My Thoughts on The Holyday Book
The time came when I was back at Newman University, picking up a book for my Well Read Moms group, and I decided I'd go ahead and pick up a few more books while I was there. One of those books was The Holyday Book, the third book Fr. Francis Weiser wrote regarding the historical and current practices of celebrating special church seasons or feasts. I don't anticipate this post being quite as deep as the other two, but I'm starting one anyway just in case there's too much I end up wanting to remember.
Introduction
My main takeaway from this section was the following: "On the prescribed feasts which fall on weekdays and are not legal holidays...the faithful are obliged to attend Mass but are dispensed from the law of holyday rest." - p. 22
This line helped clear up some confusion I had a few years ago when I felt very guilty for working on wedding invitations when I took off a day of work for a holy day of obligation.
Chapters 1-3: The Sundays; The Feast of Pentecost; Trinity Sunday
I don't have anything that I wanted to make note of here. There was quite a lot of information about the different names different rites or countries have for these holy days, which didn't connect with me, but I liked that the author ends every chapter of this book with a short "Liturgical prayer." The line drawings that are on the first page of every chapter are by the same illustrator, Robert Frankenberg, and I really like those (and the notes describing the scene). Some dates and/or practices described in this book might be different now due to the changes created by Vatican II.
Chapter 4: Corpus Christi
The next several chapters were my early early morning companions when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I liked learning about At. Juliana, who was instrumental in helping establish a celebration for Corpus Christi. I hadn't thought before about how we don't celebrate this on Holy Thursday, even though Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. I knew St. Thomas wrote some hymns for this feast, and these include "Sacris Solemniis," "Pange Lingua," "Verbum Supernum Prodiens," and "Panis Angelicus," (settings noted for music of Cesar Franck, Louis Lambilotte, and C. Casiolini/Jacopo Tomadini). "Ave Verum Corpus" is another hymn associated with this feast, and besides Mozart's version, settings by Gounod and Saint-Saens are mentioned.
Chapter 5: Thanksgiving
I loved the start of this chapter: "The religious function of giving thanks to Divinity for favors received is as old as humanity. In fact, it is one of the basic elements of worship in all religions, flowing directly from the moral Law of Nature which governs the relation of man to God..." - p. 65. This reminded me that it's good to try to go to Mass on important national holidays.
Chapter 6: The Veneration of Saints
In this chapter, I did enjoy learning about Christian names adopted in different countries that honor Mary or the saints.
Chapter 7: Candlemas
No notes here - I think I was awake but becoming more exhausted during my wakefulness after a short night of sleep.
Chapters 8-10: The Annunciation; The Assumption; The Nativity of Mary
Again, no notes for these at this time.
Chapter 11: The Immaculate Conception
It was nice to have a chapter dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, as it was an integrated way of looking at the proclamation of Catholic doctrine. It didn't go into the details of what it takes to declare doctrine infallibly, but to readers who know the rudiments of the process, it was neat to see how the Church has widely believed for a long time that Mary was conceived without original sin.
Chapter 12: All Saints and All Souls
I learned that one reason we celebrate the feast of All Saints Day is because there's too many saints for each to have their own day celebrated within the liturgical year. Fr. Weiser gets into the Halloween debate by stating that, while the holiday has a Christian name, it stems from pre-Christian times and has no Christian connection. But, don't a bunch of Catholics in our day state that we need to reclaim Halloween as a Christian holiday? This contradiction is a good reminder to me that it's good to take some of Fr. Weiser's words with a grain of salt and recognition of the fact that more modern research might turn up a different view of the subject. Personally, I find it very hard to believe that a non-Christian holiday, with absolutely no Christian connections, still ends up having a very Catholic name.
Chapters 13-16: Saints of Winter; Saints of Spring; Saints of Summer; Saints of Autumn
Fr. Weiser picks out about half a dozen major saints from each of the four seasons to describe their lives and/or legends, as well as the superstitions and/or celebrations associated with them. I start with "superstitions" because it does seem like there are an awful lot of activities that go along with these liturgical feast days that have to do with getting signs about how to find a husband or other questionable ideas. I find it difficult to read those parts in the way that Fr. Weiser intended because I'm not sure what his intention was. Surely, at least part of his purpose is just to describe what people in different nations do, whether it's entirely right spiritually or not...but it would be nice to have a little more explanation about whether these practices are considered okay to do or not. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's hard to figure out. This is not a liturgical living book, but rather a factual description of how saints are celebrated. I found his demarcation of the seasons a little confusing (e.g., winter saints are those whose feasts fall after Christmas up through the feast of St. Joseph). I suppose that this makes sense, given the structure of the seasons of the liturgical year, but it means that St. Lucy's feast day (mid-December) is considered to be in the fall. No, it's not a big deal, but it is something to adjust to. These chapters were a little slower moving than the rest of the book.
Summary and Comparison
This was a fun book to read, but important to remember throughout that 1) this work was created before the changes of Vatican II and 2) more recent research might give a different perspective to some of the ideas Weiser has presented.
When I compare this work with the two that preceded it, I have to say that this one is #3 in my estimation. Part of it comes from the fact that there are really excellent liturgical living books out there that have great ideas about how to celebrate these feasts and holydays right at home, and really great saint books that talk about the facts (or legends) we know regarding the saints. In a way, these different types of books can help readers not just learn about how these holy people have been celebrated across the world or in different times, but they can help readers find ways to celebrate (that aren't questionable because of their leaning towards superstition).
I really enjoyed The Christmas Book and found out that there was some really interesting history that I'd never heard of related to Advent and Christmas customs. It was my favorite of the three.
The Easter Book didn't quite capture the charm of the first work, perhaps because Lent and Easter have such drastically different atmospheres, as far as aesthetics and focus within the liturgy. The pre/post-Vatican II divide was also much more apparent in this work than in the previous one, especially in the special names given to different Sundays of Lent - and even the structuring of the Lenten season. It was a good book, but one that I'm not as likely to consider revisiting as The Christmas Book.
