Holy Days

As per the “2007 Catholic Almanac”   

• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the following six solemnities would be observed as holy days of obligations in the Untied States: Solemnity of Mary Mother of God (Jan 1); the Ascension of the Lord (Thursday of the 5th week of Easter); Assumption of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, Aug. 15; All Saints (Nov 1); the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8); and the Nativity of the Lord, or Christmas (Dec 25).  The precept to attend Mass is abrogated in the USA. Whenever the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary or All Saints falls on a Sunday or Monday.

Yearly obligations:

Confession, all Catholics who have made their first confession go to confession if they are aware of having committed a serious sin in the course of the year.

Holy Communion; You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season. This obligation applies to all Catholics who have made their first Communion, and in the United Sates the Easter season extends from the Sunday of Lent until Trinity Sunday.

We need help from other countries and conferences to share their decisions on holy days of obligations.

• For England and Wales go to:

http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/liturgy/Calendar/Sunday/OT2Solemnities.html

In England and Wales there are seven Holy Days of Obligation:

Epiphany (Jan 6)
Ascension (Thursday of the 5th week of Easter)
Body & Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Thursday after Trinity
Saints Peter & Paul (June 29)
Assumption of Our Lady (Aug 15)
All Saints (Nov 1)
Nativity of the Lord (Dec 25)

If Epiphany, Peter & Paul, Assumption or All Saints fall on a Saturday or Monday, they are moved to the nearest Sunday.

Travelers wish.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have made this wonderfully indispensable website possible and available. It's a great tool for those of us who don't use vacations and travel for excuses not to attend Mass. My only disappointment so far was when I was in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, January 1st, 2003, and there was no Holy Day Mass at the church I had directions to. A couple of days later in the San Francisco area, I went to confession. The parish priest there told me that for the Arch-Diocese of San Fran New Year's day was not a Holy Day. I could only assume that it was the same for Oklahoma City, and I realize that it would be virtually impossible for you to have that information available.