This Sunday, 24 June, the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, with white vestments, will take precedence for Mass, although the propers for the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost will be said/sung as commemorations (that is, as a second collect, second secret and second postcommunion), at all Masses. The feast has a vigil, a second class violet vestment Mass, on Saturday, 23 June.
Later that week, the first class, red vestment, Mass of Saints Peter and Paul is celebrated on Friday, 29 June. It is one of ten holy days of obligation in the universal Church. Some countries' bishops conferences observe it as obligatory (exempli gratia, the United Kingdom), some countries do not (e.g., the United States) and some countries even observe it as a public holiday (e.g., Malta). The feast has a vigil, a second class violet vestment Mass, on Thursday, 28 June.
A couple days later, on Sunday, 1 July, we celebrate the feast of the Most Precious Blood (the second half of Corpus Christi, following last week's feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost has none of its propers used at Sunday Masses, following the 1962 rubrics as reformed. This is because both sets of propers are of our Lord, therefore the lesser of the two propers is not employed as a commemoration. For chapels that use pre-1962 missals, commemorations for the Fifth Sunday After Pentecost and the Octave of Saints Peter and Paul are said/sung.
Summary: lots of feasts in the next couple of weeks. It's a good time for parishes to send the green vestments to the tailor or dry cleaners before 20 Sundays of use in the summer and autumn months.
