Q: One of the churches that I serve has a peculiar calendar situation: two solemnities on adjoining days.
The church in question is named for Our Lord’s Sacred Heart. The Solemnity of The Sacred Heart of Jesus falls, as you know, on the “Friday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost.” It happens, this year, that the following day is the anniversary of the dedication of that church.
I am working on organizing a parish gathering to celebrate the patronal feast on that Friday evening, including either Mass or Vespers. I want to make sure which solemnity we would observe.
My reading of the table in “Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar,” # 59 suggests that a Solemnity of the Lord (Sacred Heart, precedence 3) takes priority over the Solemnity of the anniversary of the dedication of one’s own church (precedence 4b). Consequently, my assessment (based on UNLYC # 60), is that Friday evening Mass and/or Vespers (prayed in those parish boundaries) should be for the Sacred Heart and that First Vespers for the Anniversary should be omitted.
I contemplated celebrating one of these solemnities on the following Sunday (cf. UNLYC # 58), but that Sunday this year is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which seems to share precedence with Sacred Heart and is higher precedence than the anniversary. Besides, such a change would not, in my assessment, be “for the pastoral good of the faithful.”
Is this a correct assessment? Thanks again for your ministry.
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A: You are correct. The Friday night liturgies will be those of the Sacred Heart. But even then, you may preach about the anniversary, pray for the parish in the universal prayer, choose music pertinent to the anniversary, and celebrate it socially with the faithful.
I have a few pages on “Consecutive Solemnities” in my new book Sacred Times. It doesn’t address this directly, but it would widen the conversation.