Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds: To Offer, or Not to Offer, the Sacrament at Easter Vigil

17 March 2010

To Offer, or Not to Offer, the Sacrament at Easter Vigil

The Holy Saturday Vigil of Easter has the option of offering the Sacrament as the conclusion of the Service. Are there good reasons for or against this practice? In the past I have offered this Service at around 7 p.m. on Holy Saturday, and have always offered the Sacrament. It seems strange, however, to do so when the culmination of the Easter celebration is on Sunday morning in the Chief Service. It feels like I am "jumping the gun." Not that I am ever opposed to offering the Lord's Supper (this is why I am not a fan of options in the Divine Service--I'm too indecisive!). Can we hear from some of the other Blackbirds concerning this? What would be the most proper way to do this service? I don't know if it helps or not, but we have an Easter sunrise service, breakfast, and then the main Communion Service. I had planned on just having an Easter Matins service for sunrise, and then the Communion offered at our usual time.

10 comments:

Rev. Eric J Brown said...: Having the supper at the Vigil would be most appropriate - for when it was the service where the candidates would be baptized, there would their first communion afterwords. If you have a vigil, the point is that the vigil gives way to the feast and joy and celebration. Celebrate on!; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 1:02:00 PM CDT
+ Robert Wurst said...: We offer the Sacrament. It *is* an Easter service. Though I must admit to some second thoughts at times.

Actually, since Schaibley did it at Zion, Fort Wayne, I simply followed my father.

Now, why shouldn't I offer it on Good Friday? ;) (no, I don't tenebrae with most of the lcms.); Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 1:02:00 PM CDT
Chris Jones said...: I can hardly believe that there should even be a question about this. Of course the Easter Vigil culminates in the Eucharist. How could it be otherwise?

The Eucharist is the Gospel. The Resurrection is the Gospel. The reason why we celebrate the Eucharist on Sundays is because every Sunday is a feast of the Resurrection -- a little Easter. On Easter itself, there is all the more reason to offer the Eucharist.

If we don't celebrate the Mass on Easter then we have not kept the feast. Fr Wurst is right: it is an Easter service, and in fact anciently the Vigil was the only Easter service. How can we celebrate the principal service of Pascha without serving the Divine Liturgy?; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 1:27:00 PM CDT
Rev. Paul Beisel said...: Uh, Chris--not to burst your bubble or anything, but I did indicate that the Eucharist would be celebrated on Sunday morning. The question I'm asking, which you so un-gently responded to, was whether or not the culmination of Easter should be on Easter Sunday in the Divine Liturgy or on Holy Saturday (or both?).; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 1:33:00 PM CDT
Chris Jones said...: Fr Beisel,

I apologize for being "un-gentle." I can only plead that I was genuinely surprised by the question.

whether or not the culmination of Easter should be on Easter Sunday in the Divine Liturgy or on Holy Saturday

This way of framing the question is clarifying; but the question is not "Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday?" but "which service on Easter Sunday?"

The liturgical day begins at sundown and continues until the following sundown (And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night; and the evening and the morning were the first day. Gn 1.5). Thus since the Vigil occurs after sundown, it is not the last service of Holy Saturday, but the first service of Easter Sunday. As I noted in my previous, un-gentle comment, the Vigil was anciently the only service of Easter, and even today it is (or should be) the principal service of Easter. That can be seen from the fact that it is liturgically the fullest and richest service of the feast (and indeed of the whole Christian year).; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 2:27:00 PM CDT
Dcn Latif Haki Gaba SSP said...: I beg your pardon for raising my hand here, and my voice as it were, when this was clearly addressed to those who are not me.

I agree with those who have answered already, but wanted to state it in a different way. You mentioned the possibility of Matins on Sunday. The proper way to think of your liturgical options is that if you have the Paschal Vigil, then this is a liturgy which both has the Eucharist, as its own culmination, and has 'vigils' (or Matins) of Easter. Even Lauds is incorporated into the Vigil Mass with the singing of Ps. 150 after Communion.

So, in other words, properly speaking, you could have Matins on Sunday, but only if you did not have the Easter Vigil. Compline that night, as well as Matins and Lauds, are prayed by those who cannot make it to the Vigil.

Of course there is a second Mass of Easter, the one that takes place sometime that morning, and it should not be neglected. I hasten to add that the Easter breakfast ideally takes place after this second Mass, thereby properly and festively "breaking the fast" of both Lent and the Eucharist.

This answer does not take into account pastoral considerations, which obviously each pastor must face.; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 4:31:00 PM CDT
Pr. H. R. said...: Fr. Beisel,

Easter Vigil is the big one - check out the "This is the Night" prayer at the beginning. The Church is so excited about Easter that she celebrates it ASAP - as soon as it is Sunday, as soon as the sun is down.

So yes: Easter Vigil gets a Mass. Chalk this up to another goofy LSB rubric.

+HRC; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 4:39:00 PM CDT
Dcn Latif Haki Gaba SSP said...: I don't have before me the LSB Altar Book, so would someone please share exactly what it says about this? Thanks.; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 4:54:00 PM CDT
Rev. Thomas C. Messer, SSP said...: Deacon Gaba,

I think the rubric to which Fr. Curtis refers is this:

"If there is no Communion, the Vigil concludes with the prayer and blessing on page 550" (LSB Altar Book, p. 549).

That's all I can find anyway.; Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 10:40:00 PM CDT
Pastor Peters said...: Better the Vigil without the Mass than no Vigil at all...

The Vigil was not an early evening service like it is in our churches today but took place just before dawn so that the Easter side of the Vigil and the Mass took place as light was dawning...

Given that we are not in a position to do this, I do not find it so bad to separate the Mass from the Vigil. Indeed, our first Easter Mass (of 3) begins right where the Vigil pauses -- to connect the two...; Monday, March 29, 2010 at 7:04:00 AM CDT

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The Twenty-Four Elders (and a few living creatures)

Rev. Benjamin Ball
St. Paul, Hamel, Illinois

Rev. Larry Beane
Salem, Gretna, Louisiana

Rev. Paul Beisel
Immanuel, Iowa Falls, Iowa

Rev. Peter Bender
Peace, Sussex, Wisconsin

Rev. Eric Brown
Trinity, Herscher, Illinois

Rev. Heath Curtis
Zion, Carpenter, Illinois

Rev. William Cwirla
Holy Trinity, Hacienda Heights, CA

Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt
St. Paul, Kewanee, Illinois

Rev. Erich Fickel
St. Paul, Chesterton, Indiana

Rev. William Foy
Prince of Peace, Valparaiso, Indiana

Rev. John A. Frahm III
Trinity, Boulder Junction, Wisconsin

Rev. Robert Franck
Mount Olive, Duluth, Minnesota

Rev. Dr. Gifford Grobien
CTS, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Rev. Dr. Kent Heimbigner
Charity, Burleson, Texas

Rev. Dr. Steven Hein
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Rich Heinz
St. Johns, Chicago, Illinois

Rev. David Kind
University Lutheran, Minneapolis

Rev. Brent Kuhlman
Trinity, Murdock, Nebraska

Rev. Alan Ludwig, Professor
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Novosibirsk, Russia

Rev. Todd Peperkorn
Holy Cross, Rocklin, California

Rev. J. Richard Sawyer
Good Shepherd, Brandon, Mississippi

Rev. Robert Schaibley, emeritus
Shepherd of the Springs,
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rev. Dr. Richard Stuckwisch
Emmaus, South Bend, Indiana

Rev. Jacob Sutton
Immanuel, Terre Haute, Indiana

Rev. Ralph Tausz
Apostles, Melrose Park, Illinois

Rev. David Jay Webber
Redeemer, Scottsdale, Arizona

Rev. William Weedon
Lutheran Public Radio, Collinsville, IL

Rev. Dr. Georg Williams
Zion, Ainsworth, Nebraska

Rev. Kyle Wright II
St. Matthew, Hamlet, Indiana

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Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds

17 March 2010

To Offer, or Not to Offer, the Sacrament at Easter Vigil

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Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds

17 March 2010

To Offer, or Not to Offer, the Sacrament at Easter Vigil

10 comments:

Facebook Page

The Twenty-Four Elders (and a few living creatures)

The Twenty-Four Topics

Blog Archive

The Mutual Conversation of the Brethren

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, et al.

On the Windowsill

Regular Readers

Contact the Administrator

Rubrics and Blogistics for the Blackbirds

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