If Annunciation, an immovable feast, was moved all the way from March 25 to April 8th, this past Monday, then that must mean that any other immovable feast, and similar votive intent is moved as well, correct?
Last Saturday was the first Saturday in April. But, because that was low Saturday, it was not proper to celebrate Annunciation yet. Does that mean first Saturday was not proper to celebrate then, too?
I can’t see how, if Annunciation was denied, first Saturday wasn’t denied, too. That would mean one of two things: either today was the day for the first Saturday votive Mass, or first Saturday didn’t exist this month.
Good Luck Finding a Saturday Mass
If you can even find a Mass proper to Saturday in your diocese — the overwhelming majority of parishes listed on masstimes.org have no saturday Masses. Instead, the listings are overwhelmed with votive Masses for Sunday. So much for daily communicants — you can pretend there was Mass while you wait in line for that 15 minute Confession window held during the time the music director is practicing the hymns for the vigil Mass on the piano and guitar, and the busybodies scour the sanctuary talking about whatever. I wonder sometimes how it is that nobody noticed the casualty of Saturday votive Masses in the wake of Vatican II.
It is one more way in which the weirdness of forcing everything to Sunday has made so much collateral damage. Is daily Mass really something that should be celebrated once a Month? Why isn’t Saturday Mass celebrated every week? …in every parish? Should first Saturdays be moved to Sunday, since they fall on Saturday?
The first Saturday devotion is just another one of those things that has been jettisoned. I’ve seen some parishes here and there in various cities that will go out of their way to advertise Mass being available for the devotion. I wonder what they did last week, though. Did they do it today? Or was April a scratch?
This article, Was Today First Saturday? or… No First Saturday this month? is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/was-today-first-saturday-or-no-first-saturday-this-month/
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