October 31, 2025 – Pastor’s Note

Holy Days of Obligation

With November 01 falling on a Saturday this year, I have heard a lot of confusion about Holy Days of Obligation. So let’s learn about them. To the law!

Universal Law

Canons 1244 – 1253 establish the universal laws regarding sacred days – both feast days and days of penance. Canons 1246 – 1248 specifically address feast days:

Canon 1246. §1 The Lord’s Day, on which the paschal mystery is celebrated, is by apostolic tradition to be observed in the universal Church as the primary holyday of obligation. In the same way the following holydays are to be observed: the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of St Joseph, the feast of the Apostles SS Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints.

§2 However, the Episcopal Conference may, with the prior approval of the Apostolic See, suppress certain holydays of obligation or transfer them to a Sunday.

Canon 1247. On Sundays and other holydays of obligation, the faithful are obliged to assist at Mass. They are also to abstain from such work or business that would inhibit the worship to be given to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, or the due relaxation of mind and body.

Canon 1248. §1 The obligation of assisting at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a catholic rite either on a holyday itself or on the evening of the previous day.

§2 If it is impossible to assist at a eucharistic celebration, either because no sacred minister is available or for some other grave reason, the faithful are strongly recommended to take part in a liturgy of the Word, if there be such in the parish church or some other sacred place, which is celebrated in accordance with the provisions laid down by the diocesan Bishop; or to spend an appropriate time in prayer, whether personally or as a family or, as occasion presents, in a group of families.

Note that the universal list of Holy Days is a little bit different than we might be used to in the United States:

• Immaculate Conception (Dec. 08)
• Christmas (Dec. 25)
• Mary the Mother of God (Jan. 01)
• Epiphany (Jan. 06)
• St. Joseph (Mar. 19)
• Ascension (40 days after Easter)
• Corpus Christi (Thursday after the Sunday after Pentecost)
• Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29)
• Assumption (Aug. 15)
• All Saints (Nov. 01)

Note also that none of the Feasts that fall on Sunday (Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday) are listed because Sundays are already obliged. We associate many of these days with Sundays, but that is because of the next section.

USCCB Complementary Norms

Canon 1246 §2 says that the local bishops’ conference can change the list of Holy Days of Obligation. When a bishops’ conference makes a policy delegated to it by the universal code of Canon Law, it is called a “complementary norm”. All of the USCCB complementary norms can be found here. Specific to Holy Days of Obligation:

In addition to Sunday, the days to be observed as holy days of obligation in the Latin Rite dioceses of the United States of America, in conformity with canon 1246, are as follows:

January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, the solemnity of the Ascension
August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 1, the solemnity of All Saints
December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
December 25, the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Whenever January 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption, or November 1, the solemnity of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or on a Monday, the precept to attend Mass is abrogated.

There are ten universal holy days of obligation. In the United States, two have been moved to Sundays (Epiphany, Corpus Christi) and two are not obligated (St. Joseph, Sts. Peter and Paul). For the remaining six, three are not obligated if they fall on a Saturday or a Monday (Mary Mother of God, Assumption, and All Saints). One of those six, the Ascension, is moved to Sunday in most dioceses in the United States. Meaning that, in the Archdiocese of Seattle, only two days are obliged if they fall on a Saturday or Monday: Christmas and Immaculate Conception.

Prayers at Mass

Note that Canons 1247 and 1248 do not require that you hear the prayers of the Mass to fulfill the obligation. You simply need to be at Mass.

This weekend, we will be saying the prayers for All Saints at all of the Saturday Masses and All Souls at all of the Sunday Masses. But the Sunday obligation simply requires attending Mass on Saturday night or Sunday, so the obligation is fulfilled regardless of the prayers you hear.

Two very nerdy notes:

1. If you want to know WHY we are using all kinds of different prayers this weekend, it is because of the “Table of Liturgical Days“. When two days happen at the same time (like the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time and All Saints or All Souls), we look at the table to determine which day is more important, and use the prayers for the more important day. All Saints is “Solemnities inscribed in the general calendar” (#3) and All Souls is also #3. But the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time is #6, so we ignore the Sunday prayers and use All Saints or All Souls.
2. Technically, attending the 5:00 pm Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart on Dec. 07 will fulfill your Immaculate Conception obligation, even though the prayers are for the Sunday. HOWEVER, the rule is one Mass per each obligation. So we are all obliged to attend Mass for the weekend of Dec. 06/07 AND on Dec. 08 (Immaculate Conception). That means that anyone wanting to use the 5:00 pm Mass on Sunday to fulfill their Dec. 08 obligation is also required to attend an additional Mass for their Sunday obligation, either on the evening of Dec. 06 or earlier in the day on Dec. 07.