Why "Anticipated"?

[DeRuyter001]

This may be a silly one, but why do we call a Mass on Saturday evening an Anticipated Mass (or a vigil on vigil days)? As I understand it from the rubrics in my Breviary, the liturgical day on a Sunday or on certain feasts starts at First Vespers of the calendar day before. So surely the Mass isn’t in any way “anticipated”, as if it had actually happened on the liturgical day before and was serving for the one after, but is simply part of the day proper? To put it briefly, aren’t Sundays and great feasts just 32 hour days, during which a Mass may be happen to be celebrated during the first eight extra hours?

The blog at this link (ccwatershed.org/blog/2014/mar/19/anticipated-mass-or-vigil-mass-saturday-night/), which I found when Googling this question, complains that people miss out on the actual celebration of Pentecost by attending Mass on the vigil of Pentecost. But surely the vigil of Pentecost, as a day in its own right, actually ends at None and anything celebrated after 4pm is no longer the vigil but purely and simply Pentecost?

My apologies if this question is either inarticulate or already answered; if so I could not find it.

 

[ProVobis]

You are right. It’s not “anticipated.” It’s the real deal on the Lord’s Day, which starts with Vespers, as you correctly point out.

 

[Elizium23]

“Vigils” are liturgies separate from the day-of-celebration liturgies they are associated with. There are not many real liturgical vigils anymore since the reforms of Vatican II. Pentecost is one of them, so yes, when we attend Mass on the Vigil of Pentecost, we are going to hear a different liturgy than the one on the day of Pentecost. The readings and propers are different.

The Saturday evening Masses are not anticipated or vigil. They are simply the Sunday Mass. The readings and propers are identical to Sunday’s. It is, however, a pedant’s distinction, our pastor is very faithful to the rubrics yet he is very explicit about calling Saturday a vigil, so in my parish I just keep my mouth shut; it is not a detail worth rocking the boat over. (I did make a big deal about “Eucharistic Ministers” and got the parish to officially call them “Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion” in all signage and correspondence )

 

[Brendan]

You are right. It’s not “anticipated.” It’s the real deal on the Lord’s Day, which starts with Vespers, as you correctly point out.

Where is a liturguical aspect to the evening vespers corresponding to Sunday, that is not true from a Canonical perspective.

Saturday is Saturday from 12:00+am to 11:59+pm

What the Church ALLOWS for is a Saturday evening Mass that fulfils the obligation for Sunday.

It is not a true Vigil Mass, as Elizum noted, but it is not Canonically Sunday yet either. So it is an Anticipatory Mass, in that the Sunday reading are said on Saturday, and the attendance at Mass that evening fulfils the Canonical obligation for Sunday.

 

[Brandon_Cal]

Where is a liturguical aspect to the evening vespers corresponding to Sunday, that is not true from a Canonical perspective.

Saturday is Saturday from 12:00+am to 11:59+pm

What the Church ALLOWS for is a Saturday evening Mass that fulfils the obligation for Sunday.

It is not a true Vigil Mass, as Elizum noted, but it is not Canonically Sunday yet either. So it is an Anticipatory Mass, in that the Sunday reading are said on Saturday, and the attendance at Mass that evening fulfils the Canonical obligation for Sunday.

Uh… so what’s being anticipated is the obligation not the actual liturgical celebration?

 

[Chatter163]

Traditionally, a vigil was the entire day before the feast day. Usually violet vestments were worn, the Mass was penitential, and often a fast was part of the observance. In the EF, ten days ago was the feast of the Assumption, which was a Saturday this year. My FSSP parish observed the vigil on Friday. The Mass on Friday morning, and another in the evening, were both in violet, and the Alleluia verse and Gloria were not recited. The prayers, antiphons and readings were all different from the festive Masses the next day. A fast cannot be mandated under the current code, but many practice it, anyway. The term Vigil Mass is often used, even my priests, as a shorthand for the Saturday anticipated Mass of the Sunday, but as has been stated, there are few vigil liturgies anymore, and of the few that remain, none of them are penitential.

 

[Brendan]

Uh… so what’s being anticipated is the obligation not the actual liturgical celebration?

Actually, the opposite. The liturgical celebration is anticipated, in that the Readings for Sunday are said on Saturday.

The obligation if simply fulfilled.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

Where is a liturguical aspect to the evening vespers corresponding to Sunday, that is not true from a Canonical perspective.

Saturday is Saturday from 12:00+am to 11:59+pm

Liturgical law, while not detailed in the CIC, is still “canonical” insofar as that is our general term for ecclesiastical law, whether found in the universal canons or particular/proper legislation. But time is not named univocally within canon law. 5 days might last 120 hours our 168 depending upon whether we’re talking about a deadline after “useful days”. “Months” are normally 30-day periods, unless specified to conform to the calendar month.

For most canonical purposes Saturday lasts from 12:00am-11:59pm, so in answer to almost any question 8pm on that day is “canonically” Saturday. But if we just ask a different question, that very same moment in time is (quite often) equally “canonically” Sunday from the standpoint of liturgical observance. Back when Mass was not normally allowed except between dawn and midday, there would still be some sense of “anticipation” insofar as, while liturgically Sunday, Mass was said before otherwise allowed, but those limitations on time of celebration are no longer in force, so most of these Masses are not anticipated in a liturgical sense.

Neither are they usually vigils, which employ a distinct set of proper prayers. But whereas ancient tradition placed vigils in the night (truly keeping night watch until the feast dawned) and medieval tradition placed them in the morning of the preceding day (through anticipation), the very modern alteration of the vigil tradition declares that they may be celebrated either before or after first vespers of the feast. So while it may be in aberration from the standpoint of the medieval-20th century worship tradition, we now have vigils that take place on the feast day itself. On those handful of true vigils a year, even when celebrated on the feast itself, vigil is a proper term.

Then again, there are some days when Saturday outranks the succeeding Sunday and thus the liturgical day does not change that evening, but the liturgy assigned to that Sunday is celebrated regardless (I hold this to be erroneous but the Vatican of the 80s expressly directed this, so there you go). In that handful of cases, the Mass truly is anticipated because its liturgical day has not yet begun.

But apart from those rare cases (less than half a dozen a year), neither vigil nor anticipated is a wholly adequate term for what happens in a parish on Saturday evening.

 

[ProVobis]

Liturgical law, while not detailed in the CIC, is still “canonical” insofar as that is our general term for ecclesiastical law, whether found in the universal canons or particular/proper legislation. But time is not named univocally within canon law. 5 days might last 120 hours our 168 depending upon whether we’re talking about a deadline after “useful days”. “Months” are normally 30-day periods, unless specified to conform to the calendar month.

For most canonical purposes Saturday lasts from 12:00am-11:59pm, so in answer to almost any question 8pm on that day is “canonically” Saturday. But if we just ask a different question, that very same moment in time is (quite often) equally “canonically” Sunday from the standpoint of liturgical observance. Back when Mass was not normally allowed except between dawn and midday, there would still be some sense of “anticipation” insofar as, while liturgically Sunday, Mass was said before otherwise allowed, but those limitations on time of celebration are no longer in force, so most of these Masses are not anticipated in a liturgical sense.

Good analogy. I once got myself into trouble with my boss for something along those lines. He wanted to know how many birthday letters we sent out daily. I took a week’s worth of letters and divided it by 7. But he divided it by 5 since that’s our workweek. So he made a big point of his math being the right one. The fact that we ran three days of birthday letters on Monday made no difference as far as he was concerned.

 

[Vico]

This may be a silly one, but why do we call a Mass on Saturday evening an Anticipated Mass (or a vigil on vigil days)? As I understand it from the rubrics in my Breviary, the liturgical day on a Sunday or on certain feasts starts at First Vespers of the calendar day before. So surely the Mass isn’t in any way “anticipated”, as if it had actually happened on the liturgical day before and was serving for the one after, but is simply part of the day proper? To put it briefly, aren’t Sundays and great feasts just 32 hour days, during which a Mass may be happen to be celebrated during the first eight extra hours?

The blog at this link (ccwatershed.org/blog/2014/mar/19/anticipated-mass-or-vigil-mass-saturday-night/), which I found when Googling this question, complains that people miss out on the actual celebration of Pentecost by attending Mass on the vigil of Pentecost. But surely the vigil of Pentecost, as a day in its own right, actually ends at None and anything celebrated after 4pm is no longer the vigil but purely and simply Pentecost?

My apologies if this question is either inarticulate or already answered; if so I could not find it.

Latin anticipāre: to take before.

So to begin celebrating a day on the preceding day is “to take before” the day.

CIC Latin Canon Law 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.”

 

[ProVobis]

But didn’t Pope JPII “expand” the Lord’s Day to include vespers of the preceding day of the feast itself?

Fr. David had the source in Latin.

 

[Vico]

But didn’t Pope JPII “expand” the Lord’s Day to include vespers of the preceding day of the feast itself?

Fr. David had the source in Latin.

No. He said it was the Sunday liturgy however.DIES DOMINI, 1998
49 … Consequently, the liturgy of what is sometimes called the “Vigil Mass” is in effect the “festive” Mass of Sunday, at which the celebrant is required to preach the homily and recite the Prayer of the Faithful. …

Propterea Missae liturgia nonnumquam «praefestivae» appellatae, quae vero reapse pleno iure «festiva» est, dominici diei est, instante etiam celebrantis officio ut homiliam sacram habeat et cum fidelibus precationem universalem absolvat.

 

[ProVobis]

No. He said it was the Sunday liturgy however.DIES DOMINI, 1998
49 … Consequently, the liturgy of what is sometimes called the “Vigil Mass” is in effect the “festive” Mass of Sunday, at which the celebrant is required to preach the homily and recite the Prayer of the Faithful. …

Propterea Missae liturgia nonnumquam «praefestivae» appellatae, quae vero reapse pleno iure «festiva» est, dominici diei est, instante etiam celebrantis officio ut homiliam sacram habeat et cum fidelibus precationem universalem absolvat.

dominici diei is literally The Lord’s Day, not the 24-hr Sunday as we can’t change the definition of that. I understand the confusion, however, with the casual translation.

 

[Vico]

dominici diei is literally The Lord’s Day, not the 24-hr Sunday as we can’t change the definition of that. I understand the confusion, however, with the casual translation.

The subject is Missae liturgia so the sentence is not referring to the day but the liturgy.

 

[ProVobis]

Okay but the sentence before that says “From a liturgical point of view, in fact, holy days begin with First Vespers.”

Ad liturgicam consuetudinem enim dies festus incipit eiusmodi Sacris Vespertinis.

 

[Vico]

Okay but the sentence before that says “From a liturgical point of view, in fact, holy days begin with First Vespers.”

Ad liturgicam consuetudinem enim dies festus incipit eiusmodi Sacris Vespertinis.

The GENERAL NORMS FOR THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND THE CALENDAR – 14 FEBRUARY 1969 have this, in case you have doubts, this is the norm of law for the liturgical day and the observance of Sundays and solemnities. Note the use of preceding day and observance. Both solemnities and feasts norms are shown below for comparison.**I. The Liturgical Day in General
** 3. Each day is made holy through the liturgical celebrations of the people of God, especially through the eucharistic sacrifice and the divine office.
The liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight, but the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day.
…
11. Solemnities are counted as the principal days in the calendar and their observance begins with evening prayer I of the preceding day. Some also have their own vigil Mass for use when Mass is celebrated in the evening of the preceding day.

     The celebration of Easter and Christmas, the two greatest         solemnities, continues for eight days, with each octave governed by its         own rules.

…
13. Feasts are celebrated within the limits of the natural day and accordingly do not have evening prayer I. Exceptions are feasts of the Lord that fall on a Sunday in Ordinary Time and in the Christmas season and that replace the Sunday office.

ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWLITYR.HTM

 

[ProVobis]

The GENERAL NORMS FOR THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND THE CALENDAR – 14 FEBRUARY 1969

The liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight

That seems to be superseded by your own 1998 document.

 

[Vico]

That seems to be superseded by your own 1998 document.

It is not superseded, but in accord. Celebration of the solemnity begins with Vespers I on the day preceding the Solmenity, and Masses then use the liturgy of the “fest” on the “prefest”.

 

[Vico]

That seems to be superseded by your own 1998 document.

Additional information for you from 2005, **Proposition 30, “Dies Domini” Although Saturday afternoon belongs already to Sunday (First Vespers), and it is permitted to fulfill the Sunday obligation with the pre-festive Mass, it is necessary to remember that it is the day of Sunday in itself which must be sanctified so that there is no “void of God.” Source: http://biblelight.net/star.gif ** The Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, held in Rome, Oct. 2-23, 2005.

 

[ProVobis]

In any case, it seems like it’s disciplinary. If there are any theological overtones, I’d like to hear them.