Weekday (liturgy)

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Weekdays or holiday days ( Latin feria ) form a category of liturgical days in the Roman Catholic church year . It includes all the days except the Sunday , the solemnities and feasts and offered and not offered anniversaries .

This classification was in the context of the liturgical reform with the reorganization of the church year and the Roman general calendar after the Second Vatican Council on February 14, 1969 by the Motu proprio Mysterii paschalis of Pope Paul VI. approved and entered into force on January 1, 1970. It replaced a differentiated hierarchy of liturgical celebrations that had been in effect since the 16th century .

The ranking of the liturgical days determines which texts are used for the celebration of Holy Mass and the Liturgical Hours and which liturgical color is assigned to them. The basic order of the church year recognizes weekdays with a special priority such as Ash Wednesday and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week , which have priority over all festivals that could fall on these days. The days of the week in Advent between December 17 and 24 and the days of the week during Lent take precedence over days of remembrance during this time. On the other days of the week the celebration of solemn festivals and festivals takes precedence, days of remembrance are linked to the liturgy of the day of the week.

historical development

Up until the Second Vatican Council, on the days of the week on which there was no festival, the texts of Holy Mass from the previous Sunday were also the texts of the proprium on the weekday; alternatively, a votive mass could be celebrated. Since the High Middle Ages it has been the custom to celebrate a votive mass for the Trinity on Monday , on Tuesday by the angels, on Wednesday by Saint Joseph or the apostles , Thursday was under the sign of the Holy Spirit or the Eucharist , Friday under the sign of the cross and the Passion of Jesus Christ, and Saturday was dedicated to Mary , the Mother of God . Until the modern era, the requiem's measurement form was “improperly” often used as a votive mass for weekday masses because it corresponded to the intention of the mass grant as a “soul mass ” for the deceased of the founding families, according to liturgical scholar Josef Andreas Jungmann . Since the beginning of the 20th century, a counter-development, also on the part of the Roman Curia, was discernible.

Since the High Middle Ages there has been an almost inflationary increase in commemorative days and feast days; Numerous festivals of devotion and ideas took place on the commemoration days of the saints . More often, festivals were upgraded with a vigil (pre-celebration the day before) and an octave (post-celebration in the entire following week or only on the eighth day after the festival). This led to a devaluation and a certain "holidayization" (everyday life) of the lower fixed ranks - according to the liturgical scholar Philipp Harnoncourt - since these could no longer be celebrated by the entire congregation with rest and worship for economic reasons. In the course of time there were few festa fori (which were celebrated by the whole congregation with holiday rest) compared to a large number of festa chori , which were only celebrated liturgically as "feasts". The term feria (holiday) became the term for a working day on which no higher festival ( festum ) fell. According to the liturgical scholar Hansjörg Auf der Maur , this terminological contradiction was not eliminated by the calendar reform after the Second Vatican Council .

Since the early Middle Ages, separate measurement texts for the days of the week in Lent and the Easter octave as well as the Quatember and Prayer days have been created . Since the liturgical reform of 1970 there have been separate mass texts for every weekday of the church year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philipp Harnoncourt : week, days of the week. III. Liturgical . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 10 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001, Sp. 1266/67 .
  2. ^ Josef Andreas Jungmann SJ: Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass. Volume 1, Herder Verlag, Vienna, Freiburg, Basel, 5th edition 1962, p. 305, note 127.
  3. ^ Philipp Harnoncourt: The calendar. Festivals and feasts of the saints. In: Hansjörg Auf der Maur: Celebrating in the rhythm of time II / 1. Regensburg 1994, ( Church service. Handbuch der Liturgiewwissenschaft , edited by Hans Bernhard Meyer , Part 6.1), p. 52.
  4. ↑ Hansjörg Auf der Maur: Festivals and memorial days of the saints. In: ders .: Celebrating in the rhythm of time II / 1. Regensburg 1994 ( Church service. Handbuch der Liturgiewwissenschaft , edited by Hans Bernhard Meyer, Part 6.1), p. 185.
  5. ^ Philipp Harnoncourt : week, days of the week. III. Liturgical . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 10 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001, Sp. 1266/67 .