The first of the year, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, is not a holy day of obligation in Hawaii. One of the past bishops chose to follow the dioceses in west coast and only kept two days of Holy Days of Obligation in Hawaii. One is Christmas and the other is Feast of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States.
With that said, it was heartwarming that after a long night of revelry and with only a few hours of sleep, the 8am Mass was packed full of people in honor of our Blessed Mother Mary. By the way, the lack of sleep was true whether or not one purposely planned on staying up to welcome the New Year. The fireworks and firecrackers exploding all over the island did not make for a quiet new year reception. Sometimes, it looked like a war zone with the smoke and explosions.
One priest told us that we did not need an official Holy Day of Obligation on the Church Calendar to go to Mass. We went to Mass IF we truly loved God.
Another priest thanked us and praised us for going to Mass this morning but in reality, we should be grateful to God and to our priests.
5 comments:
How true-we should be thankful for our priests. I'm surprised that it is not a Holy Day of Obligation in Hawaii-I thought that was universal.
East Coasters were obliged, however we would have gone anyway. I am so grateful for our priests and deacons who serve these Masses for us. Although there were some long yawns during, I am glad that we had the opportunity to attend Mass this morning. Thanks for the post!
Anne, I guess it is up to the individual bishops to make that decision.
Dawn, thanks for visiting and for commenting. They did move the Mass from 7am to 8am. That was a little better :-)
We are new to the island and were stunned with the revelation that Jan. 1st was not a holy day of obligation! Mass that morning was exceptionally beautiful and I can't think of a more wonderful way to start the new year~but I find it incredulous that it hasn't been changed back to the 5 or 6 days of Holy Obligation.
Mari Catherine, for the most part, the churches are full on those days which should be Holy Days of Obligations.
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