Now we’re restoring the Friday fast, can we have our Holy Days of Obligation back, too?

Transferring the feast of the Epiphany to Sunday the 2nd of January means that Christmas ends very early this year – I feel a bit shortchanged.

Yes. When I was a little lad in Liverpool in the 60s – and long before I had achieved what little wisdom life has enabled me to attain – my mum, along with many others, continued to wear her mantilla at Mass for some years. Then the so-called 'spirit of Vatican II' descended, unbidden, upon their heads.

I still remember how beautiful the women appeared to me, and how dignified they seemed in this visible expression of their sense of humility before God (not Man, I hasten to add!), not to mention the useful 'spin-off' of an emerging aesthetic sense concomitant with the pride I felt in being part of such a tradition.

Fortunately, the parental example of devotion it set for me (in spite of the many travesties of the subsequently misguided 'interpretation' of Vatican II by our bishops) has never died. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the several generations of children whose own parents were never encouraged (because they were, in effect, denied the opportunity through the abnegation of pastoral responsibility here in England and Wales) to practise the traditional devotions that not only deepen understanding but help to sustain faith in times of personal crisis or spiritual vulnerability, and (as we see again in our time) secular prejudice and antagonism.

We should hardly be surprised (dismayed, perhaps, but not surprised) by the ludicrous transfer of faith affirming Holy Days of Obligation to the nearest Sunday (or, as Ann Couper-Johnston points out in the case of the Epiphany, not the nearest!) and the de facto disappearance of fasting. The almost total loss of the reverential awareness of the sacrificial meaning of the Mass (the absence of genuflection/bowing in the presence of the Holy Sacrament, bowing of the head at the name of Jesus, humbly tapping the breast when we acknowledge our sins, etc., etc.), has been compounded by the quite simply sacrilegious disruptions often caused by so-called 'children's liturgy' (not to mention the distractions caused by 'child-centred' parents and their children playing with toys!): don't misunderstand me, of course children deserve preparation to appreciate the liturgy at a level commensurate with their understanding, but what is the point of Catholic primary schools if they (like some Catholic parents) are clearly failing in so many parishes to properly catechize their catholic pupils? Is it any wonder, in our age of instant gratification, that they give up coming to Mass when it no longer seems 'fun'!

We are frequently reminded by Muslim commentators, in the media in general – but it sometimes seems in the BBC in particular – of their daily prayer and fasting practices, as though these are things alien to the general Christian mentality. Regrettably, they are, and to many Catholics, too. How quickly, in the name of modernity, we were allowed to lose the centuries old practices of morning and night prayer, the Angelus, Benediction, etc., with their foundations in the Holy Church's praying of the hours from Matins to Compline, reaching back through the millennia to the earliest followers of Christ. Shame on us. Why should we expect anyone else to respect our traditions – the visible expressions of our faith – if we are too ignorant, or idle, to respect them ourselves?

And while we idle in our complacency, Islam, which took what it needed from the Judaism and Christianity which precede it by centuries, continues to win adherents in the spiritual vacuum left by the post- 'Enlightenment' erosion of faith in secular Europe (which eventually gave rise to Marxist materialism, communism, fascism, Nazism – the paradoxes are no accident): converts who are, at the very least, in part attracted to it by the very external manifestations of devout faith which they can plainly see with their own eyes.

In an age characterized by pseudo-intellectual conversational buzz words like 'random', 'relative', 'chaos' and 'choice', in which structure gave way to post-modern anti-form, and the late-twentieth century love-affair with consumerist lifestyles took over from love of what gives value to life, it seems we were led to give in to the re-branding of our own faith – the faith of the Holy Roman Church which shaped the distinctive culture of Europe – presumably to make it more 'accessible', 'inclusive', 'ecumenically correct' (feel free to add your own advertising and marketing shibboleth) as though Catholic, i.e., universal, was no longer enough.

But just when it may have seemed to the adversaries of the faith that, to their delight, we had become our own worst enemies and were blithely doing all the dismantling of our own institutions for them, The Holy Spirit, acting through the person of Benedict 16th and the new generation of priests and bishops who have gradually become more attentive to the strong and gentle guidance of his voice, has reminded us of who and what we are. So, come on, folks! There's no time (literally, figuratively and metaphysically) like the present in which to act and make our own voices heard (which reminds me: there is a treasury of beautiful liturgical music and Mass settings waiting to be re-discovered by Catholic parishes up and down the land – you lucky people!). Let's buck up and finally buck the modernist trend which, at long last, has had its day.

(And while we're bucking up, we can book up, too: if you are looking for a few places to start, may I suggest 'General Instruction of the Roman Missal' and 'Celebrating the Mass', both published by Catholic Truth Society. 'The How-To Book of Catholic Devotions' and 'The How-To Book of the Mass' published by Our Sunday Visitor in the USA, but also available through Catholic bookshops/online retailers here, are very useful for family catechesis and/or personal instruction/re-fresher courses. It's never too late to (re-)learn!)

I've always had no meat on Friday's, though I've not always associated this with 'fasting'. Growing up my family always had fish on Friday's – but we looked forward to it. My CofE relatives also always had fish on Fridays. I think the principle of fasting on Friday's suggests something more than not eating meat. I am apoplectic that Epiphany is not celebrated on Jan 6th. In my book this is a very important day: we know that the 'wise men' came to the manifestation of God as Christ somewhat after the shepherds and donkeys – but because they had a longer journey to make to God. In honour the different way in which God chose to reveal Himself to the wise men, and in deference to those who arrive at their destination via much longer, and circuitous routes, the Epiphany is a supremely important day and should be restored to its rightful place.

'the restoration of the dignity of our liturgy' I understand that some people enjoy a more traditional mass, but at our Church we alternate between a music group singing traditional hymns and organ music.

As this is an issue of personal taste, not doctrine or papal teaching I think it is only fair to allow congregations to decide for themselves what they prefer. I think usually the best solution is to have a youth mass with a band etc. and most of the rest of masses to have choral or organ music, but I wouldn't want to impose what I feel, so I would suggest Parishes simply vote internally for what they want.