Catholic services?

Question

Besides basic services what are any special services performed by the church? I.E. holidays, etc.

Answer 1

Here is a list of the Holy Days for 2007:
Holy Days of Obligation and Moveable Feasts in Roman Catholicism
The following is a list of the dates of the Holy Days of Obligation in the United States for 2007, as well as the dates of moveable feasts (holy days whose dates change from year to year).

Mary, Mother of God (Monday, January 1, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation (abrogated because it falls on a Monday)
Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, February 21, 2007)
Holy Thursday (Thursday, April 5, 2007)
Good Friday (Friday, April 6, 2007)
Holy Saturday (Saturday, April 7, 2007)
Easter (Sunday, April 8, 2007)
Divine Mercy Sunday (Sunday, April 15, 2007)
Ascension (Thursday, May 17, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation (transferred to Sunday, May 20, 2007)
Pentecost (Sunday, May 27, 2007)
Assumption of Mary (Wednesday, August 15, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation
All Saints Day (Thursday, November 1, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation
First Sunday of Advent (Sunday, December 2, 2007)
Immaculate Conception (Saturday, December 8, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation
Christmas (Tuesday, December 25, 2007)
Holy Day of Obligation

Answer 2

A few of the services provided by the Catholic Church are:
+ Sunday Mass
+ Holy day Mass
+ Daily Mass
+ Baptism
+ Reconciliation (Confession)
+ Confirmation
+ Anointing of the Sick
+ Marriage
+ Holy Orders
+ Funerals and cemeteries
+ Quinceneras
+ Spiritual guidance
+ Spiritual retreats
+ Education, preschool through university
+ Religious education
+ Hospitals
+ Multitudes of charitable organizations

And that is just a few off the top of my head.

Remember we belive that the Church is the assembly of the People that God has called together from the ends of the earth.

In Catholic usage, the word "Church" has three inseparable meanings:
+ The People that God gathers in the whole world
+ The local church (diocese)
+ The liturgical (above all Eucharistic) assembly

The Church draws her life from the Word and the Body of Christ, and so herself becomes Christ's Body.

In the Nicene Creed (from 325 A.D.), the Church is professed to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Catholic services were, in their origin, written by either Peter, James, Mark or Thomas. They have had slight alterations, primarily to shorten them, or to make specific ideas very clear, but not much in two thousand years. They are adaptations of the todah of the synagogue, or at least the Eucharist is. The liturgy of the hours comes from the daily Jewish prayer, but Christianized. Properly speaking, the church doesn't have any special services, but it does slightly rearrange some services to either enhance the point or to fully celebrate in the ancient manner.

For example, the vigil for Easter is very close to Peter's service, with all 13 old testament readings, 13 psalms, 13 psalm prayers, intercessory prayers, call to worship, baptisms, chrismations and Gospel readings. In a sense, the Sunday service is just a shortened Easter vigil.

However, if you leave the Roman service, you find other services left by apostles other than Peter and you see a wider variety of services. An outsider might mistake these other parts of the Catholic Church as alternate denominations, but an insider can see the continuity between services and how local, but slight variations, resulted in what can seem like very different services though all the core elements are the same.

If you see the service left by Thomas, you might mistake it as different from the Petrine service, but it really isn't. Of course, you almost have to be in India to see Thomas' service, but I understand you can see it in some parts of the US too in immigrant churches.

Catholic services consist of either the liturgy of the hours, the liturgy of the eucharist or a special service to perform a sacrament lik baptism or marriage. They vary depending upon the apostle who left them, but not much really, and in emphasis, but they are quite faithful to the ancient services. If you attend a Catholic service, you are attending something quite like the services you would have seen 2000 years ago.