4. Can the Church also suppress Holydays?
As she has full power to institute Holydays, so she has also a right to suppress them again, to transfer them, or to limit them to certain places, when time and circumstances require it.
The doctrine of the Church always is, and must be, one and the same, because it comes from God; but it is not so with her regulations and laws of discipline, which she makes after the lapse of ages, and must adapt to variety of times and places. Therefore, without detriment to the unity of her doctrine, there may be a difference in the celebration of her festivals.
Besides the Sundays, the following festivals are Holydays of obligation in the United States: The Circumcision of our Lord, January 1; Ascension of our Lord; Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, August 15; All Saints, November 1; The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the Patronal Festival of the American Church, December 8; and Christmas, or The Nativity of our Lord, December 25.
Application. Prepare yourself, in conformity with the spirit of the Church, as fervently for every chief festival of the year as if it were the last in your life. Beware of profaning the Holydays of obligation by servile work, by excesses, or sinful amusements.
5. What are we further commanded to do by the First Commandment of the Church?
By the First Commandment we are further commanded to assist, on all Sundays and Holydays of obligation, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with due attention, reverence, and devotion.
6. Why are we commanded especially to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obligation?
Because the Sacrifice of the Mass is the most holy and salutary of all Divine Services, and that in which the Most High is honored in the most worthy manner.
7. Who are obliged to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of obligation?
All who are seven years of age and have attained the use of reason (which is generally the case at that age)
