Sunday night mass?

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Does Sunday night mass fulfill my obligation for sunday? I am asking because this weekend I don’t think I can make the morning sunday mass, but they hold a mass at 7pm and I can make that.
 
Yes. Why would it not?

tee
I’ve often wondered the same thing. Because if Saturday 4pm mass fulfills the Sunday obligation how can any mass after Sunday 4pm be considered fulfilling Sunday’s obligation? How long does a Catholic day last? 😉 Of course, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
 
I’ve often wondered the same thing. Because if Saturday 4pm mass fulfills the Sunday obligation how can any mass after Sunday 4pm be considered fulfilling Sunday’s obligation?
How do you know that a Saturday 4pm Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation?

tee
 
How do you know that a Saturday 4pm Mass fulfills the Sunday obligation?
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=20461

Well there is some disagreement as to when the next day begins. If a Saturday afternoon mass does not fulfill the obligation then a great many parishes are causing parishioners to wrongfully trust that they have fulfilled their obligation by going to one - in fact even the Sunday liturgy is read thus implying that the mass fulfills the Sunday obligation. And so far there is no formal declaration on the matter. I doubt God is condemning anyone for having celebrated the Lord’s Day on Saturday. Technicalities aside, I think He is pleased that we celebrate it regardless of exactly when we consider it to be Sunday, although I’m sure that answer doesn’t fly in apologetics :rolleyes:
 
Yeah I was just confused because a saturday night mass counts as a Sunday mass obligation so I just wanted to make sure a Sunday night was still considered a Sunday mass obligation.
 
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=20461

Well there is some disagreement as to when the next day begins. If a Saturday afternoon mass does not fulfill the obligation then a great many parishes are causing parishioners to wrongfully trust that they have fulfilled their obligation by going to one - in fact even the Sunday liturgy is read thus implying that the mass fulfills the Sunday obligation. And so far there is no formal declaration on the matter. I doubt God is condemning anyone for having celebrated the Lord’s Day on Saturday. Technicalities aside, I think He is pleased that we celebrate it regardless of exactly when we consider it to be Sunday, although I’m sure that answer doesn’t fly in apologetics :rolleyes:
Good. But I asked the question in service of the original question *Does Sunday night mass fulfill my obligation for sunday? *(Which you said you have wondered about). Does the canon quoted by [user]Michelle Arnold[/user] answer that question?
§1 The obligation of assisting at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a Catholic rite either on a holy day itself or on the evening of the previous day (canon 1248).
tee
 
Good. But I asked the question in service of the original question *Does Sunday night mass fulfill my obligation for sunday? *(Which you said you have wondered about). Does the canon quoted by [user]Michelle Arnold[/user] answer that question?

tee
Well that was the reason I brought up Saturday afternoon, b/c I suspected that was the reason the o.p. posed the question (which you asked why it (sunday night) would not (be fulfilling the obligation).
either on a holy day itself or on the evening of the previous day
I guess it all hinges upon whether or not we should pick apart “day itself” in this quote. Assuming this means our current practice of equating a day with 24 hours from midnight to midnight it appears that a Sunday evening mass does fulfill the obligation.
 
I guess it all hinges upon whether or not we should pick apart “day itself” in this quote. Assuming this means our current practice of equating a day with 24 hours from midnight to midnight it appears that a Sunday evening mass does fulfill the obligation.
Fortunately, Canon Law provides that we need not assume.
Can. 202 §1. In law, a day is understood as a period consisting of 24 continuous hours and begins at midnight unless other provision is expressly made…
tee
 
I suppose the only place where it would not fulfill the obligation is if it was a vigil mass for Monday.
 
I suppose the only place where it would not fulfill the obligation is if it was a vigil mass for Monday.
Re-read the [post=272364]Ask an Apologist answer[/post], cited above, viz:
  • Because the obligation is satisfied by any Catholic eucharistic liturgy, the readings of the Mass do not matter. The readings only matter in that they must be appropriate to the liturgy being celebrated; they do not determine whether or not a person can satisfy his Sunday obligation at that Mass.
tee
 
Does Sunday night mass fulfill my obligation for sunday? I am asking because this weekend I don’t think I can make the morning sunday mass, but they hold a mass at 7pm and I can make that.
Yes. Definitely. As long as the Mass happens on a Sunday (ie before Midnight Monday morning) it fulfills the Sunday obligation–no matter what. Some colleges even have 10 PM Masses Sunday night.
 
If the Sunday Propers (prayers, readings, et al) are being used at the 7 pm mass on Sunday, then it’s a Sunday mass.

If the Sunday Propers are being used at or after 4 pm on Saturday, then it’s a Sunday Mass.
 
If the Sunday Propers (prayers, readings, et al) are being used at the 7 pm mass on Sunday, then it’s a Sunday mass.

If the Sunday Propers are being used at or after 4 pm on Saturday, then it’s a Sunday Mass.
But the Propers don’t matter. The canon says your obligation is satisfied by attending “Mass”, not necessarily an anticipated Sunday Mass. I think the biggest problem we have is not with what Mass “counts”; I think the biggest problem we see is "how early is ‘evening’.

Rome set 4 p.m. as the earliest an “evening Mass” could start back in 1953 when such Masses were first allowed. (CHRISTUS DOMINUS, January 6, 1953, # 12) Yet we find people who think that if they attend Mass at 2 pm Saturday, for any reason, they have fulfilled their Sunday obligation.
 
But the Propers don’t matter. The canon says your obligation is satisfied by attending “Mass”, not necessarily an anticipated Sunday Mass. I think the biggest problem we have is not with what Mass “counts”; I think the biggest problem we see is "how early is ‘evening’.

Rome set 4 p.m. as the earliest an “evening Mass” could start back in 1953 when such Masses were first allowed. (CHRISTUS DOMINUS, January 6, 1953, # 12) Yet we find people who think that if they attend Mass at 2 pm Saturday, for any reason, they have fulfilled their Sunday obligation.
“Problem”? Maybe. But as there is dispute among competent canonists and legislators on the point, I don’t think the *problem *can be said to rest with the people – They may well be correct.

:twocents:
tee
 
That’s a good point tee_.

Have you any idea why, say, the Canon Law society across the pond says that “the evening” prior means anytime after 12pm noon?

Is it a matter of ambiguity over the start of evening, such that, in an attempt to attain certainty they say that at least evening can’t start in the morning (i.e. *before noon)?

*VC
 
If this further helps this discussion, I would like to point out that in the Church’s other main liturgical celebration, the Liturgy of the Hours (for those of you who are familiar with it), Sundays always have 2 vespers (evening) services: the first one is on Saturday evening and the 2nd one is on Sunday evening. The same is true for solemnities.

So by this reasoning, it should follow that Sunday evening Mass is canonically valid to count as Sunday.
 
Friends, all we have to do is look at the canon which has been quoted a few times already. It clearly states that ANY Mass celebrated on the actual day (ie the calendar day, which ends just before the stroke of Midnight) or the evening before fulfills the obligation.
 
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