Catholic Culture, Phil Lawler:
Some years ago, an English friend shocked me by suggesting that the Coronation of a new British sovereign should be recognized as the eighth sacrament of the Church. I admired his patriotic zeal, but the theological confusion behind that suggestion appalled me. (Just to begin exploring that confusion, which church should consider Coronation as a sacrament? Shouldn’t it be the church of which the newly crowned monarch claims to be the head?) The sacraments are instituted by Jesus Christ; no human authority can add to their number.
Holy days fall into a different category, however. The Church can and does put holy days of obligation onto the liturgical calendar, and then sometimes take them off. Families and individuals can keep their own calendars, and mark certain days (the anniversaries of births or deaths or marriages, say) as “holy” for themselves. So I suppose what I am suggesting is that we Americans should think of Thanksgiving as this sort of holy day. (Some other countries have their own days of thanksgiving, appropriately timed to match their own harvests; otherwise I would invite them to join in the American celebration.) Continue reading here.
