Easter Vigil before dark?

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Michael_Anthony

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In an effort to make the Easter Vigil more family-friendly this year, our pastor decided to start the Easter Vigil at 7:45, but where I live, sundown wasn’t until after 8, (we finally reached near full dark around the Gloria), is this liturgical abuse, or else some severe problem? I understand that it is not supposed to start until after dark and be completed entirely during the night, ending before sunrise.
 
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We could not make the Saturday Easter vigil this year beacuse it was far to late we also did not have 1 in our area so wouldve had to drive an hour away. If it was on earlier or we didn’t have to drive so far we would’ve gone where we are we have a church the next town over 30 minutes away has a church and the next town from there 30 minutes away has a church if it had been at the church in the middle or earlier it would’ve been possible however I have a huge problem with the kids staying up 2-3 hours past there bedtime for church especially when bed time is the time that church starts
Alot of parents and children miss out when vigils are to late it gets dark here around 6pm so they didn’t have to wait until it was dark
Going to church rurally driving an hour away to get to church trying to juggle Friday Saturday and Sunday mass ( not knowing what church is going to have what mass and then finding out on Thursday that friday and saturday is going to be an hours drive away is frustrating for Sunday mass the town that got Friday and Saturday only had to drive 30 minutes for sunday) I wish that all big vigils and services etc were at the church right in the middle of everyone it would make it so much easier ( yes I would still have to drive half an hour each way however it would still be easier I would love to say at the church 600 meters up the road however we would still end up with people having to drive an hour each way to get to church)
 
The Church is clear that it should happen after true dark. Ours was at 9 AST and it still wasn’t true dark, you could still see blue in the sky. As it was we only had about 35 people at the Vigil. Any later and you’d only have had the readers, choir, EMHCs, and the priest.

The only children at our Vigil were the two altar servers and their 5 year old brother. Their mom was in the choir, their dad was thurifer and both mom & dad were readers.
 
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As you wrote, your pastor decided it. Therefore:
  1. It is probably fine.
  2. You could ask him.
Be glad you don’t live in Barrows, Alaska, where the sun set last night at 11:12 PM.
 
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In Vancouver it was definitely dark when the Vigil began at 9. Full house at our cathedral. Archbishop, a retired bishop, several priests, a few deacons… several baptisms. Lasted until about 11:30. Definitely my favourite Mass of the year.
 
Sundown isn’t the requirement. When should a Sunday vigil Mass (sat evening) begin in northern Alaska in late june?
 
Actually, full dark is a requirement for the Easter Vigil, not for regular Saturday evening Mass. Of course the Church doesn’t require the impossible so if full dark is impossible you do it “at night” whenever that is.

Our diocese usually sends out a notification that the Easter Vigil cannot start before a specific time. I used to check with the weather office on the military base to see when sundown was on Holy Saturday. Generally full dark is 30 minutes later. But we’re in the 53rd parallel so full dark is later than in more southern areas.
 
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My parish started at 8:30 PM in North Central West Virginia, which is after my GPS switched over to “night mode”. I’m not sure if it was quite “full dark” but it was getting pretty close to it. Anyway we’ve always started at 8:30 about as far back as I can remember. So the folks in the diocesan office must know by now and are fine with it.
 
Ours started at 9:00pm and ended at 10:45pm we had seven come into the Church. I believe 4 or 5 were baptized. Our regular priest had a family emergency of some kind and had to go out of town. Our replacement was a retired priest who was 93 years old so that may have been why it was so short you could tell that it was taking alot out of Father. He was real nice He had been the pastor back in the late sixties and everyone remembered very fondly. and our assistant priest who is from India and about 37 years old helped out But the older priest when the diocese asked him to come so the assistant would not be by himself graciously agreed to come about 5 days ago and has really been wonderful. He is also a very good confessor.
 
I couldn’t make my parish 8:00 pm Vigil Mass. Fortunately I was able to attend a TLM Mass. It started at 10:30 and ended at 1:00. I would have been ok if it went a few more hours. It was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced.
 
Ours started at 7:45. It was still light out, but it was twilight. If we had waited for complete darkness, we would have waited about 7 more days for the waning moon to be new–the moon was brilliant, and the sky was cloudless.

I thin that “total darkness” depends on the weather. If it is cloudy, the moon is hidden, and we have darkness. That’s what it was like last year. But not this year.

I cannot believe that four priests, including the priest in charge of ethics for our entire diocese, and two deacons, would deliberately commit liturgical abuse, or even accidently (out of ignorance) commit liturgical abuse. If they did–then Catholicism is a sham because if the priests can’t even figure out the proper rubrics for an Easter Vigil, then how can they be trusted to figure out anything?!

And I also cannot believe our bishop would ignore four priests and two deacons who disobey the rubrics!

I think we need to trust our Fathers!
 
Our Easter Vigil began around 8:30 and ended
about 11:45. Many people left before we had even finished the readings. We had 7 readings.
By the time we reached the baptisms and confirmations, half the people had left. By the
time we reached the Liturgy of the Eucharist,
a third of the church was remaining.
Are these Easter and Christmas only Catholics that don’t know what the Easter Vigil is? It was really sad to see people just get up and leave like it was a movie they didn’t like.
 
Are you serious? I can’t fathom that. How disrespectful. Ours was from 9 to 11:30. It was a full cathedral when it started and it was a full cathedral when it ended…
 
I don’t like to criticize people. The only question I have is didn’t these people leaving realize that the Easter Vigil is much longer than other Masses?
 
Most likely they are either people who didn’t know how long the Easter Vigil is or guests (perhaps non Catholic) of people who were being confirmed.
 
Michael_Anthony said:
In an effort to make the Easter Vigil more family-friendly this year, our pastor decided to start the Easter Vigil at 7:45, but where I live, sundown wasn’t until after 8, (we finally reached near full dark around the Gloria), is this liturgical abuse, or else some severe problem?
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The biggest issue I have with this comment is the thought that the priest wants to make the Easter Vigil more “family friendly.”

If the Easter Vigil is celebrated in its full splendor (with all 17 readings - 7 OT readings, 1 NT epistle, 1 Gospel and 8 Psalms, plus a good number of baptisms and confirmations) very few children are able to hang that long.

I attended one Easter Vigil a few years back where there were over 20 being baptized and another 30 being confirmed. So 50 confirmations in all.
  • It started at 8PM and was over after midnight. Kids who were there were grumpy and several eventually passed out in the pews.
I suspect his real goal was to attract more elderly or get our earlier. I know one priest who says he only does 3 OT readings because he doesn’t want to stay up that late 😦
  • Plus, since his the Parish has very few in RCIA, the Vigil is more for the elderly that are attending than the new Catholics. 😦
My guess, you Pastor is really thinking along the lines of the priest I know. 😦
 
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WE only had three readings from the old testament three psalms the epistle and the Gospel.
 
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