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HNA444
Guest
My church has a mass time on Sunday at 4pm, and some later times as well. I would like to go to the 4pm mass, but is that too early to be counted as Christmas mass obligation?
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Gertabelle
Guest
If your parish is offering a Christmas vigil mass at 4pm, then participation in this mass fulfills your Christmas mass obligation.
FWIW, I’ll be playing the organ at my own parish’s 4:00 pm vigil mass.
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joeybaggz
Guest
you know, I’ve always wondered how a vigil Mass can be for the Sunday or Holyday it is intended for, when it is said even before the sun goes down the previous day. And then I heard the Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffet song, “It’s five o’clock somewhere” and I realized that when it is 4:30p.m. here, it is 9:30 p.m. in Rome. So to me it sort of justifies that Mass on that basis, and I’ll just trust the Church in Her Wisdom.
My two cents.
My two cents.
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FrDavid96
Guest
That is fine. It fulfills the obligation to attend Mass on Christmas.
You did not mention this, but check to be sure that the Mass itself (prayers, etc) will be the Christmas Mass and not the 4th Sunday of Advent. Although it fulfills the canonical obligation to attend Christmas Mass, I’m sure you’ll want to go to one that actually celebrates the day of Christmas instead of 4th Sunday.
Only if your parish usually has a 4 PM Sunday Mass it would be worth checking. If they typically do not, then it’s a near given that it will be a Mass of Christmas.
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midori
Guest
That’s a really good point— one Sunday Mass is going to be the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and another Mass on Sunday is Christmas Vigil. 4 pm sounds like it will be Christmas Vigil, but don’t forget to account for your Fourth Sunday of Advent in the process. 
In general, though, the Christmas Vigil is supposed to happen either “before or after First Vespers”, according to my understanding. Vespers is described as a “sunset evening prayer”, so I don’t know if it stays at the same o’clock time year-round regardless of what’s going on in the sky, or whether it’s summer vs winter, or DST vs Standard Time, or what. But at this time of year, at least, sunset is around 5:30 in my part of Texas, and around 4:30 if you’re more northerly, like NYC, so it sounds like a 4:00 Christmas Vigil Mass falls very squarely in that “sunset” timeframe.
In general, though, the Christmas Vigil is supposed to happen either “before or after First Vespers”, according to my understanding. Vespers is described as a “sunset evening prayer”, so I don’t know if it stays at the same o’clock time year-round regardless of what’s going on in the sky, or whether it’s summer vs winter, or DST vs Standard Time, or what. But at this time of year, at least, sunset is around 5:30 in my part of Texas, and around 4:30 if you’re more northerly, like NYC, so it sounds like a 4:00 Christmas Vigil Mass falls very squarely in that “sunset” timeframe.
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HNA444
Guest
Thanks everyone! I plan to go Saturday at 5pm, for Sunday obligation, and the 4pm mass on Sunday for Christmas! I just wasn’t expecting a mass to be that early for Christmas Eve.
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FrDavid96
Guest
That’s true. But it brings up an entirely different topic.
Prior to the reform of the 1950s Vigil Masses actually occurred on the morning of the day-before the feast. This happened because Vigil Masses kept creeping earlier and earlier and also because the old law required all Masses to be in the morning. So by the early 20th century, the Christmas Eve Mass was actually celebrated in the morning of December 24. It was not a Mass of Christmas at all. It was an evening Mass that had been moved earlier and earlier until finally it was celebrated in the morning. It was not celebrated at a time that fulfilled the Christmas obligation (it was too early). The same thing happened to the Easter Vigil and the Pentecost Vigil, etc. What were supposed to be evening/night Masses had actually become in-practice morning Masses. This was finally repaired in the 1950s.
The new Missal of Bl Paul VI added a new Mass for the morning of December 24. In the 3rd edition of that Missal, a rubric was added to allow the practice of celebrating the Christmas Eve Mass in the morning of Dec. 24, as it had been done in the past, or even after noon (hence the “before or after Vespers”).
So, on the morning of December 24, the priest can actually use either the Mass of Dec. 24 or the Christmas Vigil Mass, even though it would be too early for that Mass to fulfill the Christmas Mass obligation.
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