c) How do you pray? What forms of prayer do you know?
Note about Sunday Mass:
“Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.” Psalm 90:12
“The Sunday obligation for all the faithful is a well-spring of authentic freedom enabling them to live each day in accordance with what they celebrated on “the Lord’s Day.”
The life of faith is endangered when we lose the desire to share in the celebration of the Eucharist and its commemoration of the paschal victory. Participating in the Sunday liturgical assembly with all our brothers and sisters, with whom we form one body in Jesus Christ, is demanded by our Christian conscience and at the same time it forms that conscience.
To lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God... Sunday thus appears as the primordial holy day, when all believers, wherever they are found, can become heralds and guardians of the true meaning of time. It gives rise to the Christian meaning of life and a new way of experiencing time, relationships, work, life, and death. On the Lord’s Day, then, it is fitting that Church groups should organize, around Sunday Mass, the activities of the Christian community: social gatherings, programs for the faith formation of children, young people and adults, pilgrimages, charitable works, and different moments of prayer. For the sake of these important values – while recognizing that Saturday evening, beginning with First Vespers, is already a part of Sunday and a time when the Sunday obligation can be fulfilled – we need to remember that it is Sunday itself that is meant to be kept holy, lest it end up as a day “empty of God.” Pope Benedict XVI
Note: There are additional holy days of obligation (besides every Sunday) that every Catholic is obligated to attend. While the Catechism, CCC 2177 lists ten holy days of obligation, (and those ten are celebrated at the Vatican), the number of holy days varies greatly from place to place (even in Italy).
In the United States, there are eight holy days of obligation, with some variation from diocese to diocese.
Two of these have been permanently moved to a Sunday (Epiphany and Corpus Christi/The Body and Blood of Christ), and one has been moved to a Sunday in many (but not all) dioceses (Ascension).
Three of them are holy days only when they don’t fall on a Saturday or Monday (January 1st, August 15th, and November 1st).
Confused? Most Catholics are too.
And Ash Wednesday? (Not a holy day!)
If that’s too many to remember, move to Hawaii, where there are only two holy days: December 8th (Immaculate Conception) and December 25th (Christmas).
The details can be a little bewildering though, so here is a complete, up-to-date list of the holy days of obligation in the United States:
- Mary, Mother of God (always celebrated January 1, but if this occurs on a Saturday or a Monday there is no obligation to go to Mass)
- Epiphany (this has been permanently translated to the first Sunday after January 1)
- Ascension (this is celebrated on different days depending on which ecclesiastical province you live in; a few provinces celebrate it on the traditional date, which is the Thursday of the sixth week of Easter, but most provinces in the U.S. have transferred it to the seventh Sunday of Easter.)
- The Body and Blood of Christ (this has been permanently translated to the second Sunday after Pentecost)
- Assumption of Mary (always celebrated August 15, but if this occurs on a Saturday or a Monday there is no obligation to go to Mass)
- All Saints (always celebrated November 1, but if this occurs on a Saturday or a Monday there is no obligation to go to Mass)
- Immaculate Conception of Mary (always celebrated December 8)
- Christmas (always celebrated December 25)
By the way, Canada also has only two holy days: January 1st (Mother of God) and December 25th (Christmas).
And Hong Kong? Only one: Christmas!
For a deeper explanation of Holy Days and why they vary from place to place, check out this Catholic Answers page.
And when in doubt, check with your local parish!