B
blackice
Guest
Could anyone confirm for me please, attending midnight Mass (starting 00:00) would count as my Catholic obligation to attend Mass on Christmas day or would I need to attend Mass during the day.
- Status
D
DJgang
Guest
Yes, Midnight Mass will take care of your obligation for Christmas Day.
T
tee_eff_em
Guest
D
dachsiemom
Guest
Yes, midnight mass counts as HD of O - also some parishes have 5PM vigil masses - at leas where I live. Sadly, the midnight mass at my parish really isn’t a midnight mass as starts at 10PM. I prefer the real midnight mass.
S
SuscipeMeDomine
Guest
Either midnight Mass or a Mass earlier on Christmas eve would fulfill your obligation.
Canon law says: 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.
Just out of curiosity, why do you think parishes would offer Mass in the evening or at midnight if it didn’t fulfill your obligation?
O
Ohiomom
Guest
LOL, It might be obvious to cradle Catholics but I actually did attend midnight mass and mass Christmas morning for at least 2 years when I was in the process of converting before I learned you did not attend bothHow could it fail to do so?
tee
D
daeve
Guest
Same with us. But I must admit that by midnight, my voice is pretty tired and I’m the cantor. Twenty years age singing at midnight wouldn’t have phased me, but these days…
I think they started this so that families could come but most of our families with children go to the 5pm Mass and the children have a little pageant before the Mass begins.
T
tee_eff_em
Guest
FTR, my comment was not meant in the spirit of obviousness, but rather: Why would someone think it does not fulfill the obligation? It is a Mass of Christmas, and (when celebrated at the correct time) actually on the date of Christmas (as opposed to one of those “trickier” 5pm vigil Masses).
And still: In explaining this, I do not mean to imply that you or anyone else is unintelligent wrt to the question. But if you would propose it does *not *fulfill the obligation, you must have a reason to posit so?
tee
O
Ohiomom
Guest
I just laughed when I saw the question because the whole issue of obligation (which was moot because I loved going to mass) was foreign to a girl raised baptist. I think at the time I just figured since I arrived at church before midnight and went to sleep after mass I would still go the next morning, rightFTR, my comment was not meant in the spirit of obviousness, but rather: Why would someone think it does not fulfill the obligation? It is a Mass of Christmas, and (when celebrated at the correct time) actually on the date of Christmas (as opposed to one of those “trickier” 5pm vigil Masses).
And still: In explaining this, I do not mean to imply that you or anyone else is unintelligent wrt to the question. But if you would propose it does *not *fulfill the obligation, you must have a reason to posit so?
tee
, lol. I am quite certain it did my soul no harm and I was very young so I did not need much sleep anyway, lol.
P
pandacordova
Guest
I am glad I saw this thread. I have been looking at the schedule of Masses for Chiristmas and actually thought that I had to go to a vigil, mid-night mass and then get up and go to 7 am service. WOW!!
D
daeve
Guest
Just a quick aside, my other parish, not the one where I sing, is having the 5pm family Mass, then a Latin Mass at 8pm, and finally Midnight Mass at midnight. St. Louis can be very cool indeed. You want Mass? We got Mass!
G
GwenL
Guest
Ohiomom said,
I’m visiting my brother, 3 hours away, on Christmas eve and plan to attend midnight Mass at a church near his home. I hope to get back to my town by mid-day on Christmas and want to attend a Mass at my own parish. Do the words “did not attend both” indicate some sort of prohibition??? Maybe you only meant “did not have to attend both?”
Note I said “attend,” not “receive communion at.”
Thanks
I understand that one is not obligated to attend both Christmas eve Mass and Christmas day Mass. But, seeing as the readings are different, is there a problem with attending more than one? I see different readings for Christmas eve vigil Mass, Christmas eve midnight Mass, Christmas day dawn Mass, and Christmas day Mass.
I’m visiting my brother, 3 hours away, on Christmas eve and plan to attend midnight Mass at a church near his home. I hope to get back to my town by mid-day on Christmas and want to attend a Mass at my own parish. Do the words “did not attend both” indicate some sort of prohibition??? Maybe you only meant “did not have to attend both?”
Note I said “attend,” not “receive communion at.”
Thanks
M
mykesobe
Guest
Oo Mass in Latin!? Do most parishes do that? When will it be? I am partially Traditionalist and Latin Masses are still the best!
O
otjm
Guest
You can attend as many Christmas Masses as you can sustain. Snoring is not proper, so common sense should prevail.
By Canon law you are allowed to receive twice in the same day, but the second time you receive Communion must be at a Mass. So it is perfectly fine to go to Midnight Mass, and the 7 a.m. one too (if you can wake up in time to go) or the 10 am or the noon one or wahtever schedule your nearby parish has, and receive at both. Or one. Or neither.
J
johnnykins
Guest
Not only does Midnight Mass count toward your obligation, in the olden days it did, too. It used to be that Christmas Eve was a day of fasting, so Midnight Mass was often followed by a light meal - in my house and many other in my neighborhood - Oyster Stew.
O
otjm
Guest
I had totally forgotten about oyster stew, but we did too, on several occsions.
Any idea what the source of the tradition was?
D
daeve
Guest
There are several Latin Masses in town. That parish is Assumption, in South St. Louis County. There’s a 3pm TLM every Sunday. It’s usually a high Mass, but sometimes it’s a low Mass. Little Flower in Richmond Heights has one at 9:15 on Sundays, St. Mary of Victories in South City has a 9:30 on Sunday, Sts Gregory & Augustine in Creve Coeur has daily low Mass at 7:30, plus another one on Sunday at 11, and St. Francis de Sales also in South City has 2 on Sundays, at least one every weekday, and 3 on Holy Days. I don’t know who else is having Christmas, but the last two only have Latin so they certainly will. Holy Family in Cahokia IL across the river has one on Sunday morning too, at 9am I think.
We also have regular Masses, guitar Masses, Spanish, Chinese or Viet Namese Masses, lots of teen Masses, Masses as late as 6pm on Sunday evenings…pretty much any kind of Mass you want to attend you can find in St. Louis.
We spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s family who wasn’t Catholic, until it was time to leave for Mass. I can remember everybody chowing down on baked ham, and we’d be eating Swiss cheese sandwiches. I had Christmas Eve in Brooklyn several times, and always made two lasagnas, one the regular way and the other meatless using zuchinni instead. Others Italian families have calamari or scungilli on Christmas Eve, but we’re Northern Italian and didn’t really eat what you think of as Italian food.
P
Phemie
Guest
In the Acadian tradition, after Midnight Mass we had a ‘réveillon’, a gathering of family and friends (at our house because we were the ‘littlest cousins’) where we opened all our presents, ate copious amounts of food (traditionally ‘meat pies’), drank lots of ‘cheer’ (well, the littlest cousins didn’t
), candy, nuts and lots of love and hugging and kissing.Because of this tradition I looked forward to the end of my first Midnight Mass (1961 or 62), so when Communion came it was "Oh goodie, we’ll be home to unwrap presents soon.’ Surprise! No sooner were the last prayers said that the priest started a new Mass! What??? Looking at Dad with big question marks in my eyes, he leaned and whispered ‘Mass at Dawn’ in French. In French the name for that Mass is "Messe de l’aurore’. This was more confusion because ‘Aurore’ was the name of an abused child in a very famous Quebec movie from the 50s and I just couldn’t understand why we were having a Mass for a movie character at Christmas – not to mention that it was delaying gift opening.
M
malphono
Guest
Lasagne isn’t Italian???
The more common styles seen in the US come from the South, but if I remember correctly, lasagne was originally Bolognese. As for the North, there’s a wonderful lasagne ala genovese which is meatless and absolutely wonderful!
M
malphono
Guest
And not to mention that waiting tourtière!
- Status