Dear Padre Artical - 24th May 2009

Dear Ellen,

Liturgical time for Sundays and holy days begins the evening of the prior day (Code of Canon Law, 202 and 1248), the time of which varies by diocese.

Masses celebrated the evening before Sunday or other holy days alt called anticipatory Masses if they contain the readings for those days and therefore they fulfill the holy day obligation. An evening wedding Mass that contains the holy day readings instead of the wedding readings fulfills your holy day obligation. A Mass with wedding readings does not.

But the issue at the heart of this question isn’t when evening begins or what the readings are. The real issue is that the habit of multitasking has become so ingrained in us that, perhaps without even realizing it, we begun to apply that mentality to everything we do, in this case trying to fulfill two obligations with one Mass. But Mass is much more than just another weekend chore to cross off our to-do list. If we have the opportunity to go to Mass twice in one weekend, we shouldn’t view it as an extra demand on our time. Instead, we should welcome it as extra time for us, time to step back from the frenzied pace of everyday life, feed our soul, refresh our spirit and, most important, spend quality time with our Lord.