Friday, January 1, 2021 –
Happy New (calendar) Year! Remember, we rang in the new liturgical year back at the start of Advent. Anyhoo, it is time to hang up your brand new, favorite Church calendar. It is also a Holy Day of Obligation. This is, of course, presuming that we still have such things in the Catholic Church and are not permanently dispensed from…well…everything. #SoapboxForAnotherDay
If you are following along in your Novus Ordo calendar, today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. You can read more about this feast day HERE.
If you are following along in your Extraordinary Form calendar, today is the Octave-Day of the Nativity of our Lord. However, in the even older calendar (pre-1960), today was called the The Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity because today celebrates the circumcision of Christ, His first shedding of blood.
Regardless of which calendar you have tacked up on your wall, do not forget that today is a meat-laden Friday! Woot! Yes, it is just an octave of Christmas day, which is not raised to the level of solemnity, BUUTTT today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, which **IS** a solemnity, and therefore qualifies as pro-meat for all of us! Again, woot!
Sancte Ambrosi, ora pro nobis!
