03 April 2007

Thus it begins

No more than ten minutes ago the telephone rang. "Good evening, St. Anthony's," I answered. "Can you tell me what time your Mass is on Saturday," asked the disembodied voice on the other end. This might be the earliest call for Easter Masses yet.

"Here we go," I thought. I calmly answered, "8:00."

"What time are your Masses on Sunday," the voice asked. "7:30, 9:15 and 11:00."

"Thank you," the voice said and ended the call.

I was shocked.

The question regarding Saturday's Mass, "In the morning?" was not asked, for which I am deeply grateful. It always is... And when you answer, "No, in the evening," the reply is almost always, "You don't have a Mass in the morning" or "You don't have a Mass about 5:00?"

To both of these questions I always want to say, "No. We have not had an earlier Mass on Holy Saturday since 1955. In some places not since 1951. Pope Pius XII restored the Holy Week Liturgies fifty-six years ago. How long will it take for you to remember this?" This, of course, I have not yet said.

When it be wrong if I answered those most annoying of questions thus: "Not for the last fifty-six years," or would that be too unpastoral?

5 comments:

  1. That sounds good to me. Those who ask obnoxious questions should expect obnoxious answers.

    Then again, that's easy for me to say.

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  2. No, it wouldn't be very pastoral. It would, however, be fun.

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  3. Anonymous9:14 PM

    Maybe the people who ask about morning masses want to make sure that you're talking about the Easter Vigil and not about a daily Saturday mass (which they're not aware doesn't take place on Holy Saturday). Maybe the people who ask about a 5:00 p.m. one assume that Easter, like other Sundays or Christmas, can have an anticipated mass in the early evening.

    Of course these interpretations still involve a certain ignorance on the part of the questioners, but not one that goes back 56 years.

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  4. Anne-Marie, that's precisely my point. Since Pope Pius XII restored the Liturgies of Holy Week in 1955, no Mass has been allowed on Holy Saturday prior to nightfall. There is no anticipated Mass for Easter, and hasn't been for fifty-two years now, at the very least.

    The fact that such Masses are occassionally celebrated is lamentable because they violate the theology of the Easter Vigil and of Holy Saturday.

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