Wedding on Easter Sunday
  • PolskaPiano
    Posts: 255
    I'm incredibly frustrated right now. Our priest has scheduled a wedding on Easter Sunday.

    Not only is it not allowed by my reading of GIRM #372, but

    Triduum and Sunday 9 and 11am masses followed by a 1pm wedding? Vietnamese music to boot meaning it's not like I can pull out my regular stuff- I'll need to learn new music- and practice a bit since Vietnamese music is all lead sheets- no accompaniment to sight read.
    -Priest said they will want to ask sisters from the local Vietnamese community to lead the music. Ok, so now we are taking sisters away from their religious community on the most sacred day of the year?
    -I literally am EXHAUSTED after the Triduum mass and barely make it through the first two. Now i need to stay alert for a whole NEW mass with music?

    He will not back down from the wedding, I am sure.
    Any advice for responding is welcome.


  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    Use of the ritual Mass for any sacrament is absolutely prohibited on the days listed, but that is not the same thing as prohibiting the celebration of the sacraments. Indeed celebration of Baptism at a Sunday Mass is engouraged.
    Order of Celebrating Matrimony §34. Whenever Marriage is celebrated within Mass, the Ritual Mass ‘The Celebration of Marriage’ is used with sacred vestments of the colour white or of a festive colour. On those days listed in nos. 1-4 of the Table of Liturgical Days, however, the Mass of the day is used with its own readings, with inclusion of the Nuptial Blessing and, if appropriate, the proper formula for the final blessing.
    CHECK this is your local wording !
    Thanked by 1Andrew_Malton
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,185
    Exactly.

    A wedding on Easter Sunday is not forbidden, but the Mass must be of Easter Sunday, with the Nuptial Blessing and final Blessing. This is explicitly stated in the Roman Missal, not only in the GIRM as you say, but also in Ritual Masses: V For The Celebration Of Marriage.

    It seems crazy but it isn't illicit.

    Perhaps the couple do not know that they will have no choice of readings or prayers, there will be no mention of husband and wife but all of the Resurrection. Perhaps that's what they want, but could you start your response with that?
    Thanked by 1Schönbergian
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Polska,

    You might point out to your pastor that you may not be able to put your best effort forward on all these liturgies if your last Easter morning Mass isn't your last Mass of the day.

    If you have to pick between doing very well on 4 liturgies or reaching a breaking point and doing poorly on 5.... perhaps you can talk some pastoral sense into this priest?
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    Are you obligated to play for this Mass? If they want the Vietnamese sisters to lead the music, let them have at it!
    Thanked by 2Caleferink ServiamScores
  • PaxTecum
    Posts: 314
    i'm with irishtenor - if somebody else is going to do it - let them! you don't need to be part of it! I would do the same.
  • PolskaPiano
    Posts: 255
    Oh, they wanted me to play AND have this group of singers.
    When I had shared my concerns that I coudl not do a good job with 6 liturgies (5 different) in a few days' span, he told me I could get a sub, so I am on it!
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    he told me I could get a sub, so I am on it!


    Good call. I’m just a lowly choir member and i’m exhausted after the triduum and Easter Sunday. I have no idea how our MD basically does two triduums back to back (we have the OF and EF at our parish and he does both).

    From a bridal perspective, it’s financially advantageous to get married on Easter Sunday because you don’t have to pay for flowers to decorate the church..
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,883
    I wish you the best of luck finding a sub. I think this is nuts. I’m also terribly surprised the priest would go for it. Usually they are exhausted too...
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    Perhaps the couple do not know that they will have no choice of readings or prayers, there will be no mention of husband and wife but all of the Resurrection.

    I fail to see this as a bad thing.
    Thanked by 2Andrew_Malton tomjaw
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    I wish you the best of luck finding a sub. I think this is nuts. I’m also terribly surprised the priest would go for it. Usually they are exhausted too...


    Maybe they offered a really nice stipend and/or donation to the parish.
    Thanked by 2CCooze tomjaw
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    From a bridal perspective, it’s financially advantageous to get married on Easter Sunday because you don’t have to pay for flowers to decorate the church..

    I sang an Easter Saturday Nuptial Mass last year, and figured the same thing.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    CCooze was that licit? The OF forbids them in the Easter Octave, and the traditional rule was, (in 1917) :
    The present rules for a nuptial Mass are; first, that it may not be celebrated in the closed time for marriages, that is from Advent Sunday till after the octave of the Epiphany and from Ash Wednesday till after Low Sunday. During these times no reference to a marriage may be made in Mass;
    When did that change?
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    AFH, I'm sorry, I wasn't specific.
    I sang a Missa Cantata for Easter Saturday (double alleluia, sequence, the works) with nuptials added at the beginning before Mass, as is the normal case for all EF weddings.
    I suppose there was probably a nuptial blessing in there, somewhere, too.
    Thanked by 2a_f_hawkins tomjaw
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    This is absolutely ridiculous! This priest has no regard for your humanity. If it were me, I would simply engage a substitute and have the couple pay him/her.
    Arggggg.
    I betting that there are several priests/deacons ant your parish, and ONE of you.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    Oh, I see that you could get a sub. Great!!
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    The pastor may end up sorry he agreed to this request, given the workload of the Paschal Triduum and the Sunday!
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,413
    This is highly eccentric.
    I had always been taught as an Anglican that weddings were not permitted on Sundays - any Sundays.
    I have never before been to one or heard of one.
    But, I see from above comments that they really are permitted in the Catholic Church.
    It just doesn't seem right.
    Thanked by 2CCooze sdtalley3
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    In the Orthodox churches, Sunday weddings (not Easter, though) are typical. Saturdays, historically, were forbidden for weddings. For Catholic churches, scheduling weddings on Sundays is more a logistical issue and back in the post-Tridentine centuries when Masses could only be held from the dawn through midday hour and fasting from midnight, it would have been difficult to schedule a Nuptial Mass on Sunday mornings (though nuptials without Mass could occur later in the day).
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,185
    Some data.

    In my family history data I have Church of England weddings on Sundays in: 1742, 1778, 1812, and 1883, just looking down one line (some 25 weddings). One of those was a (very) high church clergyman, although he was actually ordained later in that year. Interestingly, almost all the weddings I looked at just now were on Thursdays before about 1900, but most were on Saturdays after.

    Nothing to do with music, except that the above clergyman was also a (very) minor (but published) composer of church music.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    I had also thought weddings weren't allowed to be on Sundays, MJO.
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