were holy days instituted by the Church?
A. Holy days were instituted by the Church to recall to our minds the
great mysteries of religion and the virtues and rewards of the saints.

For just the same reason that the government has legal holidays. What
would the people of this country know or think at the present time about
the Declaration of Independence, and all connected with it, if they did
not celebrate from childhood every year, on the Fourth of July, the
great day on which their forefathers claimed to be free and independent
from the nation that was persecuting them? The Fourth of July keeps
alive in our memory the struggles of our ancestors of one hundred years
or more ago--their great battles, their sufferings and triumph, the
blessings they secured for us, and for which we praise them. In like
manner, the feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord keeps us in mind of
the sad condition in which we were before Our Lord redeemed us, and how
He liberated us from the slavery of the devil and secured for us so many
wonderful blessings. Again, what would we remember about George
Washington if we did not celebrate his birthday? That holiday keeps
before our minds the life and actions of that great man and all he did
for our benefit. So, too, when we celebrate every year the feast of a
saint in the Church, it keeps before our minds his works and all that he
did for God and the Church, and makes us anxious to imitate his virtues.
On every day in the year the Church honors some mystery of our holy
faith or some saint by saying Mass all over the world in honor of the
feast, and by obliging the priests and bishops to say the divine office
for the same purpose. The feast-day of a saint is generally the day on
which he died; because that is considered the day on which he entered
into Heaven--the day on which he was born into the new world.

The "divine office" is a collection of prayers, hymns, lessons, and
psalms which every priest and bishop must read every day of his life. As
it is said each day in honor of some particular mystery or saint, the
greater part of it differs for each day. The prayers are to God, asking
some grace or blessing in honor of the saint--generally such graces as
were granted to the saint. The hymns are in the saint's honor; the
lessons are parts of the Holy Scripture, or an account of the saint's
life; and the psalms are those beautiful poems that King David composed
and sang to God. The divine office is