Article III: The Negative Part of the Sanctification of Feasts

— "On feast days of precept... one must abstain from servile works, forensic acts, and likewise, unless legitimate customs or particular indults carry otherwise, from public markets, fairs, and other public purchases and sales" (can. 1248).

After the old law has been abrogated, this obligation is wholly ecclesiastical (cf. St. Th., II-II, q. 122, art. 4 ad 4), as history itself demonstrates, since the first law concerning festive rest was passed by Constantine the Great. Cf. more things, Questions concerning Religion, at n. 109, Supplement, or Appendix XVII.

Concerning the individual prohibitions, these few things seem to have to be handed down.

— I. Servile works. 1. Under the New Law, at first thought seems to have been given to granting vacation to servants. Then, or almost at the same time, for a fuller sanctification of the Lord's day, profane works were excluded; finally a quasi-philosophical notion of servile work was investigated: by this, servile work is said to pertain to that servitude by which, after original sin, man is compelled to serve the earth that he may obtain its fruits, which otherwise he would have received as things offered freely to a king. Therefore they are labors by which neither a sufficiently proximate cultivation of the soul nor the immediate care of the body is intended, but work is spent in changing exterior matter (mechanical art). In these works the powers of the body hold the first parts, and the mind of itself is impeded from higher things and depressed to the lowest things. Wherefore those who are of a more honorable condition are accustomed to appoint servants, i.e., in a broader sense, domestics assigned to some ministry, to exercise them. Thence the reason for the name and another criterion.

In a matter, however, which has been introduced by custom, not only abstract reason but use must decide many things.

Liberal works are opposed to servile works. And there are certain middle or common works. When there is question of a work properly servile or properly liberal, questions concerning the intention of profit or recreation, of fatigue, or of time spent are irrelevant; not so, however, when there is question of common works.

2. It is servile to exercise agriculture or a trade; to place merchandise on beasts of burden, wagons, a ship, but not to drive them. Wherefore if a great time is not to be spent in loading a wagon, the whole seems licit: yet one must not depart from received usages, at least because of scandal.

It is also servile to spin, to make little nets or lattice-work.

3. It is not servile to care for one's own or another's body, to study, to write, to transcribe (by hand or machine), to draw an image, indeed to paint with colors (but it is servile to whitewash walls), to embroider with a needle. They speak more strictly concerning sculpture, unless there is question of finishing a statue. Yet Genicot-Salsmans, I, 334, assimilates the proper art of a sculptor to painting. To draw lines on paper on which you write is not permitted except as accessory to writing: therefore not of itself, or independently of writing. To take photographic images is not servile; but servile is the preparation "which is required beforehand and demands much labor" (Noldin, Praec., n. 270). The labors of typographers are reputed servile, if you except the arrangement itself of the letters.

4. Certain works are probably licit which are done principally by the aid of nature, beasts, machines, when the cooperation and application of man is moderate: for example in mills which are moved by water, wind, beasts, or even steam. But take care lest you understand this of large workshops, in which labor is done no less than elsewhere.

5. Fishing and hunting are of those works which are licit for the sake of recreation, but not if they are laborious and from office, as by fishermen on the sea.

Because it is licit to make a journey, those things which are consequently necessary can also be done: to join the wagon, to carry burdens for the use of the journey, etc.

— You ask concerning grave matter. Today they hold rather commonly that work through a space notably exceeding two hours, i.e., two and a half hours, is required. Considering the time which is customarily spent in laboring during the day, that part is shown to be truly notable. Yet in lighter labors, they require three hours; indeed certain rather light labors which neither greatly occupy the mind nor very much fatigue the body are permitted by many, provided they are not prolonged beyond two hours: to make rosaries, scapulars, wax images, artificial flowers. The intention of piety is easily added. And a motive remote from profit permits matter below three hours to be esteemed light. The works of various workers who are occupied individually for two hours by one master do not seem to coalesce.

— II. Forensic actions. 1. Lest sacred days be disturbed by disputes or dissensions, and lest the mind be drawn too much to diverse things, the sessions of tribunals and actions which regard decisions of causes, both civil and criminal, in either the civil or ecclesiastical forum, are prohibited. Hence to cite parties, to exact a judicial oath, to pronounce or execute a sentence is not licit. But it is lawful to excommunicate, to suspend from informed conscience, to confer benefices, to dispense, to inform a judge privately, to consult an advocate, etc., because these things do not require judicial noise. Nor are contracts written by notaries properly prohibited.

2. N.B. By earlier law there had also to be vacation from judgments at least through Holy Week and the octave of Easter: which time by the common norms of Pius X (c. 5) was reduced to four days before and two after Easter. But now, from c. 1639, only the last three days of Holy Week are held as ferial. One must strive that also in the civil forum the use of keeping holiday then be preserved.

3. Grave matter will be estimated here rather from the quality of the work. Thus a session of a tribunal will be thought grave, less grave the hearing of one or another witness by an instructing judge.

— III. 1. Public markets, fairs, and other public purchases and sales are prohibited of themselves (c. 1248).

Public markets by a kind of collective name designate those many purchases and sales which are made by merchants gathered by design. If they recur after fixed days, they are fairs. Other public purchases and sales are certainly auctions, sales by the spear. Purchases and sales in public shops also seem to be such of themselves. Yet custom rather generally permits purchases of things which have a certain and definite price, in the sale of which, therefore, a very small labor is spent (cf. d'Annibale, I, 112 and 16). In not a few places it was required that, as a sign of reverence, shops remain half-closed: this pious usage is to be inculcated. But purchases and sales privately made are licit, as are rentals of a house, horse, etc. Even notaries are not strictly prohibited from drawing up instruments.

2. Grave matter would be, for example, every solemn sale or market. But cf. the excusing causes.

— Excusing causes. 1. Custom excuses many things, for example fairs which, when they fall on a feast day, are not customarily transferred; and in not a few places, markets for several hours, for the convenience of country people who are accustomed then to approach the city; purchases in public shops. C. 1248 itself admits these customs while it mentions them. According to several, custom is also the cause why barbers are permitted to exercise their art. (This, however, because it immediately affects care of the body, already draws from this fact a certain excuse.)

2. Piety toward God permits all things which are proximately referred to divine worship, such as to ring bells, to carry sacred images in procession; things which are only remotely referred, such as to sweep the church, are reputed only venial sins when, without reason, they are deferred to a feast day.

For a poor church it is lawful to arrange silk flowers, tapestries, linens, purificators, corporals, to sew sacred vestments. If the works put on the character of a public work, for example the building of a church, it at least befits one to seek a dispensation.

3. Charity toward neighbor permits judicial acts of the poor, and, in a certain measure, servile labors done for them. These are licit when done for the poor who are pressed by grave necessity. It seems that clothes of common kind can also be made for the poor. But it is not licit to sew clothes and pour back the price of the labor upon poor persons of this kind.

4. One's own or another's necessity, of body or soul, i.e., a proportionate loss, excuses from a precept of this kind. Thus judges in an urgent cause are excused; servants and maids compelled by a master (if, however, this happens frequently, they must seriously inquire into another service), or those who repair their own clothes, when they cannot do this on another day; the poor who cannot otherwise feed themselves and their own; a worker who, having been impeded through the whole week, completes something in his garden (but today daily labor is restricted in such a way that this excuse is scarcely had), especially if by using better clothes he testifies to the observance of the day; craftsmen who have an urgent work to execute, suppose the restoration of a public bridge, the repair of a plowshare or instrument of those who could not labor on the following day; tailors in necessary works. But here take care of the abuses of those who, by accepting too many things, cast themselves into a habitual necessity of laboring on a feast day. Because of danger lest fruits be spoiled or stolen, it is licit to gather them.

They are accustomed here also to allege cooks, culinary workers, bakers, who are permitted to prepare foods for the use of the day. But these are already licit from another source, because they have a personal destination. Yet custom permits that cooks prepare more delicate foods which could have been cooked the day before, and perform certain accessory things. And if with venial sin they omitted what had to be done the day before, nevertheless on the feast day it will be supplied without sin (Lehmkuhl, I, 707). Bakers, however, cannot without cause reserve to feast days the preparation of foods for the week.

The necessity of avoiding idleness excuses, when idleness brings danger of sin which is scarcely overcome otherwise. Cases can occur in foreign missions. Wherefore, even in our regions, care must be taken that workers learn to use prudently the leisure obtained for themselves.

5. Common utility permits necessary works to be completed on the arrival of a prince, on the occasion of a great solemnity.

Indeed a special occasion of profit which, for the condition of the one acquiring, is esteemed great, also seems to excuse.

6. Dispensation for a reasonable cause can be imparted by the same persons who can dispense from the positive part of the precept. And in the cases just brought forward it is preferable, by a dispensation sought, to render the excuse more certain and to exercise Christian humility.

— Filial observation of the precept. The festive rest of Christians must not savor of Judaic rigor. Filial observation is to be commended most highly. For most grave reasons this frequent raising of the mind above earthly things is recommended. And what can be seen with the eyes is greatly to be grieved over: by threats and disturbances those interruptions of labor are now exacted which it was denied could be conceded to religion and piety. But this is chiefly to be procured for all: that they consult not only bodily or physical recreation, but reserve a sufficient part for spiritual offices and exercises. And that these may be obtained more easily, everywhere there should be at hand books at once of solid piety and of not unpleasant reading; everywhere with decorum, and, insofar as supply is given, with participation of the people, sacred functions should be celebrated.

— Concerning certain common precepts of the Church one must treat, which are connected with the virtues. But the precept of annual confession and communion, which coheres with the general pursuit of justice and sanctity, has been explained in the sacraments of the Most Holy Eucharist and Penance.

I. Origin of the precept of sanctifying feasts. Some time must be spent worshiping God by the law of nature. Participation in the sacrifice of the New Law is of positive divine law; but Sunday and festive assistance at Mass and cessation from labor today pertain to ecclesiastical law.

The supreme authority alone can stably institute, transfer, and abrogate feasts. And besides Sundays, in the universal Church only these are of precept: Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, Most Holy Body of the Lord, Immaculate Conception, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph (March 19), the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and All Saints. Where, from those enumerated, some feast has been legitimately abolished or transferred, nothing is to be innovated without consulting the Holy See.

Feast days are to be observed under grave obligation; they are computed from midnight to midnight, excepting the acquisition of indulgences.

II. Positive sanctification. 1. On feasts of precept, there must be exhibited to Mass presence of religious intention, bodily presence, so that, whether from the place where we are, or through conjunction with those who surround the altar, or through the external manner by which we attend, we externally are and appear present; devout presence, by which at least we externally do nothing alien to divine worship or by which we are prohibited from applying the mind to the sacrifice or to divine things. This attention is called external.

2. Mass must be heard in some Catholic rite, under the open sky or in a non-private oratory, excepting private cemetery chapels. In a private oratory only the persons numbered in the indult satisfy, besides the priest celebrating and the one serving him.

3. Mass must be heard whole. The gravity of omission depends on quantity: a third part of an ordinary Mass, or on the dignity of the part omitted: from the canon to communion a brief absence more easily becomes grave. He is immune from grave sin who successively hears two half Masses, at least if the consecration and communion pertain to the same sacrifice. Concerning a strict obligation of supplying a light omission it is not established.

4. Excusing causes are any notable or moderately grave inconvenience, whether in mind (from grave offense of husband, parents, masters), or in body (from health which probably impedes, or from a distance to be overcome of one hour and a quarter of pedestrian journey), or in goods of fortune (if extraordinary and relatively notable profit is to be lost or a notable loss is to be made in exercising the office of driver, etc.); or in honor, reputation, shame (e.g., if women, from the custom of the country, keep themselves at home in time of mourning or after childbirth). The reason of charity, for avoiding another's scandal; an occasion of a journey otherwise to be lost, can also excuse. In this matter, the frequency of omissions is to be observed. For a lesser cause, yet a just one, local Ordinaries and pastors dispense individual persons and families subject to themselves, even outside the territory; and in the territory even pilgrims and vagi.

It is to be desired that the faithful sanctify feasts also by other exercises, by acquiring for themselves a better knowledge of religion; and that even the humbler themselves be taught to participate in Mass formally.

III. Negative part. 1. On feast days one must abstain: a) from servile works, or works in which the powers of the body hold the first place and the mind of itself is impeded from higher things and depressed to the lowest things. Which these are, however, use also must teach. Besides servile works, to which liberal ones are opposed, there are certain middle or common works, in which the manner, for example pursuit of profit, must be attended to: fishing, hunting. Grave matter is considered labor prolonged notably beyond two hours; or for three hours in lighter works. Certain rather light labors are simply permitted for two hours; b) from actions of the judicial forum. But acts of non-contentious jurisdiction are licit, such as excommunication itself or suspension from informed conscience. From judgments also one must abstain through the last three days of greater week. Grave matter here depends more on the quality of the action; c) from public markets, fairs (or markets which recur on fixed days), public purchases and sales. Every solemn sale or market would be grave matter.

2. Excusing causes: a) custom, especially for fairs; b) the end of divine worship: this excuses works proximately connected, while remotely connected ones are only venial. And for a poor church it is lawful at least to labor privately; c) charity toward the poor, through works directly made for them (not indirectly from a price poured back); d) one's own or another's necessity of body or mind: or a proportionate inconvenience; e) danger of sin from idleness; f) special occasion of profit; g) dispensation for a reasonable cause by persons who can dispense from the positive part of the sanctification of feasts.

Filial, accurate observation is to be inculcated, but without Judaic rigor.