Each time I hear the phrase “Holy Day of Obligation,” I cringe just a little. Not because I don’t want to go to Mass. Just the opposite. The Mass is such a gift that I hate to hear it referred to as an obligation. I’m sure that, in our Church’s tradition, there’s a wonderful reasoning behind the very wording that rankles me (as with every other minor detail I once found troublesome, there is always a beauty and truth I just did not see at first), but I think it is sometimes in the way people say “obligation” that makes it sound like such an awful duty.
Let us begin to change the way we think and what we say about the gift of the Mass. No more, “I have to go to Mass today.” Let’s begin to say, “I get to go to Mass today!”
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Is it a mortal sin to miss mass on a Holy Day? (Quiz)
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