Holy Days of Obligation

Holy days of obligation are feast days on which Catholics are required to attend Mass and to avoid (to the extent that they are able) servile work. The observance of Holy Days of Obligation is part of the Sunday Duty, the first of the Precepts of the Church.

Every Sunday is a Holy Day
Every Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is recognized as a holy day of obligation and Catholics are bound to participate in Mass on Sunday or at an anticipated Mass on Saturday in the late afternoon or evening.
+ Days of Obligation
in the dioceses of the United States of America
include all Sundays and the following Solemnities:

January 1     The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord: Mary, Mother of God
August 15   The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 1   All Saints
December 8     The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
December 25       The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Except for Immaculate Conception, all the above dates may occasionally fall on and be celebrated on a Sunday.

“SATURDAY-MONDAY RULE”
For the convenience of the faithful, whenever the following dates fall on a Saturday or a Monday the precept to attend Mass on those days is then abrogated:

January 1     The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord: Mary, Mother of God
August 15   The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 1     All Saints

The Solemnity is still celebrated, but the faithful’s obligation to attend Mass on that day is dropped.

This same allowance for convenience is not true for the other two holy days.

When either December 8 or December 25 fall on a Saturday or a Monday the faithful are obligated to attend the Mass for that day in addition to that of the Sunday which either precedes or follows it.

December 25   The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
- Christmas is always celebrated as such on any day of the week it falls.
- Christmas is always a holy day of obligation.
December 8 The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When December 8 falls on a Saturday or a Monday it is always observed as a holy day of obligation. (This is because the Blessed Virgin Mary under this title is the Patroness of the Dioceses of the United States.)

CHANGE FROM PAST PRACTICE:

At times, December 8 falls on a Sunday in Advent.

Because the Sundays of Advent rank higher, when this occurs the date of solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is necessarily transferred to Monday, December 9.

Previously in these situations—when the DATE of the Solemnity was transferred from the 8^th to the 9^th—the obligation to attend Mass on the 9^th was abrogated (eliminated). This abrogation is no longer true. Beginning in 2024 and into the future, Mass celebrated on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception will always be obligatory, regardless of which day of the week it falls—even if the celebration has necessarily been moved from December 8^th to December 9^th.

In this instance in 2024, if Mass is celebrated at 4:00 p.m. or later on Sunday the 8^th, Bishop Powers prefers that the texts from the holy day be used (both from the Roman Missal and from the Lectionary for Mass) in an anticipatory manner.

Please also keep in mind:
- When a Sunday and another holy day of obligation occur on two successive days attendance at a single Mass during the span of the two days does not fulfill the double obligation. Two distinct Masses must be attended within the two 24-hour periods, or separately anticipated.
- Back-to-back days of obligation may challenge our ability to provide the number of parish Masses usually expected.
Eliminating opportunities for Mass attendance on either day is problematic. Hopefully, though, cooperative dialogue between clustered parishes will consider the health and well-being of Priests along with the needs and expectations of parishioners.
- Minimally, though, there needs to be at least one Mass celebrated for each obligation within each parish cluster.
Celebration of the Solemnity of the Ascension in our Ecclesiastical Province (of Milwaukee)
- In 1999, our observance of the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord was transferred from the Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, which it replaces.
- This occurred in all U.S. Ecclesiastical Provinces except for those of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha and Philadelphia.