On the Saturday holy day and the Sunday obligation

A Pray Tell reader wrote in because this didn’t sound right to him: his bishop clarified that the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary supersedes Sunday, and any Mass celebrated Saturday evening fulfills the Sunday obligation. Ergo, Saturday evening Masses should be of the Assumption, not Sunday, but they do fulfill the Sunday obligation.

But I believe it’s correct on all counts, however odd it sounds. I think many of us were told at some point that only the Mass of Sunday fulfills the Sunday obligation – this from well-meaning priests stating what only seems to make sense. But the obligation isn’t to attend the Mass of Sunday, it is to attend a Mass on Sunday.

(And then we can haggle about what it means to ‘attend’ Mass. Many were told it meant you had to be there from the Gospel reading on, but I’m pretty sure the old rule was you had to be there for the three elements of a valid sacrifice, namely, offertory, consecration, and communion of the priest.)

(And then we can haggle about when the consecration is. In accord with a renewed theology that the entire Eucharistic prayer is consecratory, does it mean that you now have to stay there for the whole EP and can’t step out for a smoke anymore between offertory and Institution Narrative, or between that and Communion?)

Back to the original question. When the Assumption falls on Sunday, it supersedes it and fulfills the Sunday obligation and no one thinks it odd. Does that help with the Saturday evening oddity this year?

As far as I know, there is no universal Roman ruling on when Saturday evening begins. Some dioceses have offered their ruling, but canonists disagree on whether it means 5pm or 4pm or (some actually hold this) noon.

But Friday afternoon doesn’t ‘count,’ nor does Monday night. OK?

And then there is this. I know of a priest who has care of 4 parishes who has begun offering First Friday Mass in one of the parishes on Thursday. “And people really go for that,” the report came to me. “Some like to drive to the Thursday parish just to make sure they get it in in case something comes up on Friday.” I chose not to ask about when Friday falls on the first day of the month, meaning parish #4 is hold First Friday on Last Thursday.

Now I suppose someone will want to challenge the assumption (no pun intended) behind hallowed Catholic questions such as, “What is the minimum I must do to satisfy God and the Church?” and “How far can I bend the law and still be OK?” But if you start challenging things like that, where will it end??

awr

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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Comments

29 responses to “On the Saturday holy day and the Sunday obligation”

  1. Aaron Sanders

    The Mass – unless on a lower-ranking day that admits of variation – should correspond to the liturgical day, and thus Saturday-solemnities coming before all but the most privileged Sundays ought to be using the solemnity Mass formularies on Saturday evening.

    Despite all that, however, we received instructions from the diocese (and IIRC the USCCB itself) last year to celebrate Saturday evening Masses on Nov 1 as Masses of All Souls’; apparently the staffers there don’t mind that All Saints’ outranks All Souls’ and that All Souls’ has no first vespers. The reasoning provided was that these Masses are scheduled as anticipated Masses of the Sunday, so ought to be the same as the other Sunday Masses. That presumes an answer to whether such Masses really are “anticipated” (as opposed to the proper Mass for the time since they fall within Sunday’s liturgical day) and seems bound up with the mistaken notion that the obligation must be fulfilled with a Mass of Sunday.

    At any rate, this year I let pass without comment our parish schedule of Sunday Mass (OT 20) on the evening of the Assumption, because you can’t fight city hall . . . er, the chancery.

    Reply
  2. Joshua Vas

    Back in the 70s, a few years after the new liturgical calendar came out, the CDW released guidelines for such occasions. However, they allowed the Ordinary to make a determination about which Mass (i.e. of the current or of the following) would be celebrated taking into account the pastoral circumstances of the area.

    [See: http://notitiae.ipsissima-verba.org/tag/anticipatory%20mass ]

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  3. Jeremy Helmes

    I’ll muddy the waters even more: we transfer our patronal solemnity of Maximilian Kolbe to this Sun…no way we’re replacing our usual Sat 4:30p Mass – set for a big annual patronal feast day – with Assumption…

    Sat 8:30a will be our non-obligatory celebration of Assumption this year…whether we followed the calendar right or not! 🙂

    Reply
  4. Chuck Middendorf

    I’ll muddy the waters for even more fun:
    Here in our dioceses, there are about 4 stations/missions on remote islands/mountaintops where the Archbishop has given permission for Sunday Masses to be celebrated on *Saturday* mornings, fulfilling the Sunday obligation. (Also, from my understanding, very common in Muslim-majority Middle Eastern nations, like Saudi, UAE, etc.)

    Do they celebrate the Sunday or the Assumption? I suspect it will be whatever readings/prayers the pastor prefers to preach on.

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  5. Karl Liam Saur

    Agreed,

    IIRC, “evening” in Roman parlance is after noon. (This understanding used to be followed in the American South.) That said, IIRC, the 4pm rule appears to date back to preconciliar precedent, specifically, Pius XII’s 1953 apostolic constitution “Christus Dominus” (see Rule VI) which permitted evening Masses and also changed the fasting rules in light of that permission to 3 hours rather than from midnight,

    http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12CHDOM.HTM

    Some bishops have moved the 4pm starting point to a later time – 5pm is the earliest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, for example.

    The table of precedence of liturgical days and the norms it is associated with provide the proper guidance. It may help to think of it in these terms: Sundays of Ordinary Time rank as the lowest level of feasts of the Lord – solemnities always trump them, and higher-ranking feasts of the Lord do as well.

    Even the USCCB CDW staff, who in the past made a muddle of this issue, understood that, when Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, if there are Masses on the evening of that day (in my experience, it’s one of two instances where the usual Saturday afternoon/evening Masses are typically cancelled – the other being Easter Vigil every year, other than in weird places like certain parishes in Florida where apparently pastors truck on with regular Saturday afternoon Masses….sigh), the propers should those of Christmas Day, not Holy Family.

    What I”ve never heard is a good principled reason why this should not be so. Generally, if one hears an argument (simply saying Saturday evening is always Sunday is not one without fully engaging all the contrary indications from the ritual books), one hears a rationalization that is designed to help homilists and musicians and lectors prepare only one set for the weekend Masses….

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  6. Jeremy Helmes

    Part of my concern has nothing to do with fulfilling obligation…it’s about what people came to celebrate. Most, if not all, the Sat evening Mass crowd is coming, like every other week, to anticipate Sunday.

    Would they be bothered to celebrate another solemnity? Probably not…but it’s likely not what they came for…

    Should that matter? Maybe not…

    Reply
    1. Philip Spaeth

      @Jeremy Helmes:
      I think that practicality is what most often makes the difference, and it does matter to some extent, in my view. Those who show up on Christmas Day in the evening, even if it is a Saturday, are there to celebrate Christmas Mass, not Holy Family. Those who show up on an Assumption Saturday in the evening are most likely there to celebrate Sunday Mass, not Assumption. And this is how the schedule generally gets decided (although, my experience, as in comment #5, is that when Christmas is on Saturday, there is no evening mass… and I thank God for that!). It may not be consistent, with the liturgical books, or itself for that matter, but the consistent and most logical schedule may actually prove confusing to folks, and that is an important (if somewhat paradoxical) consideration. I do know that my pastor, a wonderful and knowledgeable liturgist by all accounts, has decided to have an 8:00 mass in the morning on Saturday for Assumption, but keep the 5:00 mass as a Sunday mass. I am fine with this, since I will be away on vacation anyway and attending mass elsewhere. Might I add: God bless substitute organists!

      Reply
  7. matt Foley

    The Assumption this year is on a Saturday and not a holy day of obligation. Why is this an issue?

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      @matt Foley:
      It’s an issue because it’s still the Solemnity of Mary, even if it’s not a holy day of obligation. So there is the question of which Mass to celebrate Saturday evening, and whether or not that Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation.
      awr

      Reply
  8. Sean Keeler

    Our diocese has clearly stated that the evening anticipatory Mass is to be that for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary time. Our parish organist/liturgist has clearly stated the evening Mass is to be that for Our Lady. But she’ll be out of town and our priest is on vacation. I’ll be filling in as organist/cantor and will play whatever the visiting priest asks!

    Reply
  9. Jim Pauwels

    So when the Assumption falls on a Monday, a parish with a Sunday evening mass on its weekly schedule would celebrate the Assumption at that Sunday evening mass?

    I’m so glad you posted this – I’ve been wondering about this for years!

    Reply
  10. Fr. Jack Feehily

    I can’t believe that no one picked up on your humor. I laughed at the priceless liturgical quips. Great writing, Anthony!
    For the record, I will use the texts for the Assumption on Saturday at 5pm. I just think it makes better sense than Saturday morning when very few people would likely participate.

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  11. Fergus Ryan

    Talking about the precedence of Vespers for choosing which Mass to celebrate on the eve of Sunday/a holyday may complicate matters (Notitiae 10 (1974) 222-223 offers this approach). Mass is not like Vespers. It has traditionally been considered a morning activity and is thus linked to Lauds. There are exceptions: vigil Masses in the strict meaning of the term to be celebrated on the evening before a feast (at Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Nativity of John the Baptist, Peter & Paul, Assumption).

    Anticipatory Masses are for the convenience of the faithful in satisfying the obligation to attend Mass: tomorrow’s Mass (of obligation) today. A reply of the CDW in 1984 indicated as much whereby two consecutive holydays of obligation would both have anticipatory Masses. This coming weekend: Saturday evening Masses are ordinarily to be for the following day.

    Here is the reference: “De Calendario Liturgico Exarando Pro Anno 1984-1985”, Notitiae 20 (1984) 603-605.

    The matter is primarily about the expectations of the faithful on the eve of a Sunday/holyday, not about precedence. It is more a rule of thumb than a new kind of precedence.

    Reply
  12. Richard Skirpan

    I tried to raise the same argument as Fr. Ruff did in his original post with my pastor when I began my current position in fall of 2013 with the Feast of Holy Cross, which fell on Saturday that year – a Feast of the Lord ranking above a Sunday in Ordinary Time. He overruled me using the reasonsing of the expectation of the faithful.

    In 2014, over a year later, I raised the same concern again about All Saints (Saturday) and All Souls (Sunday). This time I had won him over, but then we discovered USCCB’s Divine Worship newsletter gave a directive that all Saturday anticipatory Masses were to be of All Souls. We decided to exercise obedience.

    Since then, I’ve decided to drop making the argument. If, however, I were in a community (monastic or otherwise) where there was a strong practice of the Liturgy of the Hours – where the choice of Vespers does not seem so optional – I believe there would be an even stronger case.

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  13. Karl Liam Saur

    To the extent PIPs’ expectations are actually a serious issue, they can be addressed in the bulletin (may one expect that the people for whom it is likely to be an issue are also those who are more likely to read a bulletin?) of the weekend before….

    Reply
  14. Jim Pauwels

    In our parish, and I suspect in many others, there are two poles of liturgical authority: the pastor and the music director. Celebrating the Assumption on Saturday evening and the Sunday in Ordinary Time on Sunday morning would mean the pastor has to write two homilies and the music director has to prepare two sets of music and musicians. Under those conditions, this exercise in calendrical purity becomes highly ignorable. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Michael Silhavy

    Thank God the Saturday 2:00 wedding I’m at counts for the weekend…..

    Reply
    1. Chuck Middendorf

      @Michael Silhavy:
      Thank God my parish doesn’t have a Saturday vigil Mass!

      Reply
  16. Scott Pluff

    These are legitimate questions of concern to some readers of this blog. I don’t mean to dismiss those concerns. But to the average Catholic, questions like this are akin to “How many angels can dance of the head of a pin?” If you celebrate the wrong Mass, read the wrong preface, and wear the wrong color but offer exceptional preaching, music, and hospitality, people will still come from miles around.

    Reply
    1. Joshua Vas

      @Scott Pluff:

      I think that is largely true, but it also depends how much resonance a particular feast has in popular devotion or for a particular ethnic group. For example, at a particular parish I was at, no one batted an eyelid when it came to the choice of the Transfiguration and the Sunday. But several people complained when they came expecting an All Souls’ Day Mass and got All Saints.

      Reply
    2. Karl Liam Saur

      @Scott Pluff:
      We have a lot of those questions here. It’s part (part) of the stuff of liturgical blogs. Not something I’d at all raise in the live moment were I to attend Mass on Saturday night and encounter the Sunday propers. (I would say it would take something extraordinary to inquire or offer criticism in the moment – and even then only if I felt the audience was likely to be receptive. I was on the receiving end for years, so I have a sense for this….) Blogs can be helpful places to check on patterns that are not so much well considered – and received – customs but a kind of pragmatism on autopilot. Inertia is a powerful incentive for rationalization.

      Reply
  17. Karl Liam Saur

    All Saints/All Souls is the unusual one, in large part because All Souls is unusual (as is Ash Wednesday, but there are never universal issues of precedence with it). But for regular Sundays of weeks of OT, it would be interesting to know how many are aggrieved by the displacement of the Sunday propers by the solemnity’s propers.

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  18. Jim Pauwels

    I think it would be wonderful if tonight’s mass of anticipation would celebrate the Marian solemnity. Had the solemnity fallen on a Thursday and been a day of obligation this year, a small fraction of the people who come to Sunday masses would have shown up. Exposing the Sundays-only (or occasional-Sundays-only) crowd to Marian-themed texts, music, preaching, colors and so on seems to me a salutary thing.

    FWIW, the situation at our parish with regard to Marian devotion is that a small but stubborn band of retirees come every weekday morning to pray the rosary. I’d venture to say they are tolerated more so than encouraged and supported by the parish administration. Yet a couple of generations ago, devotion to Mary flourished in the US church to a magnitude and scope that would be difficult to imagine these days. One of our older priests tells me that, at his old South Side Chicago parish, the annual May crowning would draw so many thousands of parishioners that the police would have to block off the street. The Catholic schoolchildren alone comprised a thousand+ participants and on-lookers. In the 1960s, my family dutifully fell to its knees every Sunday afternoon and prayed the rosary; of course, for others the family rosary was a daily devotion. My father used to bring me to church on weekday evenings for the novena of our Lady of Sorrows, and it would be packed.

    If we look back on these peak moments of participatory US Catholicism, surely Mary was part of the fuel that propelled us to those heights of popular devotion, and perhaps even the glue that held the church together. Is it too much to think that we’ve managed to p*ss it all away?

    Reply
    1. Karl Liam Saur

      @Jim Pauwels:
      I think what happened is that devotions allowed a great deal more FCAP than the Mass itself did, and were the channel for that. It seems that, in many but not all quarters, there was a concern to channel that energy into the Mass – but that there was a parallel fear it was a zero sum game, so that devotions were devalued, instead of being seen as a font. I would hope that, by now, such fear would be seen as, well, shall we say problematic?

      On the other hand, the devotions were easier to gather for in urban Catholic ghettoes than in far-flung suburban parishes. On the other other hand, it should be remembered that rural parishes managed to cultivate devotions for many generations, too, so distance is not the only variable here – when most people did manual labor for 6.5 days a week (other than in the depth of winter – with long nights), devotions offered ways to structure rest times.

      We’ve nearly lost all concept of what real rest looks like in our culture. That’s the real problem.

      Reply
  19. Charles Day

    Just got back from Saturday evening Mass at the local student Catholic Center (staffed by Franciscans, fwiw). I went out of curiosity to see what readings would be used.

    Answer: 20th Sunday in OT. But more than that, we got an explanation at the beginning from the newly appointed priest who explained: Yes, it is the 15th of August but not a Holy Day of Obligation, so we celebrate the Sunday Mass.

    Reply
    1. Karl Liam Saur

      @Charles Day:
      Which preceptual obligations of course is not related to the use of the propers…

      Reply
  20. Jim Pauwels

    Maybe the line of thought is: the Assumption is not a day of obligation this year; the Sunday is a day of obligation; therefore, we will celebrate the Sunday, in order to fulfill what is obligated.

    Please note I am not saying that is the *correct* line of thought …

    Reply
  21. Edward Morris

    Here in England & Wales the Assumption (a Holy day of Obligation) is transferred to the Sunday, so problem solved?

    No – because in an Extraordinary Form Sunday Mass is still of the Sunday, NOT of the Assumption, … and so does one need to attend both EF Masses or just a Sunday Mass?

    Reply
  22. Todd Orbitz

    I love the idea of “exercising obedience” to the Divine Worship Secretariat of the USCCB which has no authority whatsoever unless their proposal receives recognitio. The Bishop is the primary moderator of liturgy in His diocese.

    In any case, I am now in favor of allowing fulfillment of all Sunday Masses not only on Saturday evenings, but also on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, except in months without an R in their name, when they would transfer to Monday mid-afternoon. All Thursday Masses should simply be suppressed as no one thanks God for Thursdays anymore.

    Reply

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