Weekday Vigil Mass?

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I’ve been to a few Saturday Vigil Masses, mainly because I am a lector and from time to time, I have to read at my parish’s Saturday evening mass. There is usually a Vigil Mass for a Holy Day of Obligation, to give the faithful a chance to attend Mass, if they are unable to attend Mass during the day. My question is: do Weekday Vigil Masses exist, to serve the same purpose as the Saturday Vigil Mass, to give the faithful a chance to attend Mass if they are unable to attend during the day?
Note: I have not found any parish in my area that offers Weekday Vigil Masses and was wondering if such celebrations even exist.
 
There are evening Masses of the day, for that day, but no - other than designated Holy Days, specified feasts, and Sundays, there are not Vigil/anticipatory Masses.
 
An evening Mass and a Vigil Mass are not the same. Yes, there are many places that have afternoon and/or evening Masses, although morning is more traditional.
 
There are only 7 true Vigil Masses. Those are celebrated on the day before a Feast but are totally different from the Feast day’s Mass: different prayers, different readings, etc.

The most familiar Vigil Mass is the Easter Vigil but there are also the Vigil of Christmas (which I must admit I’ve never once seen because they always celebrate an anticipated Mass during the Night instead), the Vigil of Epiphany, the Vigil of Pentecost, the Vigil of the Ascension, the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul. Depending on the country, these feasts may be Holy Days of Obligation and as long as the Vigil Mass is celebrated in the evening it takes care of your obligation to attend Mass on the HDO.

Let’s say there’s a Holy Day of Obligation on Wednesday of the 5th Week of Ordinary Time. Your obligation to attend Mass on Wednesday can be fulfilled by attending any Mass on Tuesday evening. It doesn’t matter if that Mass is a Nuptial Mass, a Funeral Mass or simply the Mass of Tuesday of the 5th Week of Ordinary Time.

You can’t attend a Mass on Wednesday to fulfill your obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. Your obligation can only be fulfilled by attending Mass on the day of the obligation or the evening before.
 
The Mass on the eve of a Day of Obligation, Sunday for example, is properly called an Anticipatory Mass not a Vigil Mass. I’ve never come across one but I suppose there could be a daily evening Mass for those who cannot attend the usual daily morning Mass.
 
baliano said:
The Mass on the eve of a Day of Obligation, Sunday for example, is properly called an Anticipatory Mass not a Vigil Mass. ** I’ve never come across one but I suppose there could be a daily evening Mass for those who cannot attend the usual daily morning Mass**.
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That’s why evening Masses were finally allowed in 1953, to accommodate those who might not be able to attend Mass in the morning.

For years our daily Mass was at 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. It’s been moved to 9:30 a.m.; that really doesn’t accommodate those who work or attend school but I suspect that Fr. felt that moving it was OK because only a handful of retired people routinely attend. It tends to be moved to the evening for special occasions.
 
There will be a vigil Mass the evening prior if the day is a solemnity. Feast of the Assumption for example, or the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. That is my understanding.

Normal weekdays don’t have vigil Masses.

-Tim-
 
Regular weekdays do not have a “Vigil” (or as others have noticed, more properly an anticipatory) Mass because Sundays and Solemnities vary from normal weekdays in that liturgically they start on the eve, at First Vespers. Weekdays have no “First Vespers”. A weekday is from midnight to midnight liturgically, so a Mass on say Tuesday evening will be the same Mass as on Tuesday morning.

But of Wednesday happens to be a solemnity then that day starts liturgically at First Vespers on Tuesday evening (roughly any time after 4 pm), and the Mass on Tuesday evening will be the Mass of the day of the solemnity. Unless it is one of the solemnities that does have an actual Vigil Mass, in which case it is the Mass of the Vigil (different readings and propers), but it would still fill your obligation by attending the Vigil Mass if it was a holy day of obligation.
 
Phemie said:
There are only 7 true Vigil Masses. Those are celebrated on the day before a Feast but are totally different from the Feast day’s Mass: different prayers, different readings, etc.

The most familiar Vigil Mass is the Easter Vigil but there are also the Vigil of Christmas (which I must admit I’ve never once seen because they always celebrate an anticipated Mass during the Night instead), the Vigil of Epiphany, the Vigil of Pentecost, the Vigil of the Ascension, the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul. Depending on the country, these feasts may be Holy Days of Obligation and as long as the Vigil Mass is celebrated in the evening it takes care of your obligation to attend Mass on the HDO.

Let’s say there’s a Holy Day of Obligation on Wednesday of the 5th Week of Ordinary Time. Your obligation to attend Mass on Wednesday can be fulfilled by attending any Mass on Tuesday evening. It doesn’t matter if that Mass is a Nuptial Mass, a Funeral Mass or simply the Mass of Tuesday of the 5th Week of Ordinary Time.

You can’t attend a Mass on Wednesday to fulfill your obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. Your obligation can only be fulfilled by attending Mass on the day of the obligation or the evening before.
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Phemee, that is a nice summary. Also the Assumption!

Vigil Masses (Ordinary Form) in the Roman Calendar:

  1. *]Nativity of the Lord *
    *]Easter (on Holy Saturday after nightfall)
    *]Epiphany (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Ascension (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Pentecost *
    *]Nativity of St. John the Baptist *
    *]Saints Peter and Paul *
    *]Assumption *

    ** Optional evening Mass, since 1969
    ** Optional evening Mass, since 2002*
    The optional vigil Mass is used on the evening of the day before the Solemnity, either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Solemnity.
 
Vico said:
Phemee, that is a nice summary. Also the Assumption!

Vigil Masses (Ordinary Form) in the Roman Calendar:

  1. *]Nativity of the Lord *
    *]Easter (on Holy Saturday after nightfall)
    *]Epiphany (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Ascension (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Pentecost *
    *]Nativity of St. John the Baptist *
    *]Saints Peter and Paul *
    *]Assumption *

    ** Optional evening Mass, since 1969
    ** Optional evening Mass, since 2002*
    The optional vigil Mass is used on the evening of the day before the Solemnity, either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Solemnity.
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  1. Thanks, I knew there had been 6 and I knew the Vigil of the Epiphany had been added with the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal. I guess I got Assumption and Ascension mixed up as being part of the original 6, if Ascension only got added with the 3rd edition.
 
Vico said:
Phemee, that is a nice summary. Also the Assumption!

Vigil Masses (Ordinary Form) in the Roman Calendar:

  1. *]Nativity of the Lord *
    *]Easter (on Holy Saturday after nightfall)
    *]Epiphany (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Ascension (MR 3rd ed. - 2002) **
    *]Pentecost *
    *]Nativity of St. John the Baptist *
    *]Saints Peter and Paul *
    *]Assumption *

    ** Optional evening Mass, since 1969
    ** Optional evening Mass, since 2002*
    The optional vigil Mass is used on the evening of the day before the Solemnity, either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Solemnity.
Click to expand...

  1. Interestingly, the ones added in 2002 of course don’t appear in the Graduale Romanum, so I’m not certain which propers would be chanted at those, though I suspect there’s a document somewhere that gives references.

    The others added in 1969 do though, since the GR was published in 1974.

    At the local abbey, where such things matter, they only celebrate the Easter Vigil, and Vigils of Pentecost (but not the Mass) on the eve. At Christmas they only celebrate Midnight Mass and the daytime Mass. They don’t celebrate either the Vigil Mass nor the Mass at dawn.
 
OraLabora said:
Interestingly, the ones added in 2002 of course don’t appear in the Graduale Romanum, so I’m not certain which propers would be chanted at those, though I suspect there’s a document somewhere that gives references.

The others added in 1969 do though, since the GR was published in 1974.

At the local abbey, where such things matter, they only celebrate the Easter Vigil, and Vigils of Pentecost (but not the Mass) on the eve. At Christmas they only celebrate Midnight Mass and the daytime Mass. They don’t celebrate either the Vigil Mass nor the Mass at dawn.
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The Vigil Mass and Vespers I of the Epiphany adopted the collect for January 7, Monday after the Epiphany.

The Vigil Mass and Vespers I of the Ascension has a new collect.

Deus, cuius Filus hodie in caelos,
Apostolis astantibus, ascendit,
concede nobis, quaesumus,
ut secundum eius promissionem
et ille nobiscum semper in terris
et nos cum eo in caelo vivere mereamur.

O God, whose Son today ascended to the heavens
as the Apostles looked on,
grant, we pray, that, in accordance with his promise,
we may be worthy for him to live with us always on earth,
and we with him in heaven.
 
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