External Solemnities in the Ordinary Form
  • GerardH
    Posts: 685
    I think more people should be aware of the following rubric from the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year:
    58. For the pastoral good of the faithful, it is permitted to observe on Sundays in Ordinary Time those celebrations that fall during the week and that are agreeable to the devotion of the faithful, provided the celebrations rank above that Sunday in the Table of Liturgical Days. The Mass of such celebrations may be used at all the celebrations of Mass at which the people are present.

    How often does a patronal solemnity or anniversary of dedication land on a weekday and get all but forgotten? If possible, I think every parish and community should be taking advantage of this option to add greater solemnity to the celebrations most important and particular to them. We celebrated the Solemnity of Sts Peter & Paul (a solemnity in the universal calendar, but also our patronal solemnity) yesterday, Sunday 28 June, with an orchestral Mass.

    This provision is equivalent to external solemnities in the EF, if slightly more restricted to "celebrations that fall during the week".

    The corresponding rubric from the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours is as follows (emphasis added):
    245. Except on solemnities, Sundays of Advent, Lent and Eastertide, Ash Wednesday, during Holy Week and during the octave of Easter, and on 2 November, a votive Office may be celebrated either in whole or in part for a public or devotional reason: for example, at the time of a pilgrimage, on a local feast, or during the external solemnity of a saint.
    Thanked by 2Roborgelmeister irishtenor
  • GerardH
    Posts: 685
    Follow-up discussion question: Has anyone else utilised this option before? Which celebration?
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,663
    We did it sometimes for the titular and for saints of which we had the relics (the actual body).

    Never the dedication which I found absurd because the church was indeed apparently consecrated (although the Mass should be celebrated on the anniversary even if it was only a solemn blessing)

    I know a parish that moved its external solemnity outside of Lent or Easter — I can’t remember which season was the problem — to another Sunday later in the year. Even in the TLM this could be permitted if the solemnity is permanently impeded by the season (but Sundays of Paschal Time were fair game after low Sunday).

    Also, my gripe with the NO and the 1960 is that it’s not sensible to celebrate before with one exception: for whatever reasons the rubrics do not allow an external solemnity of (Our Lady of) the Holy Rosary on the Sunday following October 7th unless the feast is also a titular or patronal feast. By law it must be on the I Sunday of October which falls before October 7 (or in the 1960 creates the bizarre situation of celebrating an external solemnity on the day itself)**, because this was the date to which it was formerly fixed.

    **apparently this possibility actually existed for particular feasts under certain circumstances but I’m not sure how it applies in practice. Sometimes what Stercky says is mysterious, which is why I would say that external solemnities are for all intents and purposes of feasts that fall during the week even for the TLM context.
    Thanked by 2GerardH Liam
  • davido
    Posts: 1,220
    Yea, it stinks when St Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday. Not much recourse for our patronal feast day during Lent
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 159
    Would this apply to the Assumption? It's on Saturday this year.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,669
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  • GerardH
    Posts: 685
    @TLMlover I see no reason why not, although a strict interpretation would require you to celebrate it on the previous Sunday, not the following.
  • cantarealseñor
    Posts: 4
    I think it's more confusing in some parishes named after Our Lady or Saint Mary sans title or advocation, like mine, where even the pastor doesn't know when we celebrate our patronal feast.

    My diocese celebrates the Dedication Anniversary of the Cathedral as a proper Solemnity on the last Sunday of June each year (near June 30, its actual dedication anniversary) unless impeded by Corpus Christi (the feast of its title, and its city), St. John the Baptist, or - as was the case last year - SS. Peter and Paul. It was disappointing that some parishes, including mine, did not get the memo from the liturgy office and celebrated the green Sunday this year.
  • GerardH
    Posts: 685
    But the dedication of the cathedral is a solemnity only in the cathedral itself? And a feast throughout the rest of the diocese...
  • GerardH
    Posts: 685
    I think it's more confusing in some parishes named after Our Lady or Saint Mary sans title or advocation, like mine, where even the pastor doesn't know when we celebrate our patronal feast.

    There almost always is a particular title buried somewhere in the original designation of the parish, but I would default to 1 Jan, Mary, Mother of God - which is obviously a solemnity already.
  • cantarealseñor
    Posts: 4
    But the dedication of the cathedral is a solemnity only in the cathedral itself? And a feast throughout the rest of the diocese...


    The diocese's liturgy office (and ordo) has elevated it to a solemnity for all churches throughout the diocese, including the cathedral.
    Thanked by 1Roborgelmeister
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,663
    Unless specified otherwise, the Assumption is the default feast of title for Marian churches. Churches of Our Lord have their feast of title on the Transfiguration (it was originally Christmas).

    This is in the rubrics for the TLM and nothing would have changed this AFAICT.

    I do know that in this diocese there is a parish of “Our Lady of the (fake) Lake” and that title is celebrated on the day that is otherwise the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the NO; I don’t know how they choose the propers.

    I have to go back and read a bit more about how the pre-55 does it (the 1960 rules are very different) but this is why I favor celebrations on the Sunday after and the bishop (and sometimes Rome) intervening when that’s impeded. Celebrating on the closest Sunday of the same month becomes unmanageable in your case, and then doing it before the feast gives me hives (this is allowed for the external solemnity in almost all cases in the 1960 rubrics, sigh).
  • PLTT
    Posts: 186
    @cantarealseñor the rule post-1970 for churches named generically after the Lord or the Virgin Mary (or some title not listed in the General Calendar) is given by the (very useful and overlooked) 1970 document Calendaria Particularia.

    https://www.cultodivino.va/content/dam/cultodivino/documenti/Calendaria-Particularia-ENG.pdf

    35. The solemnity of one of the titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary that is not in the
    General Calendar or a particular calendar is observed either on 15 August or on
    another date in those calendars on which there is a Marian celebration that fits in
    better with the particular title, for example, by reason of great pilgrimages, popular
    traditions, etc.

    The same method is to be followed in the choice of a date for the solemnity of titles
    of the Lord not listed in the General Calendar or a particular calendar.


    ==============
    Incidentally, the practice of your diocese was explicitly addressed in Notitiae:

    Query: May the anniversary of the dedication of a church and the solemnity of the patron or title of a church be transferred to a Sunday?

    Reply: Yes, in the following case: the Sunday is in Ordinary Time or in the Christmas season and the anniversary is of a particular church or the solemnity is of the principal patron of a specific place or of the title of a particular church. All Masses with a congregation may be the Mass for such celebrations (see General Norms . . . no. 58).

    No, if the transfer would be to a Sunday of Advent, Lent, or the Easter season, or to one on which any solemnity of the Lord, of Mary, or of the saints listed in the General Calendar falls; or if the celebration involves the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral church or the patron of a region or nation or a secondary patron: Notitiae 5 (1969) 404, no. 16.

    May the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral be celebrated on a Sunday in Ordinary Time?

    Reply: No. The case involves celebrating a particular feast of the Lord throughout a diocese (see General Norms . . . no. 52 a, c). In the Table of Liturgical Days (no. 5) only feasts of the Lord listed in the General Calendar take precedence over Sundays of the Christmas season and Sundays in Ordinary Time; proper feasts do not and the celebration of the dedication of the cathedral Church is a proper feast (Table . . . no. 8 b). The basis for this rule is to safeguard the special character of Sunday and to prevent it from being supplanted by other celebrations.

    However, an instance may happen, for example, on the occasion of a renovation or a special anniversary, when the bishop of a diocese wishes to stress the importance of the cathedral as the symbol of the unity of the local Church by bringing together the entire diocesan community at the same celebration. Often this is possible only on a Sunday. In such an instance the bishop may use the power granted him by the GIRM no. 332: "In cases of serious need or pastoral advantage, at the direction of the local Ordinary or with his permission, an appropriate Mass may be celebrated on any day except solemnities, the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter season, on days within the octave of Easter, on All Souls, Ash Wednesday, and during Holy Week"







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