Adoring the Blessed Sacrament
It’s no secret that the Holy Eucharist, or the bread and wine that become Jesus’s body and blood, is central to Catholicism. Other terms for the Holy Eucharist are the consecrated Host and the Blessed Sacrament. To understand what adoring the Blessed Sacrament is all about, you first need to understand Catholicism’s perspective on the Holy Eucharist. So we’re going to take a roundabout way of getting to the tradition itself. Bear with us.
Catholicism has three perspectives on the Holy Eucharist (you can read even more about it in Chapters 8 and 10):
- Sacrifice: The same sacrifice of Jesus’s death on the cross for the remission of sins occurs during Mass at the Consecration in the form of the Holy Eucharist. The Consecration is the moment during Mass when the bread and wine are changed into the real body and blood of Christ. This is called a sacrifice because Jesus, the Son of God, is being offered by the priest to God the Father.
- Sacred banquet: After the Consecration of the Mass, the faithful walk up to the altar to receive the Holy Eucharist. Entering a person’s body, soul, mind, and heart all at once, Jesus — really, truly, and substantially — in the Holy Eucharist is placed on the tongue or in the hand. This is called a sacred banquet because the Holy Eucharist is food and nourishment for the soul.
- Real Presence: Catholics believe that the Holy Eucharist is Christ Himself — His real, true body and blood, soul and divinity, and substantial presence under the appearances of bread and wine. Some Christian religions regard it as a symbolic, spiritual, or moral presence, but Catholic Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy staunchly hold to His Real Presence in the Eucharist. So the Holy Eucharist warrants the same adoration and worship given only to God. This sacrament is called the Blessed Sacrament because of all the seven sacraments, this one not only gives divine grace but is also God Himself.
When you’re adoring the Blessed Sacrament, you have the opportunity to just worship the Real Presence and do nothing else. At Mass, the emphasis is on the sacrifice and the sacred meal (actually consuming the wine and bread), but simply adoring the Holy Eucharist outside of Mass is a time to just focus on Jesus. You can do this by celebrating Benediction (see the next section), or observing a holy hour.
The Eucharist should never be exposed at home. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can take place only in a church, a chapel, or an oratory, but adoration and Benediction can’t take place during Mass.
Participating in Benediction
A formal service, Benediction takes place while adoring the Blessed Sacrament and can occur only if a priest or a deacon leads it. Many parishes have Benediction once a month, perhaps on the First Friday of the month, or maybe weekly on a Sunday afternoon or evening. There doesn’t need to be a special occasion for Benediction, but it’s never allowed during Mass or during other devotions, such as the Stations of the Cross (see Chapter 16).
Sacred Scripture is read, a homily may be preached, the Rosary may be said, and silent prayer is offered. At the end, the priest, his shoulders enveloped in a special stole called a humeral veil, blesses the faithful kneeling in attendance, making the sign of the cross, with Jesus exposed in the monstrance.
During Mass, a priest wears a chasuble, a colored outer garment, but during Benediction, the priest wears the humeral veil over a cope, the gold or white full-length liturgical cape worn for Eucharistic devotions. By covering his hands with the humeral veil, the priest or deacon symbolizes that the blessing being given isn’t his own as a sacred and ordained minister (as at the end of Mass), but the blessing of Christ Himself present in the Holy Eucharist contained in the monstrance.
Bells are normally rung three times as the blessing is given with the Blessed Sacrament. Candles surround the monstrance that holds the Blessed Sacrament resting on the altar. That same Blessed Sacrament is incensed: As a sign that the people are now in the presence of divinity, incense is burned in a container and waved in front of the monstrance. Benediction also consists of the singing of certain hymns (often in Latin) and litanies, such as the Divine Praises, that follow:
Blessed be God.
Blessed be his holy name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the name of Jesus.
Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.
Adoring at church during Perpetual Adoration or the 40-hour devotion
The Holy Eucharist is placed in an ornamental vessel called a monstrance (see Figure 19-1) and left on the altar for public adoration and worship. Catholics consider it a great privilege and blessing to be able to adore the Blessed Sacrament, and we recommend spending a holy hour in front of the Eucharist each week so you can privately and publicly pray and express your faith. Holy hour is the perfect chance to say prayers, such as the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet, silently in the company of Jesus.
Some parishes offer adoration 24/7, which is called Perpetual Adoration. Some other churches offer 40-hour devotion. The 40 hours in the term 40-hour devotion refer to the number of hours that the faithful believe Jesus was absent from the world. The period of time from his death on Good Friday at around 3 p.m. to his Resurrection on Easter morning at about 7 a.m. is 40 hours. These traditional three days — from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday evening — are when many Catholic parishes display the Blessed Sacrament in a gold monstrance on the altar. Displaying the Holy Eucharist is meant to promote adoration and worship of Jesus in his hidden but Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
The 40-hour devotion usually begins after the last Mass on Sunday. Usually, a consecrated host from that Mass is placed in the monstrance and put in the center of the altar after the faithful have received Holy Communion. The priest says the final prayer, but no final blessing is given and no closing hymn is sung. The priest, deacon, and altar servers kneel down before the Blessed Sacrament, and incense is burned (as Psalm 141 says, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee”). Six candles, three on each side, are traditionally placed to the left and right of the monstrance. Parishioners come and go throughout the day to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more, just praying before the Blessed Sacrament on the altar. This amount of time represents the request that Jesus made during his agony in the Garden of Olives: Before His Crucifixion and death on Good Friday, he asked, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” (Mark 26:40).
The goal is to have the church open all night and all day for 40 continuous hours to represent the time that Jesus spent in the grave. But this goal can be met only if safety and security needs are met to protect the church and any faithful making a visit (the same goes for Perpetual Adoration). Parishioners sign up to commit themselves for an hour or half-hour around the clock, never leaving Jesus unattended. Getting that many people to make such a commitment is easier in a large parish of a thousand families than in a small parish of, say, only 200 families. Some pastors ask different Catholic organizations within the parish, such as the Knights of Columbus, the Council of Catholic Women, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Parish Council, to commit their members for time slots. And some have asked ushers, extraordinary ministers (laypersons who assist the priest with Holy Communion at Mass), altar servers, and so on, to take turns.
Today, many parishes are forced to repose the Blessed Sacrament (put the Holy Eucharist back into the tabernacle) each evening of the 40-hour devotion after a prayer service — usually a combination of Vespers (evening prayer that includes the Psalms and other Scripture readings) and a sermon from a visiting priest or deacon. Then the Blessed Sacrament is exposed again after morning Mass on the next day. It doesn’t add up to 40 hours, but the traditional three days are still a part of the process.
On the final evening, after the prayers and sermon, the pastor, priests, deacons, religious sisters, and first communicants engage in a procession before the Blessed Sacrament around the church. They march in front of the monstrance in the Roman tradition of having the most important person at the end of the line — in this case, Jesus Himself. The act of processing reminds the faithful of the joyful procession of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. It also symbolizes the return entrance of the same Son of God at the end of time when the Second Coming of Christ will take place. Finally, the pomp and pageantry of processing with the singing of hymns, the burning of incense, and the solemnity of the moment also reaffirm the belief that this is no mere wafer of bread being paraded around. Rather, it is believed to be the actual and real body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. When the Blessed Sacrament passes the faithful kneeling in the pews, they bless themselves with the sign of the cross. They kneel in adoration of their Lord and God present in the monstrance.
Following the elaborate procession outside around the church or inside around the four inner walls and through the aisles of the church, the priest or deacon places the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance back on the altar and incenses it again. Benediction then follows. (See the “Participating in Benediction” section, earlier in this chapter.)
Meatless Fridays
Another Catholic tradition is abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent. Practicing abstinence or abstaining, in the general sense, means voluntarily doing without food, drink, or some other pleasure. But for Catholics, it’s a specified requirement: Catholics must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, every Friday of Lent, and Good Friday, and fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Here are the specifics:
- Abstaining: Abstaining from meat means refraining from eating all meat if you’re at least 14 years old. Yep, chicken is still meat. You can eat fish and any non-meat product, such as fruits, vegetables, pasta, and so on. Only the flesh meat of warm-blooded animals is off limits on days of abstinence.
- Fasting: If you’re required to fast, you can eat only one full meal for the whole day plus two small meals that cannot equal the main meal when combined. Snacking isn’t allowed. Fasting applies only to Catholics who are 18 through 59 years old. (See Chapter 11 for more on the laws of fasting and abstinence.)
The tradition of abstaining
According to an urban legend, the pope, cardinals, and bishops initiated abstinence from meat on Friday to promote the pope’s fishing business. Nah! That legend has no foundation in fact. St. Peter, the first pope, was a fisherman, and Jesus said to the apostles, “I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Yet subsequent popes have had no financial or economic interest in the fishing business despite this bizarre rumor.
The meatless Friday tradition goes back to the first century, when Christians abstained from eating meat on Fridays to honor Jesus’s death on the cross on Good Friday. Because Jesus sacrificed His flesh for the salvation of humankind, the flesh of warm-blooded animals wasn’t consumed on Friday.
The practice of abstaining from certain foods and fasting actually goes back to Old Testament times. The Bible says that God told the Hebrews through Moses how to prepare for celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Although fasting isn’t mentioned, the Bible does say for this day, “You shall afflict yourselves” (Leviticus 16:31; 23:27–32; Numbers 29:7), and from antiquity, rabbis have interpreted this to mean fasting. The New Testament also mentions the practice, saying “It has been seemed good to the Holy Spirit … to abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled” (Acts 15:28–29).
Before Vatican II (see Chapter 10), Catholics weren’t allowed to eat meat on any Friday of the year, and they also had to fast all the weekdays of Lent. But sick people, pregnant or nursing mothers, and those who worked in hard labor jobs, as well as those in the military during wartime, were dispensed. Going back even farther into Catholic history, Catholics weren’t allowed to eat meat, eggs, cheese, or dairy products all during Lent. Since Vatican II, however, the obligation is to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, every Friday of Lent, and Good Friday, and to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Even though the U.S. bishops received a dispensation (relaxation of a rule for legitimate reasons) from Rome to refrain from abstinence on every Friday and not just during Lent, Catholics are strongly encouraged to do some form of penance, mortification, work of charity, or exercises of piety on all Fridays outside of Lent — to show respect and honor for the Lord. This isn’t often mentioned when the revised rules are explained, but it’s mentioned in canons 1252–1253 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Recently, many bishops and pastors have been suggesting that Catholics abstain from meat on every Friday of the year in reparation for the sin of abortion and to pray for the defense of the sanctity of human life in all its stages and conditions.
Substituting Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy for abstinence
One of the ways for Catholics to replace abstinence on every Friday outside of Lent is by performing one of the Corporal or Spiritual Works of Mercy.
The seven Corporal Works of Mercy, based on Christ’s sermon on the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:35–36), are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead.
In contrast to the Corporal Works of Mercy, which attend to a person’s physical needs, the seven Spiritual Works of Mercy respond to a person’s spiritual needs: admonishing the sinner, instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries, and praying for the living and the dead.
Using Sacramentals
Catholics love to have priests or deacons bless some of their personal belongings — their homes, cars, or pets. More often, however, Catholics ask priests to bless a personal and tangible religious item — their rosary, medal, statue, Bible, and so on. Any article of devotion or something integral to human life and activity can be blessed, but that doesn’t mean it becomes a lucky charm. The priestly blessing is merely a way of showing gratitude to God for his divine grace and putting these blessed items under His watchful care.
For example, if you see an outdoor statue of Mary in the front or back yard of a Catholic home, chances are it has been blessed. It’s not magic and does nothing to help the grass grow. It’s just a gentle reminder of Mary, the Mother of God, and of Catholic affection for her.
Any time a priest or deacon blesses a religious article, such as a rosary, statue, or medal of one of the saints, he makes the sign of the cross with his right hand over the object(s) and sprinkles holy water on it after saying the prayers of blessing. After a priest, bishop, or deacon blesses such an object, it becomes a sacramental, which means that when it’s used in conjunction with prayer, it invokes God’s blessing. (By the way, holy water is a sacramental, too. Water that’s been blessed by a priest, bishop, or deacon is then holy water, the most common sacramental, and it’s used every day by Catholics around the world.)
Blessed objects — rosary beads, scapulars, medals, statues, icons, bibles, crosses, and crucifixes — are sacramentals. Almost anything can be blessed, but the Catholic who possesses the blessed item can’t sell it or use it except in a holy manner.
Sacramentals aren’t good luck charms, talismans, or magic objects. For Catholics, they’re merely reminders of the supernatural gifts God gives — such as grace, which is invisible. These visible and tangible sacramentals remind Catholics of all that the senses can’t perceive.
The word sacramental also refers to the blessing or ritual in which a sacramental object is used. For example, in an upcoming section, we note that an exorcism is a sacramental (as are the blessed objects — holy water and salt — used during the exorcism).
Don’t confuse sacramentals with the seven sacraments. Sacramentals may be used in the course of administering and receiving a sacrament, but sacramentals do not refer to the seven sacraments: Baptism, Penance, Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and the Anointing of the Sick. We’re talking apples and oranges. Christ instituted the seven sacraments (see Chapters 8 and 9) Himself, and they’re unchangeable and permanent. Sacramentals, on the other hand, were created by the Church and can therefore be changed or revised. New ones can be made and old ones suppressed.
Catholic Funerals
Like all Christian religions, Catholicism believes Jesus rose from the dead and that He will come back at the end of the world to raise all the dead from the grave. This is the reason why Catholics bury their dead. When a Catholic dies, there are special ceremonies called the Order of Christian Funerals.
“By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity” (Ad resurgendum cum Christo, 2016).
Jesus’s death and burial were followed by His Resurrection. Christians believe what Saint Paul says in his epistle, that as we die with Christ, so shall we live with Him. Jesus’s body was more than a resuscitated corpse. It was a glorified body that could never die, never feel pain, never be in want or need. When the resurrection of the dead takes place, the virtuous souls in heaven will have their glorified bodies reunited with their souls for eternity while the damned in hell will suffer torment in both body and soul for all time. (See Chapter 2 for more on the resurrection of the dead.)
This is why the Church prefers and highly encourages the faithful to bury the dead whole and intact rather than having the bodies cremated. Nevertheless, cremation is tolerated as long as it is evident that the deceased did not deny the resurrection or believe in some unorthodox notions like reincarnation.
If someone for economic or public health reasons requests to be cremated, they can still have a Catholic Funeral Mass, but the ashes must be kept in an enclosed container and buried in sacred ground (cemetery). Scattering the ashes is never permitted, nor are cremated remains to be kept at home on the mantel or portions placed in personal jewelry.
For more on Funeral Mass, refer to Chapter 7 of Catholic Mass for Dummies (Wiley, 2011).
Signifying death with ashes
Marking the beginning of Lent, this tradition is a poignant reminder that our bodies will die someday and turn to dust. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is said at the cemetery when the body is ready for burial, so ashes on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, remind us of our mortality and the need for repentance. They’re a physical religious reminder similar to holy water and palms on Palm Sunday. The words spoken as the ashes are imposed on the forehead are “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19).
Commemorating with blessed palms
Blessed palm leaves, distributed to the congregation at Mass on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, commemorate the palms the crowd threw at the feet of Jesus as he processed through Jerusalem (Mark 11:1–11). Interestingly, in the Byzantine tradition, they use pussy willows rather than palms, merely because it was too difficult (if not impossible) to get palms in cold regions, such as Russia and Eastern Europe, in the old days before UPS and Federal Express.
Receiving the blessing of throats
On the Feast of St. Blaise (February 3), Catholics may walk up the aisle to have their throats blessed after Mass. The priest holds two blessed candles in criss-cross fashion around the throat of each individual, while praying, “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, may you be delivered from every ailment of the throat and from every other evil, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Both the blessed candles and the blessing itself are sacramentals.
St. Blaise, a bishop and martyr of the fourth century, was a physician before becoming a priest and then a bishop. During a resurgence of Roman persecutions, a small boy, choking on a fish bone, was brought to St. Blaise, who was awaiting a martyr’s death in prison. Because no one knew the Heimlich maneuver back then, praying was all that could be done. After St. Blaise blessed the boy, the fish bone popped out of his mouth miraculously, and the boy’s life was saved.
Exorcising demons
Authentic demonic possession is quite rare. Demonic possession is mentioned several times in the New Testament, telling the story of how Jesus exorcised demons (Matthew 4:24). The Church maintains that demons are former heavenly angels who were cast into hell because they rebelled against God. The supernatural gifts that they had in heaven went with these devils into hell, so devils can manipulate people and things in supernatural ways. Demons may attack in one of several ways:
- Possession: Assaulting a person from within, the devil takes control of the individual in some ways.
- Obsession (Oppression): The devil attacks the individual from the outside.
- Infestation: A building or dwelling of some sort is taken over by Satan.
An exorcist, a priest with the faculty to drive out demons from a person, place or thing, may be called on to perform an exorcism, a prayer that asks God’s blessing, using the sacramentals of holy water and blessed salt to ward off evil and to protect from diabolical assaults. But before the local bishop authorizes an exorcism, which is also a sacramental, competent psychiatrists and medical doctors are asked for their professional evaluation of the victim. If medical science can’t explain or treat the person and the evidence of the diabolical is present, then an exorcism may be permitted. Diabolical phenomena may be any of the following:
- The possessed individual speaks in languages that he never knew
- Unnatural voices emanate from the possessed individual
- The body of the possessed levitates (rises up off the floor or ground)
- Objects or furniture levitates
- Foul odors are present
But exorcism is only a last resort because the majority of reported incidents are considered natural phenomena.
The bottom line is that the devil can influence only the body and the physical world, and he has no power whatsoever over the soul, especially free will. The devil can’t force someone to sin against his will. The best defense against most supernatural evil is faith in God and prayer. Whenever Catholics feel anxious that some form of evil is at work, they typically pray to St. Michael because he’s the one who defeated Lucifer and cast him into hell for rebelling against God (Revelation or Apocalypse 12:7). The Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel follows:
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.
Tolling bells
When a bell that’s destined for the bell tower is blessed, it’s sometimes called the baptism of the bell. Actually, only human beings are baptized through the Sacrament of Baptism, but bells are sort of baptized in that the bishop may anoint the bell with Chrism Oil, and traditionally, a name is given to each bell just as a name is given to a baptized person.
Since the time of Charlemagne, churches, especially cathedrals, have been expected to have bells that ring out whenever Mass is being celebrated and at the hours of prayer — 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., midnight, and 3 a.m. The hours of prayer coincide with the Liturgy of the Hours (also known as the Breviary or Divine Office), which is the official prayer of the Church after the Mass. It’s basically a praying of the psalms with some other biblical readings that’s done several times during the day. Customarily, bells rang so that the monks of the monastery could come in from the fields where they were working and enter the chapel for morning or evening prayer. Bells rung to announce the death or the election of a new pope, the death or ascension of a new king or queen, and so on. Traditionally, when the church bells ring at noon and at six o’clock, the Angelus, which originated in the 14th century, is prayed. One person may lead and the rest of the people respond saying the italicized words, and all say the Hail Mary. To say the Angelus, read the following:
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done unto me according to thy word. (Say another Hail Mary here.)
And the Word was made Flesh.
And dwelt among us. (Repeat the Hail Mary here.)
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Celebrating Year-Round
Divine Worship has always been tied to the calendar in some way or another. The Catholic Church uses a liturgical calendar to determine what celebrations should take place in parishes around the world. This practice not only gives some uniformity and stability but also connects the religion to actual time and space as we experience it so as to make the faith less ethereal.
The Liturgical Year (the worship calendar) is divided into two distinct but simultaneous cycles:
- The Sanctoral Cycle: Also called the Proper of Saints. Every day in the calendar is assigned a feast day of one of the saints or of the Virgin Mary.
The Temporal Cycle: Also called the Proper of Time. This cycle is not controlled by the calendar day (with one exception: Christmas is always December 25) but by the seasons of the year. Winter is the time of Advent (four weeks of preparation for Christmas), and Spring is the time of Easter (preceded by 40 days of Lent).
The Temporal Cycle is centered on two themes: Christ Our Light and Christ Our Life. The former is encapsulated in the feast of Christmas while the latter is in the feast of Easter. This organization makes sense when you consider that Christmas occurs shortly after the winter solstice (December 21, the shortest day of the year). From that day onward, the days slowly begin to become longer with more daylight until they reach their zenith at the summer solstice (June 21, the longest day of the year). Easter, on the other hand, takes place when the dead of winter is finally over and plant and animal life is renewed.
A feast day in the Church is a day of special liturgical remembrance, usually with some solemnity. Dinners and festivities were limited to a few feasts of national heritage, like Saint Patrick’s Day for Ireland or Saint Joseph’s Day in Sicily and Italy. Most feast days are the days a saint died and are considered their heavenly birthdays. Monks and nuns who follow a strict penitential diet year round would be dispensed on their patronal feast days and could eat meat or have a dessert, etc. Many major feasts were also secular holidays for Catholic countries in Europe so people would have the day off work. They would attend Mass and have a special dinner later in the day. Today, most feasts are just celebrated with a special Mass in Church.
Of course, calendar dates from the Sanctoral Cycle often coincide with seasonal dates of the Temporal Cycle. In such cases, the feasts of Christ the Lord outrank all else. For example, March 25 is the feast of the Annunciation (when the Archangel Gabriel told Mary she was to become the mother of Christ), but if Good Friday falls on that day in any particular year, Jesus trumps even his mother in this case, and the feast of the Annunciation is suppressed or moved to another date.
Part of the mystery of the Liturgical Year is that the Church uses the solar calendar to measure regular time, but the lunar calendar is still used to determine the date of Easter (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox). Hence, Easter is a movable feast every year. On the other hand, every December 6 is the feast of Saint Nicholas (also known as Santa Claus), every December 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and every March 19 is the feast of Saint Joseph.
Remember it this way: Saints are in the Sanctoral Cycle (from the Latin word for saint, sancta), and the feasts of the Lord are in the Temporal Cycle. The feast days of saints are assigned to calendar days (usually the day of their death, but not always). Feasts like Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost are movable from year to year, as are Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Advent.
The bottom line is that in Catholicism, many days of the calendar year are a cause for celebration. A date may be reserved to honor a saint or commemorate a special passage in the life of Christ, such as the Feast of the Transfiguration when Christ transfigured Himself before the apostles (Luke 9:28–36; Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8). You may notice, as you continue reading, that many Catholic celebrations and customs involve their fair share of the priest blessing this and that. In the earlier section “Using Sacramentals,” we explain how these blessings work.
Feast of the Epiphany
January 6 is the traditional and universal Feast of the Epiphany. Catholic parishes in the United States, however, which say the Mass in the Ordinary Form, celebrate this feast on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day. Those parishes and chapels where the Mass is celebrated in the Extraordinary Form still follow January 6. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi, the three kings bearing gifts for the newborn Christ in the stable at Bethlehem.
A Catholic custom among Polish, Slovak, Russian, and German families is to have their pastor bless chalk on this day. Then, with the blessed chalk, they write over their door the numerals for the current year and, in the middle of the numerals, the initials CMB for the three wise men: Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar. So on Epiphany Sunday 2014, for example, the custom is to write “20 + C + M + B + 14” over your door with your blessed chalk. This custom merely reminds all in the home to ask for the prayers of Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar during the calendar year 2014.
Besides being an abbreviation for the names of the three wise men, CMB is also the abbreviation for the Latin Christus Mansionem Benedicat (may Christ bless the home).
Feast of Candlemas
February 2 is the Feast of Candlemas, also known as the Presentation of the Lord (Luke 2:22–38). The Feast of St. Blaise (when Catholics get their throats blessed; see the section “Receiving the blessing of throats”) is celebrated the day after Candlemas. For Candlemas, white beeswax candles are blessed during or after Mass on February 2, and people take a few home with them. Then when Catholics pray in their homes, asking for God’s assistance (especially during a time of anxiety, distress, calamity, war, dangerous weather, or illness), they light the candles. When the priest is called to administer one of the seven sacraments, the Anointing of the Sick (formerly called Extreme Unction), these candles are lit before the priest enters the house.
St. Patrick’s Day
March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day. Who doesn’t know about the wearing o’ the green to commemorate the Emerald Isle on the Patron Feast Day of Ireland? Morning Mass, parades, Irish soda bread, potato soup, green beer — all great customs. Because many Irish immigrants came to the United States during Ireland’s potato famine, it’s no wonder that more people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the United States than in Ireland.
St. Patrick was born in A.d. 387 at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland and died on March 17 around the year 461. His father was an officer of the Roman Army. Irish pirates captured 16-year-old Patrick and sold him into slavery for six years in Ireland where he learned the Celtic language and combated the Druid religion. His Confession and his Letter to Coroticus are all that’s officially known of St. Patrick. The Confession reveals his call by Pope St. Celestine I to convert the Irish, and Coroticus was a warlord with whom Patrick communicated. Pious tradition contends that he explained the Trinity — three persons in one God — by showing the converts a three-leaf shamrock.
St. Joseph’s Day
March 19 marks the solemnity (feast) of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and patron of the Universal Church.
Even though Lent is a time of penance and mortification, some feast days are so special that the Church wants us to celebrate them with gusto even if they happen to fall during the penitential days of Lent. (For more on the Lenten season, see Chapter 10.) This break from penance was extremely important in the old days when many Catholics refrained from eating any meat or dairy products all 40 days of Lent and also ate only one full meal a day. You can imagine how weak and frail that could make many people. So to ease up on the penance done in Lent, the faithful were dispensed from fasting on special feasts called solemnities, such as St. Joseph on March 19 and the Annunciation on March 25, when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus.
Italians and Sicilians take full advantage of St. Joseph’s Day being a solemnity and really whoop it up by eating foods normally given up for Lent, erecting tables with a statue of the saint, and asking a priest to bless breads and pastries. The breads are distributed to the poor, and family and friends consume the pastries. A favorite is Zeppole, a special cream puff made in honor of St. Joseph or, as he is called in Italian, San Giuseppe.
Marian Feasts in May
May is a month dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It’s also the month of Mother’s Day. Catholics traditionally have May Crownings, when crowns of roses adorn a statue of Mary, and boys and girls who just made their First Holy Communion wear the same outfits for the occasion. Catholics sing Marian hymns, and in some places, outdoor processions take place; a statue of Mary is carried through the streets. May 13 is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima (when Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Portugal, 1917) and May 31 is the Feast of the Visitation (when Mary went to see her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist).
Feast of St. Anthony of Padua
June 13 is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Many local Italian communities celebrate this feast with special Masses and processions. Ironically, Anthony himself wasn’t Italian but Portuguese. Yet he did spend some time in Italy. St. Anthony, an eloquent preacher, came into this world in 1195, when St. Francis of Assisi was 13 years old. Although they were contemporaries who both lived in Italy, history didn’t leave any records to confirm that these two great saints actually ever met. St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost items and marriages.
Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
October 1 is the Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897), also known as the Little Flower. Roses are traditionally blessed and given to the sick, infirm, elderly, and other special-needs parishioners on this date. This tradition is undoubtedly the result of the saint’s promise, made while she was on earth, to spend her time in heaven sending “a shower of roses” to the faithful still on earth.
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Catholics, especially those of Hispanic heritage, celebrate this feast about two weeks before Christmas every year. In Mexico City, the Basilica of Guadalupe stands on Tepeyac Hill, the site where a dark-skinned Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, a poor Indian peasant, nearly 500 years ago. The Virgin of Guadalupe left her image on Juan Diego’s cloak. Today, a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe decorates just about everything Hispanic, from storefronts to T-shirts and from cars to shrines; many Hispanics identify with and devote themselves to her. (To read more about this basilica, see Chapter 22.)
Heading to church to adore the Blessed Sacrament