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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Evening Masses and Days of Obligation” (58 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · November 25, 2017

3819 evening Y RECENT POST about “simultaneous fulfillment” of Mass obligation generated quite a lot of email from readers. We always love getting messages, but some people who wrote chose not to read the article—something normal and expected, but which never fails to make me sad. One email came from Fr. Shawn P. Tunink, who gave permission for us to share this marvelous dissertation:

    * *  PDF • “Evening Masses and Days of Obligation” (58 pages)

It covers a lot of ground, including whether permission for “anticipated” Masses has anything to do with how Jewish people calculated daytime. It also talks about the very first time this permission was granted, out of a concern for (…wait for it…) people on skiing trips!

A brief excerpt from page 40:

Only in the case of a feast of the Lord or a solemnity falling on a Sunday would a feast actually take precedence over the Sunday. In this case there would be only one obligation to attend Mass. However, when a feast day falls on Saturday or Monday, the celebration of Sunday as the Lord’s day retains its proper distinctiveness, including its own proper obligation. Liturgically, there are two separate feasts being celebrated on two separate days, each with its own proper obligation. Even though there is a period of time that would overlap for the fulfilling of either obligation, this would not remove the fact that there are two distinct obligations to attend Mass.

This is definitely a PDF you will want to download and save on your hard drive for a long time.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: anticipated Mass, simultaneous Mass obligation, vigil Mass Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“In the 17th century came the crushing blow which destroyed the beauty of all Breviary hymns. Pope Urban VIII (d. 1644) was a Humanist. In a fatal moment he saw that the hymns do not all conform to the rules of classical prosody.”

— Fr. Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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