Fulfilling the Sunday Obligation on Saturday: Part Deux

In response to a recent blog entry, a reader writes:

let’s say I’m Latin rite, and so I must go to Mass on the Feast of the Assumption. Can I go to an Eastern rite liturgy instead, even if they don’t celebrate the Assumption on that day? It’s not just different readings, ceremonies etc., but it’s a daily mass instead of a Solemn mass.

As noted before, here is what the law says:

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 [CIC Can. 1248 ยง1].

Note that there is nothing in this about the rite you are attending having to be celebrating the same feast or offering a "solemn Mass" or anything like that. The fact is that by going on such a day you are celebrating the feast and fulfilling your obligation regardless of what is going on around you. By attending "a Mass celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite" you are "satisf[ing] the obligation of participating in the Mass." Period.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

5 thoughts on “Fulfilling the Sunday Obligation on Saturday: Part Deux”

  1. I attended a Communion Service on a holy day of obligation recently at a hospital chapel the day after my wife gave birth. Does attending a Communion Service fulfill the obligation? Some things I’ve read seem to imply that it must be a Mass, while others seem to indicate that participation in the “eucharistic celebration” fulfills the obligation.

  2. To my knowledge, the point of the obligation is not that we receive communion but that we be present for the holy sacrifice of the Mass, there to offer our worship and to be united spiritually to Christ and his Passion. We ought to receive communion if we are not in a state of sin, of course! A commuion service doesn’t enable us to participate in the holy sacrifice.

  3. Let’s not forget that if he is attending his wife’s bedside in a hospital he probably has sufficient cause to miss Mass, and a communion service is ‘gravy’ under the circumstances.

  4. Yes, of course! I didn’t mean to imply that he didn’t have grave reason to miss Mass. Just that the fact of the Communion Service probabaly wouldn’t have any effect one way or another on the legitimacy of one’s missing of Mass. The main factor is his reason for missing Mass — ministering to his wife.

  5. Unless the patient is at risk of sudden death, how does one decide if it’s ok to skip an hour of church? When a spouse or child is in the hospital, people still take time to eat, pick up clothes at the cleaners, buy flowers, shop for cards, toys, check phone messages, etc. Why is it they wouldn’t have time to fit in a little church?

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