Chapter III. On the Time of Offering

I. Days of oblation. The sacrifice of the Mass can be celebrated on all days, except those which are excluded by the priest's own rite (canon 820). Now, with the Latin rite considered:

1. On Thursday in the Supper of the Lord and on Holy Saturday, one Mass is permitted, and indeed only a solemn one. But:

a) If some feast of precept falls on Thursday in the Supper of the Lord, "it must be accurately provided by the local Ordinaries that on that day some private Masses, to be celebrated before the celebration of the customary conventual Mass, are not lacking for the fulfillment of the precept; but nevertheless for this reason the ancient custom of the Communion of the clergy in the solemn Mass of that day, on which the Church recalls the institution and memorial of the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist, retained until now with the greatest religious care, is in no way omitted."¹ If the feast is no longer of precept, it is not lawful to celebrate several Masses.²

b) Cardinals and, provided they are not bound to celebrate in the cathedral, bishops enjoy the privilege of celebrating, or of permitting another to celebrate before them, one Mass on Thursday of the greater week (canons 239, § 1, 4; 349, § 1, 1).

c) Among Regulars, if the solemn functions of the Greater Week are not performed, the superior can personally or through another celebrate a solemn or private Mass to administer Communion to the subjects, but in a domestic chapel or in a church with closed doors.³ "Indeed," says Vermeersch, "although the solemn functions are held, writers concede that on the same day one Mass may be read in the oratory or in the church with closed doors, for the convenience of the sick. And it is clear from the privilege which Gregory XVI granted to the Province of the Society of Jesus which was then called Upper Germany, 4 December 1841."⁴

d) It is fitting that on Thursday of the greater week all clerics, even priests who abstain from offering the sacred rite on that day, be refreshed with the Most Holy Body of Christ in the solemn or conventual Mass (canon 862).

2. On the day of Parasceve, Mass cannot be celebrated unless it would be necessary for confecting Viaticum; in that case the Mass of the Passion of the Lord should be taken. But the Mass which is called the Mass of the Presanctified is not a sacrifice.

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 13 September 1692, n. 1883; 10 January 1693, ad VI, n. 1890.

² Sacred Congregation of Rites, 26 September 1868, n. 3179.

³ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 31 August 1839, n. 2799.

⁴ De religiosis institutis et personis, vol. I, n. 467.

II. Hour of oblation. 1. Object of the precept. The beginning of a Mass to be celebrated should not take place earlier than one hour before dawn or later than one hour after noon (canon 821, § 1). Dawn, or morning twilight, begins generally when the sun enters the eighteenth degree below the horizon. It differs according to different regions, insofar as they approach the pole more or less; generally it begins two hours before sunrise, but more than two hours before sunrise in northern regions, for there dawn is prolonged for a longer time. For the rest, tables inserted into calendars are accustomed to indicate the hour of dawn. Where dawn does not appear through some time of the year, it is lawful during that time to begin Mass from the beginning of civil, moral, and usual life, that is, at the time when people are accustomed to rise in the morning for work.¹ The same seems to be applicable to the time when dawn is very late in some regions. Finally, where dawn endures through the whole night during some part of the year, it seems lawful to begin at midnight. Nevertheless, it is not becoming to begin before the second morning hour, because the Church scarcely ever grants the faculty of beginning earlier. Exceptions from the ordinary rule are:

a) On the night of the Nativity of the Lord, only the conventual or parochial Mass can be begun at midnight, but not another without apostolic indult (canon 821, § 2).

b) Nevertheless, in all religious or pious houses having an oratory with the faculty of habitually reserving the Most Holy Eucharist, on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, one priest can celebrate the three ritual Masses, or, with the things to be observed being observed, only one Mass which may also avail for satisfaction of the precept for all those present, and can administer Holy Communion to those requesting it (canon 821, § 3). Moreover, the Holy Office, 26 November 1908, declared that the said Masses cannot be celebrated with the doors of the oratories open, nor in churches which serve the public use of the faithful people.

c) Cardinals and, provided they are not bound to celebrate in the cathedral, bishops enjoy the privilege of celebrating, or of permitting another to celebrate before them, three Masses on the night of the Nativity of the Lord (canons 239, § 1, n. 4; 349, § 1, n. 1).

d) It is disputed whether privileges granted to Regulars before the Council of Trent have been revoked. But the dispute is merely theoretical, since "today, from a privilege granted to the Congregation of the Purity erected at Naples, Regulars can always and everywhere celebrate two hours before dawn and after noon."² Likewise Gregory XVI, by his rescript of 13 May 1838, granted that the Superior General of the Society of Jesus could give the faculty to missionaries that, whether for the sake of a journey or for the sake of devotion, "for themselves or for the people, or for the sake of giving Communion to the faithful waiting, they may celebrate at the second hour after midnight."³

2. Gravity of the precept. The obligation of the precept is grave from its genus, as is gathered both from the Council of Trent⁴ and from the Constitution of St. Pius V In Christo Pater.⁵ Moreover, it would be a grave sin, without proportionate reason, to begin Mass one hour earlier or later than is lawful by law or privilege.

3. Causes for anticipating or deferring Mass are:

a) That Viaticum may be given to a dying person; in this case no hour is excepted.

b) An existing reasonable custom, for example that workers and servants may be able to hear the sacred rite very early in the morning; likewise, if on a feast day a solemn Mass is extended an hour and more beyond noon, it is lawful, if there is a custom, to celebrate a private Mass after the solemn sacred rite, lest a part of the people be without Mass.

c) A reasonable cause, for example a journey to be made, excuses if there is question of anticipating or deferring Mass briefly, for example by half an hour.

d) Finally, a bishop and the major superior of exempt clerical religious can dispense themselves and their subjects in an urgent case (canon 81; St. Alphonsus, VI, 343 and 344), indeed, as it seems, also from a just cause.⁶

¹ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 2 November 1634, n. 614.

² Compendium Privilegiorum Piorum Operariorum, part 2, chapter 5, § 7.

³ Thus Gaude, Opera Moralia S. Alphonsi, book VI, n. 342, note.

⁴ Session 22, Decree concerning the things to be observed and avoided.

⁵ 29 March 1566.

⁶ Sacred Congregation of Rites, 7 July 1899, n. 4044, ad IV.