03 May 2008

Holydays: I'm Thoroughly Confused

.
Tres jueves hay en al año
Que relucen más que el sol:
Jueves Santo, Corpus Christi
Y el día de la Ascensión.

(There are three Thursdays in the year which shine brighter than the sun: Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi and Ascension Thursday.)

Let's see if I've got this right. The feast of the Ascension was last Thursday. The obligation to attend Mass for the Ascension is observed on Sunday. So the celebration of Thursday's feast of the Ascension is on Sunday. You can't celebrate Thursday's feast on Thursday; you can only celebrate Thursday's feast on Sunday. There is no Seventh Sunday, so we will not hear the reading from the Acts which tells us "what happened next" after the Ascension.

It sounds like one of those tea towels with an explanation of the Laws of Cricket.

1 comment:

Mulier Fortis said...

Those of us fortunate enough to have access to the Extraordinary Form have absolutely no problem with this...

...the Ascension was on Thursday.

The obligation is on Sunday, but I am obliged to go on Sunday anyway so I don't worry about it too much.