CATHOLIC HEADS-UP: All Saints Day on Thursday, November 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation, Requiring Mass Attendance, With Opportunities Starting Wednesday Evening With Vigil Mass

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File Photo of Priests Concelebrating Mass Lifting Host and Chalice

The Solemnity of All Saints on November 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation, requiring Mass attendance, absent a valid excuse, either on that day or at a Vigil Mass the evening before. [Click here for Mass Readings for the Solemnity of All Saints.]

Failure to keep the Obligation to participate in Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation is a grave sin.  Grave sin bars one from receiving Holy Communion, unless and until there is repentance and absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e., a valid Confession).

While some Parishes or other Catholic churches might have schedules that they anticipate using for Holy Days, it might be helpful to double-check the most recent bulletin, or visit the relevant church website, to see if there are specific announcements about the Mass schedule for All Saints Day.

Church bulletins additionally often have a special section for Mass intentions, which, in the process, of course, also would be setting out times when Masses are occurring.

All Saints Day is one a subset of Holy Days of Obligation for which the Obligation now is lifted during years when the date falls on a Saturday or Monday.  Yet in 2018, of course, November 1 falls on a Thursday, so the Obligation is fully intact.

One valid excuse to miss Mass might be a sufficiently serious illness or a sufficiently serious need to stay home caring for a sick family member, such as a sick child.

Going beyond the Obligation to participate in a Mass, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has a somewhat elaborate and extensive understanding of what is involved with keeping Holy the Sabbath, such as including rest and acts of Mercy, and seems to envision treating Holy Days of Obligation in a manner similar to the Sunday Sabbaths.  Indeed, the latest Catechism calls for Catholics to work towards Holy Days of Obligation becoming legal holidays.

All Saints Day, of course, is a day to honor and commemorate all the Saints, together.

In cultures like that of the United States, where so-called “Halloween” has become a secular day of merriment with its own traditions, it bears noting that the evening of October 31 is actually the Vigil of All Saints, All Hallows Eve.

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