Feasting or fasting this vigil

[grace6877]

This Sunday is the vigil of Christmas. We are to fast on vigils. But it is a Sunday, which is a feast, and we ought to feast on feasts. So what are we supposed to do, feast or fast? (Naturally the following day we feast but does the Sunday outweigh the vigil? Or the other way around?)

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Sunday is never a day of fasting or abstinence. Moreover, under present Church regulations (at least in the United States), any fasts or abstinence associated with vigils outside of Lent would be purely a private devotion, good if that’s your thing, but never mandatory or binding under pain of sin.

Even under pre-Vatican II regulations, Sunday could never be a day of fast or abstinence, even if it were a vigil. The SSPX puts some color on this:

https://sspx.org/en/fast-abstinence-rules

More to the point here:

Some further clarifications to universal laws

There are more rules about fasting and abstaining when a fast day was in concurrence with a Sunday:

Sundays throughout the year and Holy Days of Obligation outside of Lent cancelled the fasting and/or abstinence of any penitential day which coincided.

If a fast-day Vigil fell on Sunday, the fasting and abstinence associated with the Vigil were not anticipated on the Saturday, but dropped altogether that year.

Short answer: Christmas Eve is not a day of fast or abstinence this year, and would not even have been prior to the Vatican II era.

 

[po18guy]

Been trying to fast this Advent. Although normally associated with Lent, it is efficacious on any and all days other than feast days. The God Who is out of time will apply the benefits according with His will.