Liturgical Year
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Holy Days of Obligation (2024-2025)
Click here for the 2025 Liturgical Calendar (USCCB)
December 8 (Immaculate Conception)
- 2024 (Sunday) because December 8 is a Sunday of Advent, the solemnity is moved to Monday, December 9, and it remains a holy day of obligation.
- 2025 (Monday) is a holy day of obligation
December 25 (Christmas)
- 2024 (Wednesday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
- 2025 (Thursday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
January 1 (Christmas Octave & Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God)
- 2024 (Wednesday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
The Solemnity of the Ascension
The liturgical celebration of the Ascension has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter in the province of Wisconsin and throughout most of the Midwest. (For celebrations in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Ascension is not transferred and is celebrated on the Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter, according to the pre-conciliar calendar).August 15 (Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
- 2024 (Thursday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
- 2025 (Friday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
November 1 (All Saints)
- 2024 (Friday) is a holy day of obligation. The funeral Mass may not be celebrated.
- 2025 (Saturday) Since this Holy Day falls on a Saturday, the obligation is suspended.
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Additional Notes
Notes on Wedding Masses
Please note that when a Solemnity falls on a Saturday, the prayers & readings from the Mass of the Day are to be used for Wedding Masses. This is true regardless of whether or not the Solemnity is a holy day of obligation. The parts proper to the Wedding Mass (for example the consent, blessing of rings, vows) are, of course, always used. The nuptial blessing and special blessing may be used according to the circumstances. (For more information see the introduction to the Rite of Marriage, no. 11; GIRM, 372.) If a Wedding is celebrated outside of Mass on a solemnity, there are no restrictions regarding the Scripture or prayers.
Notes on Funeral Masses
The Funeral Mass “may be celebrated on any day except for Solemnities that are holydays of obligation, Thursday of Holy Week (Holy Thursday), the Paschal Triduum, and the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, with due regard also for all the other requirements of the norm of the law” (GIRM, 380). On days when the Funeral Mass may not be celebrated, the Funeral Liturgy Outside Mass may be used (see Order of Christian Funerals, no. 177).
Please note that the nature of the Masses of the Dead is such that a Funeral Mass should not be “combined” with a solemnity. For example, one wouldn't want to sing the Gloria at a funeral, but if someone tried to “combine” a funeral Mass with the Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, that's exactly what would happen. You could celebrate a Baptism or a Wedding during the Mass of Immaculate Conception (using the texts of the Mass of the Day), but not the funeral rites.
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