Sunday Mass Obligation

[Blessedwithfive]

Hi Friends,

When did the Sunday Mass begin to be an obligation? I thought I read somewhere on this site that it was in the 1800’s but I can’t find it anywhere. I tried googling…

Just to be clear when did the Church make Sunday Mass an obligation that was “grave matter” if you intentionally missed/skipped it.

And taking it one step further, could it be “down graded” and not be an obligation under pain of sin? Is it dogma that we must attend or simply a discipline?

Thanks

 

[pianistclare]

It is both a precept of the Church and Church law that Catholics must worship God on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation by participating in the Holy Mass. This follows from the fact that in the Mass it is Christ Himself who worships the Father, joining our worship to His. In no other way is it possible to adequately give thanks (eucharistia) to God for the blessings of creation, redemption and our sanctification than by uniting our offerings to that of Jesus Christ Himself. Following the example of the Old Covenant the Church does this weekly, on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection.

Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.

 

[phil19034]

Hi Friends,

When did the Sunday Mass begin to be an obligation? I thought I read somewhere on this site that it was in the 1800’s but I can’t find it anywhere. I tried googling…

Just to be clear when did the Church make Sunday Mass an obligation that was “grave matter” if you intentionally missed/skipped it.

And taking it one step further, could it be “down graded” and not be an obligation under pain of sin? Is it dogma that we must attend or simply a discipline?

Thanks

That would have been since the beginning of the Church. It may not have been documented until later, but Sunday Mass has been a requirement since the beginning, just like observing the Sabbath was required of Jews before Christ.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

That would have been since the beginning of the Church. It may not have been documented until later, but Sunday Mass has been a requirement since the beginning, just like observing the Sabbath was required of Jews before Christ.

I don’t believe that the concept of “mortal sin” was in Jewish culture and thus the idea of Sunday obligation under such a penalty would seem to have been a later development. Plus, clusters of Christians predictably headed to the house churches of the time would seem to have been a red flag in times of Roman persecutions.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Attending the Sunday Divine Liturgy, if possible, has always been a responsibility for Christians.

Catholic Encyclopedia: Sunday

…These and similar indications show that during the first three centuries practice and tradition had consecrated the Sunday to the public worship of God by the hearing of the Mass and the resting from work. With the opening of the fourth century positive legislation, both ecclesiastical and civil, began to make these duties more definite. The Council of Elvira (300) decreed: “If anyone in the city neglects to come to church for three Sundays, let him be excommunicated for a short time so that he may be corrected” (xxi). In the Apostolic Constitutions, which belong to the end of the fourth century, both the hearing of the Mass and the rest from work are prescribed, and the precept is attributed to the Apostles. The express teaching of Christ and St. Paul prevented the early Christians from falling into the excesses of Jewish Sabbatarianism in the observance of the Sunday, and yet we find St. Cæsarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day. He especially insisted on the people hearing the whole of the Mass and not leaving the church after the Epistle and the Gospel had been read.

 

[Dorothy]

It is both a precept of the Church and Church law that Catholics must worship God on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation by participating in the Holy Mass. This follows from the fact that in the Mass it is Christ Himself who worships the Father, joining our worship to His. In no other way is it possible to adequately give thanks (eucharistia) to God for the blessings of creation, redemption and our sanctification than by uniting our offerings to that of Jesus Christ Himself. Following the example of the Old Covenant the Church does this weekly, on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection.

Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.

And, what an extraordinary privilege that is!

 

[buc_fan33]

Hi Friends,

When did the Sunday Mass begin to be an obligation? I thought I read somewhere on this site that it was in the 1800’s but I can’t find it anywhere. I tried googling…

Just to be clear when did the Church make Sunday Mass an obligation that was “grave matter” if you intentionally missed/skipped it.

And taking it one step further, could it be “down graded” and not be an obligation under pain of sin? Is it dogma that we must attend or simply a discipline?

Thanks

“Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day.”
–God, quoted in Exodus 20:8

 

[angell1]

It is both a precept of the Church and Church law that Catholics must worship God on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation by participating in the Holy Mass. This follows from the fact that in the Mass it is Christ Himself who worships the Father, joining our worship to His. In no other way is it possible to adequately give thanks (eucharistia) to God for the blessings of creation, redemption and our sanctification than by uniting our offerings to that of Jesus Christ Himself. Following the example of the Old Covenant the Church does this weekly, on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection.

Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.

yep.
,
it has always been an obligation to worship God. However, the when and how and what form are disciplinary.

pope Francis could wake up tomorrow and say that we must all attend daily mass from now on. probably wouldn’t be practical or possible for many people, but it’s possible.

or mass attendance could be reduced to once a month. again, not desirable, but it could happen.

Just like how there are changes and variations with the holy days besides sundays

 

[Vico]

Hi Friends,

When did the Sunday Mass begin to be an obligation? I thought I read somewhere on this site that it was in the 1800’s but I can’t find it anywhere. I tried googling…

Just to be clear when did the Church make Sunday Mass an obligation that was “grave matter” if you intentionally missed/skipped it.

And taking it one step further, could it be “down graded” and not be an obligation under pain of sin? Is it dogma that we must attend or simply a discipline?

Thanks

The method of reckoning the Sunday from sunset to sunset continued in some places down to the seventeenth century, but in general since the Middle Ages the reckoning from midnight to midnight has been followed. When the parochial system was introduced, the laity were taught that they must hear Mass and the preaching of the Word of God on Sundays in their parish church. However, toward the end of the thirteenth century, the friars began to teach that the precept of hearing Mass might be fulfilled by hearing it in their churches, and after long and severe struggles this was expressly allowed by the Holy See. Nowadays, the precept may be fulfilled by hearing Mass in any place except a strictly private oratory, and provided Mass is not celebrated on a portable altar by a privilege which is merely personal.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm

 

[Phemie]

The method of reckoning the Sunday from sunset to sunset continued in some places down to the seventeenth century, but in general since the Middle Ages the reckoning from midnight to midnight has been followed. When the parochial system was introduced, the laity were taught that they must hear Mass and the preaching of the Word of God on Sundays in their parish church. However, toward the end of the thirteenth century, the friars began to teach that the precept of hearing Mass might be fulfilled by hearing it in their churches, and after long and severe struggles this was expressly allowed by the Holy See. Nowadays, the precept may be fulfilled by hearing Mass in any place except a strictly private oratory, and provided Mass is not celebrated on a portable altar by a privilege which is merely personal.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm

I stand to be corrected but I don’t think that rule is quite right since it predates both the 1917 & 1983 Codes of Canon Law.

 

[Vico]

I stand to be corrected but I don’t think that rule is quite right since it predates both the 1917 & 1983 Codes of Canon Law.

Yes, the canon law has become:

CCEO Canon 881 §1. The Christian faithful are bound by the obligation to participate on Sundays and feast days in the Divine Liturgy, or according to the prescriptions or legitimate customs of their own Church sui iuris, in the celebration of the divine praises. § 2.In order for the Christian faithful to fulfill this obligation more easily, the available time runs from the evening of the vigil until the end of the Sunday or feast day.

**CIC Canon 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.