I was interested by the following little article on Chant Cafe.
It is a very bad habit of all Catholics to refer to the Saturday evening Mass as the "vigil" Mass even though most of the time it is nothing of the kind. It is the Sunday Mass said on Saturday. This makes it an "anticipated" Mass.I am in favour of offering Mass at times people will come, in the 1970s when the "Anticipated Mass" was introduced it was for those unable to attend Mass on the Lord's Day itself, there was mention of doctors and nurses and people who had to work. Now most seem to have people who no longer work but want Sundays free of Mass for some other purpose.
I was glad to see that the new issue of Today's Liturgy (OCP) actually pointed this out with absolutely clarity. It stated without any vagueness that the practice of calling every Saturday evening Mass a vigil is completely wrong.
There are Vigil Masses such as the Easter Vigil or the Vigil of St. John Baptist. The vigil Mass is a specific thing and it is different from the Sunday Mass.
I'm as guilty of this mistake as anyone. I'm going to try to fix this but more consistently calling the even time slot for Mass the "anticipated" Mass.
Join me in this effort?
For the most part the Saturday Mass is not the one which is attended by young people or by those who are actually forced to work.
If Saturday Mass is a true "Vigil" the same rubrics should presumably apply, as apply to the Easter Vigil, namely that it should start after sunset, on what would be considered according to Jewish chronology the First Day of the week, a day being from sunset to sunset.
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