The Holy & the Hooley

Liturgically Thinking

PARTY LIKE IT’S YOUR PATRONAL FEAST

Who doesn’t love a good get together - especially one centered around some sort of celebration? Nearly every day of the year, the Church has assigned a Saint - someone who is declared to have exemplified heroic virtue - to be celebrated. Most of the time these days are assigned because it is the person’s death date, or rather date of birth into eternal life with God. For example, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton passed away on January 4, 1821 so each year the Church celebrates her feast on January 4. Sometimes already established feast days prevent a Saint from being named to that day, take St. John Henry Newman for instance. He died on August 11, 1890, but St. Clare of Assisi is already celebrated that day. Instead, the Church marks October 9 as his feast day, the day of his conversion to the Catholic faith.

    So what’s the big deal with having these days set aside to celebrate specific people? It is a tradition of the Catholic Church that we celebrate and call to mind the heroic virtue of these holy people so as to imitate them ourselves. St. Augustine encourages us “to rejoice together in the virtues of those who are better than we are” (Sermon 280.6) and to allow this to encourage our own endeavors in virtue. Unfortunately, sometimes these celebrations may become hijacked by cultural and secular norms that deviate from this intended purpose of celebrating a patron’s feast day. We are called to elevate these days and celebrate them well, commemorating and rejoicing in our patrons.

     How can we celebrate our feast day(s) well? Most importantly, we can mark these days with the celebration of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb by attending Mass. We can ask for the Saint’s particular intercession. We can include other devotions and prayers throughout the day. We can sing songs in honor of the Saint. We can pray with the words of the Saint (for example St. Patrick’s Breastplate on March 17). We can gather together and feast (without being gluttonous and without getting drunk) to party with a purpose; to be drawn into great holiness.

    Monday, March 17, our parish patron’s Feast Day, is right around the corner. This is your invitation to join us for Holy & the Hooley! Celebrate our patron with a special Mass at 6:00pm in the Church followed by an evening of desserts, beverages, and activities for all to enjoy!

Liturgically Thinking is a series of reflections on the Mass & Liturgy written by Connor Miller, director of music.