Friday 17 August 2007

Sabbath Inculturation

Here's one thing I hadn't realised before my recent travels: in Muslim countries, the weekend is kept either on Thursday and Friday or on Friday and Saturday. The point is that Sunday is a normal working day, which means that Masses for the Sunday can start as early as Thursday evening and continue until Sunday evening (though Saturday morning Masses are normally of the Saturday). This means that those who go to daily Mass may have to listen to the same sermon two or three times, though the priests do try to vary them. Also, since Friday is a festal day, the usual Friday observance is transferred to the Wednesday.

Confusing, but it does seem to work!

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Father, if you meet Fr. Francis, could you ask him when this started and who gave this permission? I've been trying to find out for some time, but not even the bishop knew (well, he wouldn't since he's relatively new)

9:39 am  
Blogger Fr Nicholas said...

All I know is that permission was gained from the Holy See - I think for all Muslim countries.

1:35 pm  

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