Did you Celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost?

Paschalis Sollemnitatis, the 1988 CDW letter on the celebration of Easter, suggests that we should celebrate a Vigil at Pentecost:

Encouragement should be given to the prolonged celebration of Mass in the form of a vigil, whose character is not baptismal as in the Easter Vigil, but is one of urgent prayer, after the example of the Apostles and disciples, who persevered together in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as they awaited the Holy Spirit

Notitiae the official journal of the Congregation suggests how to celebrate such a prolonged vigil [259 (2998): 156-15]. This allows for the use of all four options for the Old Testament reading given in the Lectionary for the Vigil Mass. As in the Easter Vigil, there are prayers after each reading and then the Gloria is sung. This is followed by the Collect, a New Testament Reading and the Gospel. First Vespers of Pentecost may directly precede this celebration.

In 2008 the second edition of the third edition of the Roman Missal in Latin (the Supplementum  to the editio typica tertia), added the material from Notitiae and formalized it into the text of the Roman Missal. These were in turn translated in the current 2011 English translation of the Roman Missal.  In the United States, the 2017 Supplement to the Lectionary for Mass provide a clear arrangement of all the readings of the prolonged vigil.

This is all well and good.  But I personally have never heard of such a prolonged vigil being celebrated in a parish context. So, the question I am posing in this post is whether any parishes actually take advantage of this possibility of a prolonged vigil? I hope that other PrayTell readers have experienced this, but I suspect that in most places it is a casualty of the attitude that sees any change to the regular Sunday liturgy as being simply too bothersome to implement and that especially something optional will rarely be celebrated.

 

Cover image by geralt at Pixabay.

Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue

Neil Xavier O’Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teología Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren’s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.

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Comments

26 responses to “Did you Celebrate the Vigil of Pentecost?”

  1. Lee Bacchi

    The parish I supply at doesn’t, and no parish in the diocese I am a member of does it. My guess is that most are not even aware of it, or they think people won’t like an extra set of readings adding 20-30 minutes to a Saturday afternoon/evening Eucharist.

    I personally would like to experience it to see what impact it would have on the closing day of the Easter season.

    Reply
  2. Karl Liam Saur

    I am curious too, especially for territorial parishes that don’t primarily serve unusual communities like universities.

    ” . . . any change to the regular Sunday liturgy . . . .”: if you think Sunday Mass is bad in that regard, may I introduce you to Saturday evening Mass? Let’s put it this way: in past decades, at least, there have been credible reports of places in Florida where the Easter Sunday liturgy was celebrated at the usual Saturday evening (i.e., afternoon) Mass hour.

    Reply
  3. Todd Flowerday

    We’ve had partials the past two years. A visiting priest chose Joel, Romans, and John 7 last year. The pastor added Ezekiel this year. Pragmatism is strong with this Church, a Roman trait perhaps. Most priests I’ve ever known do the Sunday readings, including the sequence on Saturdays.

    Reply
    1. Michael H Marchal

      My problem with this situation lies with the statement made in the beginning that the character of this vigil was not to be baptismal. In terms of the history of the Roman rite, that is exactly what it was. Rather than trying to turn it into some vague expectation of the Spirit in urgent prayer, making it focused upon Christian initiation in the fullest sense might provide an engaging core to th e celebration.

      Reply
    2. Lee Bacchi

      Todd — those priests probably do not want to prepare two different homilies which are based on the readings!!

      Reply
      1. Todd Flowerday

        Well, it might not be a bad time to ask a lay person to preach the other. Or the priest could compartmentalize as my pastor did. Parts A and C on the Vigil; B and C on Sunday.

  4. Eric Epson

    I have not done it, nor have I experienced it. The Saturday 5:00pm crowd at my parish (and probably most parishes) are not exactly liturgical maximalists.

    I suppose one could schedule a special Vigil later in the evening, but I just don’t know what the draw would be for most folks. “Hey, come to a longer Mass with more readings!” The Pentecost vigil lacks the drama of the Easter Vigil. One could add in things, I suppose, but that seems to be inauthentic to what the rites call for in this context.

    Reply
    1. Andrew Mountin

      As far as the draw, I think that’s dependent on the caliber of the parish community and liturgical leadership, to draw attention to this particular liturgy and gather interest in it.

      With that said, I went to a Pentecost Sunday liturgy in which the first reading was proclaimed five times in a row, each time in a different language. An interesting concept, but since all the languages were European in origin, it was only so inclusive and significantly lengthened the liturgy. Maybe a parish exposed to that would be more inclined to try a full Pentecost vigil?

      Reply
      1. Karl Liam Saur

        I much prefer the option of inviting members of the congregation to offer the Lord’s Prayer in their respective mother tongues while the presider offers it at a deliberate pace in Latin.

      2. Todd Flowerday

        We limited the citation to a single repetition each of the solemn blessing invocations and to three key lines in Sunday’s first reading. I’m not really a fan of any of those. I’m working on the Vigil for the future.

      3. Eric Epson

        I mean, “being inclusive” only goes so far. Like I said 5pm crowd = old and white. In fact, our entire parish is mostly old and white, so doing something involving multiple languages that no one actually speaks here slaps of tokenism.

        Actually, the important part about that reading from Acts that leads to so many goofy liturgical things is not that there were many languages, but that “each one heard them speaking in his own language.” Clearly, that’s not happening, so what are we really trying to do, other than just tinkering with things?

  5. Alan Johnson

    Presumably this would fulfil the Sunday obligation for those who regularly attend on Saturday evening (?)

    Reply
    1. Karl Liam Saur

      Yes, fulfillment of the obligation is not conditioned upon which propers are used.

      Reply
  6. Paul Inwood

    As Michael Marchal says, this Vigil was originally baptismal in character, parallelling the Easter Vigil. The English names Whit Sunday and Whitsuntide derive from the white baptismal garments once worn.

    It seems to me that the Pentecost Vigil would have more traction if we would incorporate receiving candidates into the full Communion of the Catholic Church into it, instead of doing this at the Easter Vigil after or indeed instead of baptizing previously unbaptized catechumens. What better occasion to do this than the “birthday of the Church” ?

    Reply
    1. Lee Bacchi

      Paul — Your suggestion about receiving candidates at the Pentecost Vigil is a really good one. I have been reading lately where some theologians consider Good Friday the “birthday of the church” because of the blood and water (baptism and eucharist) flowing from the side of the crucified Christ.

      Reply
    2. Kevin Keil

      Kevin Keil
      This is exactly what we do at my parish. It is very moving.

      Reply
    3. Chuck Middendorf

      Even better: it seems like a perfect liturgy to celebrate confirmations!

      Reply
      1. Lee Bacchi

        Chuck — also an excellent idea!!

  7. Karl Liam Saur

    Off topic FYI: The USA has a new metropolitan province, Las Vegas, Nevada, which now has Reno & Salt Lake City as suffragens (all three were formerly suffragens of the Archdiocese of San Francisco):

    https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/05/30/230530a.html

    Reply
    1. Lee Bacchi

      Karl — Thanks for that info. I wonder what prompted the re-organization.

      Reply
      1. Karl Liam Saur

        Utah and Nevada are in the top 6 states with population growth. The SFO province was huge, territorially. If it had anything to do with the current archbishop thereof, that would be speculative.

      2. Chuck Middendorf

        It’s been in the works for 4+ years. I wouldn’t read into it, besides the booming Nevada and Utah populations.

        Alternatively, there was a surplus of palliums/wool.

      3. Todd Flowerday

        baaaaa baaaaa

  8. Daniel McCarthy

    The vigil is celebrated annually at St. Benedict’s Abbey (not a parish), Atchison, Kansas, serving both the monks and college community of Benedictine College.
    https://media.benedictine.edu/2023/monks-restore-ancient-liturgy-with-the-extended-pentecost-vigil

    Reply
  9. Jeff Rice

    I have celebrated it at my previous parish as a multi lingual liturgy, being a parish of over 100 nationalities of origin, we had readings, prayers, or music in 16 different languages, and music from an assorted variety of cultures. That was the year before COVID, but they have resumed the tradition in the last couple of years. We’re hoping to celebrate it at my current parish in 2024 in a similar way. Paired with a celebration after such as a multicultural food event with some music and other varied opportunities for enjoyment, along with the celebration of sacraments of initiation, it is possible to to draw a nice gathering. I’m reminded of the USCCB intercultural parish training exhortation to plan with people rather than for people. That always leads to a better celebration and much more engagement , but it’s harder and messier work!

    Reply
  10. Jack Mueller

    The only time I’ve had the pleasure is when I’m near an Oratory run by the Institute of Christ the King, none of the parishes around me do anything outside of the ordinary.

    Reply

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