Does the Easter Vigil Mass fulfill Easter Sunday obligation?

[Phemie]

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist also has its own special vigil.

Margaret

That’s it! Thank you, I simply couldn’t remember and it’s not in the Readers’ Workbook, unlike the other Vigils.

 

[mangy_dog]

Yes, we have a name for people that go to church on Christmas and Easter and skip church the rest of the time. They’re “ChrEasters”!

And yes, the church may be bulging (in fact it overflows into another building) but the Brass Ensemble at 10:30 mass on Easter Sunday makes it all worthwhile for me!

Melanie

Chreasters!! oh that is too funny. Chreastians!! oh my God that is funny. Sounds like someone with a heavy Spanish accent…

 

[James0235]

However, I would attend the Easter Sunday Mass just to hear the Sequence.

Yeah, but if you go to the Vigil you get to hear the Exultet!

My plan is to go to the Vigil (Ordinary Form) and to the Easter Sunday Mass (Extraordinary Form). That way I get to hear both. :dancing:

(And if I can work it out I may be going to Divine Liturgy in the evening on Easter Sunday). :dancing:

James

 

[James0235]

I love the Easter Vigil, unfortunately it’s not happening in our parish this year.

Our pastor decided to only have 1 vigil, at the parish 30 miles away where he is administrator. That parish community is another culture and worships in a language none of us understand. He’s admitted that he does no planning, they wing it. If some of us show up they might have a bilingual celebration and some of us would be asked to read.

I’ve decided to go to the Easter morning Mass where things have been prepared and not ‘winged’.

Even with the fact that it is another culture and another language I would have considered going anyway just for the experience.

But then I read the part about winging it. That would be what killed it for me.

James

 

[psr13]

The EF has the same Mass for the Vigil and on Sunday right? My Missal for that has Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. If that is the case then we’ll go to the OF on Saturday night and the EF on Sunday morning.

 

[Kathrin]

I have a question. Usually on Sundays, you can either go to the Saturday vigil mass or a mass on Sunday. On Easter though, the Vigil Mass is very different from the Sunday one, right? Do they still count for the same “obligation”, that is to say, can I go to the Easter Vigil mass INSTEAD of the Sunday mass?

Kathrin

p.s. This sounds awfully formal. But I really have been wondering.

 

[THurifer2]

I have a question. Usually on Sundays, you can either go to the Saturday vigil mass or a mass on Sunday. On Easter though, the Vigil Mass is very different from the Sunday one, right? Do they still count for the same “obligation”, that is to say, can I go to the Easter Vigil mass INSTEAD of the Sunday mass?

Kathrin

p.s. This sounds awfully formal. But I really have been wondering.

the key word here is vigil. One must understand what the word vigil means. If it is called easter vigil or Anything vigil for that matter it means its applies to the mass the next day.

 

[baltobetsy]

Yes, you may attend either one or both and fulfill your obligation.

Betsy

 

[BennyBoy89]

Why not go to both?

 

[LilyM]

I have a question. Usually on Sundays, you can either go to the Saturday vigil mass or a mass on Sunday. On Easter though, the Vigil Mass is very different from the Sunday one, right? Do they still count for the same “obligation”, that is to say, can I go to the Easter Vigil mass INSTEAD of the Sunday mass?

Kathrin

p.s. This sounds awfully formal. But I really have been wondering.

Sure they are. And if you went to an NO Mass on any Saturday evening and then a TLM or Eastern Catholic Liturgy on the Sunday they would also be very different from each other, yet all equally valid for fulfilling the Sunday obligation.

 

[Karl_M]

The Easter Vigil fulfils the Holy Day obligation.

Think about the poor priest and deacon, etc…

Easter Vigil starts (at my parish) at 9pm, probably won’t be done 'till almost 11pm, you have to figure about 30 minutes to clean up the church and get everything squared away, then go home (OK, the priest just has to walk across the parking lot, but everyone else has to drive). Get the LOTH in there somewhere, go to bed at what, maybe 12:30, 1am. Alarm goes off at maybe 7am, shower, eat breakfast, LOTH, be at the church at 8:30, get it opened up by 9am, Mass at 10am.

That is dedication. I’m tired just thinking about it.

 

[ABostonCatholic]

Yup, it counts. And it’s great to go to both since they are different.

It’s a lot like Christmas. There are different masses for different times of the day: Christmas Eve Vigil, Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn, and Mass During the Day. You can go to all four (but keep in mind you can only receive communion twice in a day, save for danger of death, and the second time must be within Mass).

 

[Kathrin]

I have done that before, gone to both. I think I never only did the Easter Vigil, sometimes I only did the Sunday though. (I LOVE the Easter Vigil mass though!)

Thanks for the replies. I am invited to lunch at my grandparents’ for Easter. If we go early and I won’t have time for the morning mass in our parish, now I don’t have to worry about it if I go to the Vigil.
And I don’t have to set my alarm necessarily if it gets late on Saturday. Not that I may not do it anyway.

Kathrin

 

[THurifer2]

I just realized I don’t think I have NOT gone to just one or the other…my whole life. Not going to the vigil and Easter sunday just doesn’t sound right to me.

 

[Joannm]

The Easter Vigil fulfils the Holy Day obligation.

Think about the poor priest and deacon, etc…

Easter Vigil starts (at my parish) at 9pm, probably won’t be done 'till almost 11pm, you have to figure about 30 minutes to clean up the church and get everything squared away, then go home (OK, the priest just has to walk across the parking lot, but everyone else has to drive). Get the LOTH in there somewhere, go to bed at what, maybe 12:30, 1am. Alarm goes off at maybe 7am, shower, eat breakfast, LOTH, be at the church at 8:30, get it opened up by 9am, Mass at 10am.

That is dedication. I’m tired just thinking about it.

Poor priest and deacon? Well what about us who work for the parish and have been working our tails off all week preparing. What of the choir members who after 5 days of rehearsals and singing at liturgies have to get up again Easter morning to sing at Mass. Lots of people are going to be completely wiped out on Monday morning. I am tkaing Monday off…and maybe Tuesday too.

 

[Kathrin]

Maybe that’s one reason Easter Monday is a holiday here in Switzerland?

 

[Sanazaro]

Can someone who actually knows the answer to this question, and doesn’t just want to offer an opinion, please post a reply?

 

[Phemie]

Can someone who actually knows the answer to this question, and doesn’t just want to offer an opinion, please post a reply?

The answer has been given several times but if you want documentation you need look no further than the Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1248 §1. A person who assists at a Mass celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the feast day itself or in the evening of the preceding day satisfies the obligation of participating in the Mass.

 

[Sanazaro]

Well, thank you. But being an English teacher, I’m into syntax, and ‘assist’ is not exactly the same as ‘attend’. I’m going to go with the idea that the Vatican thinks so though!

 

[Phemie]

Well, thank you. But being an English teacher, I’m into syntax, and ‘assist’ is not exactly the same as ‘attend’. I’m going to go with the idea that the Vatican thinks so though!

Assist is an archaic term for “attend”.
The Latin version of the Canon says

Can. 1248 - §1. Praecepto de Missa participanda satisfacit qui Missae assistit ubicumque celebratur ritu catholico vel ipso die festo vel vespere diei praecedentis.

Translated directly from the Latin it makes sense.