ASK FATHER: 1st Friday Communion and pre-55 Good (1st) Friday (no Communion): What to do?

I had this question come in….

QUAERITUR:

I’m curious to know what happens to First Friday and First Saturday devotions when the Triduum falls on those days. I’ve searched the Internet a bit and cannot readily locate guidance. Is it customary for those devotions to be transferred later in the month, or would clients of those devotions simply skip April for purposes of counting the consecutive monthly attendance expectations for those devotions?

Also,

Before the 1955 changes to Holy Week, on Good Friday there was no Communion for the faithful.   When Good Friday was also a 1st Friday, what were people supposed to do who were trying to receive on nine consecutive 1st Fridays?

This would be an issue now for Catholics who are attending the pre-55 Triduum.

That’s an interesting question.

First, I will point out that it is unlikely that anyone will be in a position wherein they have only the pre-55 Good Friday and there is no where else to go.  They can receive at non-pre-55 Good Friday or Novus Ordo (yes, yes… I know … but they can).

I suppose they could ask the priest for the pre-55 service to give them Communion outside of the service.  But that seems to me really to violate the whole spirit of the pre-55 thing.

When St. Margaret received the 1st Friday promises, there was no Communion on Good Friday.  Everyone knew that, including OUR LORD who gave the promises.  Christ knew that Communion was not distributed on Good Friday, and He knew about 1st Fridays, and He knew that Good Friday could be a 1st Friday.

The Lord said, “nine consecutive months except maybe you can skip one”.

No. Wait.  That’s not what he said.  He said, “I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant all to those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence…”.

I have to conclude that the Lord figured that people will take the devotion seriously and plan it out to make sure that they can receive on a 1st Friday for nine consecutive months.  People could figure out when Spring was coming.  It comes around every year, and so does the Triduum.  The dates of the movable feasts were announced in churches each year.  One could ask even if there were not as many calendars in centuries past as there are now.

These days, it seems to me that anyone making this devotion could mark a calendar and, along the way, discover, “Hey!  This year Good Friday is a 1st Friday.  If I want to receive, and if I go to pre-55 Good Friday, that’s going to be a problem.”

At that point you a) make plans to go elsewhere for Communion or b) you start your 1st Friday devotion the following month.

Sorry.  I guess those of you who want to participate at pre-55 Good Friday on this 1st Friday, and you want Communion too, you will have to attend two services, pre-55 and one which also provides for Communion for the faithful.

That’s not going to kill you, by the way.