Evening Masses before Vatican II
  • henry
    Posts: 244
    Is my memory foggy, or were Masses forbidden after 12 noon before Vatican II? I seem to remember that Nuptial Masses, for instance, could only be said in the morning. I'm asking because I still prefer morning Masses, even in EF parishes.
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 310
    In the 1917 Code this is what is written:
    Can 821 §1. Missae celebrandae initium ne fiat citius quam una hora ante auroram vel serius quam una hora post meridiem.
    §2. In nocte Nativitatis Domini inchoari media nocte potest sola Missa conventualis vel paroecialis, non autem alia sine apostolico indulto.

    1. The celebration of the mass is not to be begun earlier than one hour before dawn or later than one hour after mid-day.
    2. On the night of the Lord's Birth, only a conventual or parochial mass may be commenced at midgnight; no other mass withouth apostolic indult.

    This changed during the pontificate of Pius XII, but I don't know the details, though the restoration of the Easter Vigil to the evening was the most important of the alterations. I also don't know whether the 1917 rule had been in force before 1917.
  • WGS
    Posts: 300
    Keep in mind that a fast from midnight before communion was the standard if not the law. I don't recall when that was abrogated, but observing the rule certainly made it difficult for anyone to receive communion at an afternoon Mass.
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,022
    When I was growing up in the 1950s-60s, we had only the 3 hours for food and 1 hour for drink. I don't recall many evening Masses, but for Confirmation. I also remember afternoon weddings. I suspect it was part of the Pian reforms.
  • RPBurke
    Posts: 25
    The issue was indeed the eucharistic fast; I can remember being told in First Communion classes in the 1950s how much easier the fast had become recently. The old rule was what the medical people call "n.p.o.": i.e., nothing by mouth, at all, from midnight until communion. Father Hesburgh at Notre Dame told the story of how, early in his priesthood, during a late night visit at a hospital he took a drink from the bubbler and then looked up at the clock -- after 12. So, he says, it's one of the few times he missed saying Mass, as he had broken his fast.

    In 1953, Pope Pius XII allowed evening Masses and the concomitant shorter fast -- three hours from food and alcoholic beverages, one hour from other liquids, water never breaking the fast -- on holy days of obligation; and four years later he applied that same rule for all Masses. Parishes seldom had evening Masses except for holy days, however; the old habit of Benediction for evening services took a long time to die off.
Add a Comment