to me a complete cop out to simply move the feast to the day when a better turn out is guaranteed.

As an aside, due to a big reshuffle in our parish (one choir has just retired and the other is trying to sort out how to cover more masses), there was no music at any of our Masses yesterday. I was at the 10 o'clock Mass and the whole 'celebration' felt impoverished without music. Our parish priest took the opportunity to point out to the assembly how much music adds to our worship - something only really appreciated when it's missing. I hope we can ensure that never happens again on a feast day.

[JW]

Doc, I had missed the obvious, thanks for clarifying that!

I think its worth remarking that the 1962 calendar is in itself a major reform of what went previously: Here is how we would have been celebrating the 1st 6 days of January in 1954, only the Epiphany remains in the 1962 calendar:

January 1: The Circumcision (I seem to remember this was a Holyday of Obligation?)
January 2 (or Sunday between Jan 2 and 6): The Holy Name of Jesus, also Octave of St Stephen
January 3: Octave of St John
January 4: Octave of the Holy Innocents
January 5: Vigil of the Epiphany
January 6: Epiphany

[Nick Baty]

January 1: The Circumcision (I seem to remember this was a Holyday of Obligation?)

We should have it back. When else can you sing verse 2 of All in the morning?:
"It was on New Year's Day
And all in the morning,
They circumcised our Saviour
And our Heavenly King
And was not this a joyful thing..."

And such a jolly tune too!

[nazard]

Well, the epiphany has come and gone, and I took advantage of the quirk in the calendars to celebrate it twice. I found that whereas Sunday felt very much like a Sunday, yesterday felt very special. I recommend that, come Ascension Day, you all give it a try.

[Nick Baty]

Were you celebrating it twice or was the second time merely the Fifth of the Epiphany?

[nazard]

A moot point that. As I remember, and I don't have a copy to check, the Bishop's announcement a few years back said that the feast would be kept (or perhaps celebrated) on a nearby Sunday, but they didn't say that the feast would actually be the Sunday. I did wonder why they were a bit woolly about that.

For those who can't face the tridentine mass, it was possible to celebrate the Epiphany with the new mass yesterday by going to Prinknash Abbey near Gloucester. I don't know what Benedictines and other orders did generally. Nick's enigma, or perhaps it should be Baty's paradox, would still apply. Or perhaps we generally celebrated the -fifth of the Epiphany.

[Nick Baty]

Am I right in remembering the Epiphany as movable long before other feasts were cut free?

[FrGareth]

Since JW mentions the Holy Name, I wonder how forum readers celebrated Jan 3 this year?

In the absence of any clear directive, I assumed that the Mass should be the Votive Mass of the Holy Name with the preface of Epiphany and the readings of the 3 Jan (post-Epiphany). For the Divine Office I borrowed the collect from the Mass to use as the closing prayer, with an obvious choice of hymn being At the Name of Jesus. The Breviary lacks a "Common of Our Lord" - the restored Holy Name observance being unique as a mystery of Our Lord which does not rank at least as high as a feast, with its own proper texts.

Presumably the new Missal will provide for the Mass - but not clarify the texts desirable at the Divine Office.

FrG