Easter Sunrise Services

  • Thread starter Thread starter lanman87
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lanman87

Guest
Here in the rural Southern United States many Baptist/Methodist churches will hold Easter Sunrise Services. The church will gather outside, sometimes in a park or area with a great view of the sunrise, and watch the sun come up on Easter morning then hold a short celebration service of Scripture reading, Worship through singing, and praying.

I’ve attended several of sunrise services on Easter morning through the years and always found them to be a very uplifting worship experience.

Do Catholic Parishes do anything similar?
 
Catholic churches usually don’t have this. First, you’d have to have a suitable outdoor space available that the Church could use without having to go through all kinds of local permit process. Many churches outside of rural areas simply don’t have any such available space. Second, even if they did have a nearby space, then assuming the service is a Mass, it’s much easier from a logistical standpoint to have the Mass in the church. That way you don’t have to worry about weather, or transporting all the items one would need to set up and hold a Mass, especially on such a busy day as Easter.

It’s unlikely that a Catholic church would be promoting any kind of service on Easter that wasn’t a Mass. If the parish offered an Easter prayer service, it would be seen as detracting from/ competing with Mass; some people would likely be confused about whether the prayer service fulfilled their Sunday obligation; and priests and resources really aren’t available on Easter for anything other than Masses to serve the huge Easter crowd.

Also, the Easter Vigil as originally designed was supposed to start at sunset and go until sunrise, so it was sort of the original “Sunrise Service”. Over the centuries it has been shortened and it now finishes up on Saturday evening. I would really like to see a Catholic Easter Vigil that proceeds as originally intended and ends at dawn on Easter, but haven’t seen anything offered like that yet.

It is possible that some prayer group or Catholic movement group might have some kind of a prayer service for the group members on Easter that would be like you describe, presumably one that wouldn’t involve the priests on their busy weekend, but it would probably not be a parish-sponsored activity. I can see some youth group doing it maybe.
 
The Association of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, MO had a sunrise Easter Mass this year. I think it was their first time doing so!
 
It does sound like a cool idea. If a church had such a service I’d definitely go.

I also suspect that there may be some shrines that have such services, since a lot of shrines are on large plots of land and have some kind of open-air worship facility where many of the attendees are normally outside, with the sanctuary and altar being under some type of roof and already all set up for Mass.
 
Basically no we do not. We have a liturgy, the highlight of the liturgical year, so to speak, called the Paschal (Easter) Vigil. This can be celebrated on either Easter Sunday morning or Holy Saturday (the day before) night. It must be celebrated in the dark, i.e. dark outside not no lights on in church. So, that could not be celebrated at dawn. I have noticed here in the UK that a lot of Anglican and Protestant churches celebrate Easter with a dawn or early morning service.

Of course, as Catholics, we must go to Mass on a Sunday; therefore, the main services celebrated on Easter Sunday morning will be Mass. The clergy simply do not have the time or resources, and by the end of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum not much energy, to provide anything else.

I suppose a Mass could be held outdoors but then there is the problem of finding a suitable venue both to see the sunrise and for Mass. Plus it is far easier just to set up for Mass inside a church rather than outdoors. Also there is not guarantee of good weather at this time of year; although Easter this year here in the UK has been beautiful, very sunny. No one wants to attend in the pouring rain and not much point if thick cloud were to obscure the sunrise. From my perspective I am not sure how many people who may have attended a relatively long, late night service on Saturday will want to get up to go to a dawn service on Easter. I am sure that not many priests would want to either and I would not blame them.
 
lanman87 said:
Do Catholic Parishes do anything similar?
Click to expand...
After the Triduum, including a 3+ hour Vigil Mass that does not get out til 11 PM or later, I doubt you are going to find a parish where scheduling a Mass at sunrise is do-able.
 
Our Eastern Catholic parish is unusual in having a second blessed Altar outside,

I refer to my daughter’s wedding as “the only licit outdoor Catholic wedding” 🙂
We actually hung an iconostasis with cloth, brought out the portable icons, etc. for it, as the expected crowd would fit inside the church.

It worked outside that we’ve done it for Pascha (Easter) every year since–except for the waning cloth; they flip around far too much in the wind . . . we also do it when the bishop visits.

But getting folks there for sunrise would be another issue. Not only do people drive as much as an hour on Sunday already, but we have the Resurrection Matins beforehand, which takes almost an hour . . .
 
Our town has an outdoor Altar at the Catholic Cemetery, Mass is now only said there once each year (All Souls Day). Doubt we could get people to a cemetery on Easter Morning…
 
Last edited:
Ours does but we have 1.5 priests (one helps out at our parish most Sundays and runs a smaller parish nearby) and 5 deacons. So the work is spread out better. I agree that most parishes simply wouldn’t be able to make it work logistically.
 
I love Easter Vigil. It means almost as much to me as the service on Easter Sunday, and I go to both. Of the three masses I have attended, two of them have been for Easter Vigil. Some Lutheran churches do Easter Vigil too, including the one I used to attend before I moved. In my current location, only Catholic churches do them, so I go to them instead. Probably the only Protestant there (I sure felt like the only Protestant there when it was time for everyone else to approach for communion), but definitely worth it.
 
My parish does do a Easter sunrise mass every year. It is held at a pavilion on Church property (our parish has a lot of land, plus a school, and a cemetery). I have been at this parish for going on five years and it has been done each year since I have been there, although I have never gone to it. I have no idea how well attended it is though I am guessing that not many people opt to go to it as it starts at 6 AM.

I have been a member of several parishes in my lifetime, and my current one is the only parish that has done it so it is likely the exception rather than the rule.
 
Yes, I attended a sunrise Mass this Easter. It was beautiful. We were in the courtyard of the school. They had an organ or piano outside with microphones. There was an altar set up. We sat on folding chairs in the grass. I enjoyed it. The sunrise service was at 6:30am.

I also attended the Easter vigil at another church the night before so I did not get much
sleep.

@Ianman87
 
Last edited:
Throughout the year, our parish has a 6:30 a.m. Mass scheduled daily and on Saturdays and Sundays. There are exceptions (e.g., certain holidays like July 4), but for the most part, it’s an every-day thing.

And that means that quite often, the priests are up late the night before at some parish or diocesan event (e.g., Bible study), or at a social event or family event–and they get up and pray Mass for us at 6:30 in the morning.

Think about it–many of us stay out late at Easter Vigil Mass, and then get up early Sunday morning to go to work (for me, my hospital job starts at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, but often, we get there earlier so that we will be able to finish the work with our weekend short-staff).

Also, many people get up early the Sunday morning after Easter Vigil Mass to prepare for their family celebrations (e.g., Easter egg hunt for the children, big Easter dinner for family/friends, cleaning house, etc.) And there are also people who get up early to help with various community events held on Easter (e.g., 5K runs, charitable events).

Getting up early doesn’t kill anyone, even if they were out late the night before. Our priests are pretty tough!
 
I once went to an Anglican Easter Vigil which began at about 5am. Just as the Gloria was sung the sun began to rise and the Church was flooded with sunlight by the end. It was a lovely service.
 
What I am saying is the parish staff and the priests, do you expect them to get out of Mass at midnight and be back to set up for a new Mass 5 hours later (open the Church, clean up from the Vigil, etc will take time before the Sunrise Mass)? Then do three more Masses that day?
 
Last edited:
There is one parish in my area that had a 6 am Easter morning Mass. The parish is also the second-biggest parish, numbers-wise, in the archdiocese and likely had to schedule that Mass in order to have enough Masses for everybody to attend. That’s the only one I’m aware of that had a Mass that early.
 
Last edited:
The Catholic Church has the Easter Vigil. It starts at sundown on Holy Saturday and lasts very long. There are seven readings before the Gospel. There are baptisms, confirmations, and first communions. I was at the one we had last Saturday and it lasted for three hours.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top