Sunday obligation and Christmas

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Since Christmas falls on a Monday what is the Sunday obligation? I want to go to the Christmas Vigil Mass on Sunday evening, do I need to go to mass Sunday morning to fulfill the Sunday obligation? If so, then must I only take communion at one of the masses?

Thanks
marci
 
As I understand it, you need to go Sunday morning (or Saturday evening) to fulfill the Sunday obligation.

You are allowed to receive at both masses.
 
marci said:
Since Christmas falls on a Monday what is the Sunday obligation? I want to go to the Christmas Vigil Mass on Sunday evening, do I need to go to mass Sunday morning to fulfill the Sunday obligation? If so, then must I only take communion at one of the masses?

Thanks
marci
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Hi Lady!
You need to attend two masses. One for Sunday and one for Monday. One mass Sunday evening does not count for both. You may receive at both masses.

We’ll be doing Sunday at 4:30 then probably the 1:30 on Christmas Day.

At one point we were lined up for Choir 9:30am Sunday, 4:30 Sunday for the Nativity play, Dad was going to sing at Midnight, then choir again at 9:30am Christmas Day!

We would be really Holy by the end of it. The choir director skinnied up the masses the girls will sing at. Whew!
 
The rule on communion is that you may receive only twice in a day (midnight to midnight), and that the second time must be at a mass, not say a communion service or what have you. This should not be an issue.

Turning to the other question,
The obligation of assisting at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a catholic rite either on a holyday itself or on the evening of the previous day.
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If you look at Canon 1284, you’ll see that you may attend Fourth Sunday mass anytime from Saturday evening (generally understood as 4pm in the US) to midnight Sunday night. Same with Christmas, from 4pm Sunday to midnight Christmas night. Generally, however, masses are not celebrated Christmas night.

Although that is the letter of the law, you may find it more spiritually fulfilling to attend Fourth Sunday mass before 4pm on Sunday, when the liturgy changes to Christmas readings and so forth.
 
I had a heated arguement with my brother over this. He claims being Christmas falls on Monday he only has to go to Sunday Evening. Now our Church never has a Sunday Evening Mass so he knows It’s not meant for Sunday. If I am correct please let me know.🙂 This is the type of man who uses any loophole to get out of doing things.:rolleyes:
thanks
Kim
 
Thanks to all!

I think I will go to Saturday evening for the Sunday obligation and go Sunday evening to the Christmas Vigil.
 
Grace & Peace!
kim3260 said:
I had a heated arguement with my brother over this. He claims being Christmas falls on Monday he only has to go to Sunday Evening. Now our Church never has a Sunday Evening Mass so he knows It’s not meant for Sunday. If I am correct please let me know.🙂 This is the type of man who uses any loophole to get out of doing things.:rolleyes:
thanks
Kim
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I may be wrong, but other people’s advice on this seems solid for this reason:

You will meet the Sunday obligation by attending the Mass for Advent 4–this should be in the morning.

You will meet the Holy Day obligation by attending either the first Mass of Christmas Sunday evening, or one of the Masses on Christmas Day.

By attending the first Mass of Christmas only you would be missing the Sunday obligation because you would be missing the Advent 4 Mass.

Under the Mercy,
Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
Deo_Volente said:
Grace & Peace!

I may be wrong, but other people’s advice on this seems solid for this reason:

You will meet the Sunday obligation by attending the Mass for Advent 4–this should be in the morning.

You will meet the Holy Day obligation by attending either the first Mass of Christmas Sunday evening, or one of the Masses on Christmas Day.

By attending the first Mass of Christmas only you would be missing the Sunday obligation because you would be missing the Advent 4 Mass.

Under the Mercy,
Mark

Deo Gratias!
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An insert in our parish bulletin last Sunday stated the same. The situation calls for two Masses. And it went on to ask–can we not give this time to God?
 
Deo_Volente said:
Grace & Peace!

I may be wrong, but other people’s advice on this seems solid for this reason:

You will meet the Sunday obligation by attending the Mass for Advent 4–this should be in the morning.

You will meet the Holy Day obligation by attending either the first Mass of Christmas Sunday evening, or one of the Masses on Christmas Day.

By attending the first Mass of Christmas only you would be missing the Sunday obligation because you would be missing the Advent 4 Mass.

Under the Mercy,
Mark

Deo Gratias!
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Thank you! I know it is not right to be prideful but sometimes I just have to put big brother in his place;)
 
kim3260 said:
I had a heated arguement with my brother over this. He claims being Christmas falls on Monday he only has to go to Sunday Evening. Now our Church never has a Sunday Evening Mass so he knows It’s not meant for Sunday. If I am correct please let me know.🙂 This is the type of man who uses any loophole to get out of doing things.:rolleyes:
thanks
Kim
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Simply put he is wrong. Christmas is a Holy day of obligation and it is NOT transfered to sunday. So he HAS to go to at least the vigil or the day of on BOTH days.
 
kim3260 said:
I had a heated arguement with my brother over this. He claims being Christmas falls on Monday he only has to go to Sunday Evening. Now our Church never has a Sunday Evening Mass so he knows It’s not meant for Sunday. If I am correct please let me know.🙂 This is the type of man who uses any loophole to get out of doing things.:rolleyes:
thanks
Kim
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In the USA: When falling on a Monday or Saturday, the obligation for these feast (holy days) have been removed.

However that DOES NOT apply to Christmas!

So that maybe where your brother got his idea from.

Example: Monday Jan 1- Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God is a Holy Day of obligation, but because it on a Monday in the USA the obligation has been removed. Therefore a Catholic in the USA is NOT obligated to go to Mass on Monday Jan 1.
 
Mommyof02green said:
Example: Monday Jan 1- Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God is a Holy Day of obligation, but because it on a Monday in the USA the obligation has been removed. Therefore a Catholic in the USA is NOT obligated to go to Mass on Monday Jan 1.
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Thanks, Mommyof02. This was another question I had.

Thanks for all the info.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
Try this Kim…
ewtn.com/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=487776&Pg=Forum4&Pgnu=1&recnu=1
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The answer to the question at the link is confusing. It says that going to Sunday Mass in the evening (after 4pm) of the 24th would not fullfil the Christmas Obligation. Yes it would because any Mass after 4 PM on the 24th would be required to be a Christmas Vigil Mass and use the Christmas Vigil readings. A person could fullfil their Sunday obligation at an evening Christmas Vigil Mass. Because the Sunday obligation only requires that it be a valid Mass begun in any Rite after Midnight Sunday morning (12:00:00am) and completed before 11:59:59pm Sunday night.

They would then need to return to either Christmas midnight, a Christmas Morning or a Christmas daytime Mass to fullfil their Christmas obligation.
 
Mommyof02green said:
In the USA: When falling on a Monday or Saturday, the obligation for these feast (holy days) have been removed.

However that DOES NOT apply to Christmas!

So that maybe where your brother got his idea from.

Example: Monday Jan 1- Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God is a Holy Day of obligation, but because it on a Monday in the USA the obligation has been removed. Therefore a Catholic in the USA is NOT obligated to go to Mass on Monday Jan 1.
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This does not apply to Christmas or to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception if either were to fall on a Saturday or Monday.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
This does not apply to Christmas or to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception if either were to fall on a Saturday or Monday.
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Right, my post did say it did not apply to Christmas (see part in Red).

I knew there was one more Holy Day, but I could not remember which one when I posted earlier, so I didn’t add it 🙂
 
Another question on this: what if you go to Sunday am, Sunday evening & Christmas Day? Which one can you not receive at? If you receive Sunday night, you can’t on Christmas Day, right?
 
imagine7777 said:
Another question on this: what if you go to Sunday am, Sunday evening & Christmas Day? Which one can you not receive at? If you receive Sunday night, you can’t on Christmas Day, right?
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Wrong. You may receive a maximum of twice in a calendar day, and the second time must be at a mass. In your example, there is no problem. On another thread, a poster was attending Sunday morning, two Christmas eve masses, and Christmas day - in this case, he could only receive at two of the three masses he was attending on Sunday. On Monday (Christmas), he would be free to receive at another two masses. The particular liturgy being celebrated isn’t relevant, so it doesn’t matter if he received at two Christmas masses on Christmas eve, since it was a different calendar day.
 
OK; I was mistaken. I thought you could receive 2x in one day, but only at one mass per day (I thought the other had to be a communion service for some reason).

Thanks for clarifying.
 
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