The Circumstances of Mass

Gravity of Regulations Concerning Circumstances of Mass.—Serious disrespect or serious scandal is caused by disregard of important regulations concerning the circumstances of the Mass. Hence, the following rules oblige under grave sin, though exceptions are permitted for cases of grave or very grave necessity.

(a) The Time of Mass.—Mass may not be said on Good Friday, nor private Masses on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday. Only one Mass may be said a day, except on Christmas Day and All Souls’ Day, and on other days when there is reason for bination or trination allowed by the Church. Ordinarily the hour for beginning Mass should not be earlier than one hour before dawn (i.e., in the latitude of New York from about 1:27 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., according to the season), nor later than one hour after noon. But the time is to be understood morally, and it is not a grave sin in being earlier or later than the times fixed, unless there is a difference of an entire hour (e.g., if one began Mass at 2:00 p.m.) and not just excuse or dispensation. The Holy See has extended to local Ordinaries the power to permit the daily celebration of Mass after noon, if the spiritual good of a considerable number of the faithful demands it (Sacram Communionem). The Holy See has also granted permission to Ordinaries to allow the celebration of an evening Mass on Palm Sunday accompanied by the blessing of palms and procession. On Holy Thursday the Mass of the Lord’s Supper must be celebrated at the most convenient hour, but not before 4:00 p.m. and not after 9:00 p.m.; Ordinaries may grant permission for one or even two low Masses (besides the principal Mass) to be celebrated in churches and public oratories, and for one in semi-public oratories within the same hours, 4:00-9:00 p.m. The proper hour for the Easter Vigil is that which permits the Mass of the Easter Vigil to be started around midnight. Permission may be granted to conduct the vigil at a time not before sunset (Dispositions and Regulations concerning the Holy Week Liturgy, Feb. 1, 1957, Sacred Congregation of Rites). One Christmas may be said at midnight. It is a serious sin to say Mass in less than a quarter of an hour, and a private Mass should not be prolonged beyond a half-hour.

(b) Place.—Mass may not be celebrated regularly except in a church or oratory that is at least blessed and is not polluted, execrated or interdicted. It must be said on an altar, and it would be a serious sin, except in grave or very grave necessity, to celebrate without at least one altar cloth or one lighted wax candle, or without a rubrical chalice, paten, or corporal (Canons 822, 823).

(c) Rites.—The principal rubrics of the Mass are gravely obligatory, for example, to use an acolyte unless excused by dispensation or necessity, to say each prayer of the Canon, and each part outside the Canon that occurs in every Mass (e.g., the prayers at the foot of the altar, the Gospel), to perform the main liturgical actions (e.g., the Offertory, the breaking of the host, the purification of the chalice). The secondary rubrics oblige under venial sin (see Canons 803, 812-819).