The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-11-15
DAILY MASS FOR PRIESTS.

Are priests obliged to say Mass
every day as an obligation OF the
priesthood? To this question, recent
ly asked by a correspondent of the
Bombay Examiner, Rev. Father Hull,
S. j., replied as follows:
By sacred orders man receives the
power of performing certain functions,
such as the saying of Mass and the
administration of the Sacramento.
But, strictly speaking, the reception
of these powers does not carry with
it any obligation of ever exercising
them-though, of course, it would be
unreasonable to receive them without
the intention of making use of them,
at least in some degree. But as soon
as a priest is put into any ecclesiastl-
cal Office it becomes at once obl1ga-
tory for him to exercise his powers
according to the duties Of that office.
A parish priest, for instance, is
bound to provide the people with Sun
day Mass, and to be ready to hear
confession and administer the other
sacraments according to need. 1t may
also become practically obligatory to
provide Mass on week days, where
any number of the congregation are
in the habit of attending Mass on
week days. Priests of religious or
ders may, moreover, be under neces-
sity of saying daily Mass because their
rule imposes this as a duty. Outside
these obligations, the saying OF Mass
by any priest becomes a matter OF
free personal devotion. Where there
exists a certain custom among the
clergy of saying Mass daily, this would
put a certain moral pressure on a
priest to do the same-for sake OF
general edification, but not under
strict obligation.
In the Early Church the Mass was
viewed much more in the light of a
public congregational service than it
is now. The evidence which we
possess shows that where there was a
Bishop surrounded by his clergy, the
Bishop only used to say Mass for the
assembled congregation, while the rest
of the clergy stood round the altar
and received Communion just like the
laity. When the Bishop happened to
be absent or unable to say the Mass,
one of the priests did it in his place;
and of course, in parts where there
was no Bishop, the Mass was under
taken by a priest. There existed
then no idea of each priest saying
Mass for himself in a private sort of
way.
Hence it is that in the ancient
churches there used to be only one
altar-no side affairs such as we now
regard as part of the ordinary outfit
of a church. 1t is quite possible that
priests did say Mass privately on oc-
casions for small group of the faith
full; but there is no trace in the first
few centuries of the idea of purely
private Mass in the presence of a
server only, merely for the private
devotion of the priest. Even in strict
religious orders of monks we possess
curious sidelights showing that Mass
was by no means part of the ordinary
routine of every day, and that outside
Sundays and feasts it was in some
cloisters rather an event.
The practice of daily Mass may
have got gradually into vogue in
places where there existed sprink
ling of persons DESTROYS to attend it;
and in this matter the religious or
ders would naturally take the lead
Later on towards the Middle Ages il
became the practice to have more
than one Mass besides the conventua
or public one-those priests who wish
ed saying it privately. Hence the
gradual multiplication of side affairs
in the churches. Some priests of spe
cial devotion even said Mass more
than once a day; and think 1t was
Pope Gregory the Great that is re
corded to have said it seven times
a usage, however, never widespread
and subsequently forbidden with the
exception of Christmas Day, on which
three are still allowed.
In more modern times it seems tt
have become normal for priests o.
religious orders to say Mass every
day-a custom which we find EN-
bodied in the rule of st. Ignatius from
the very first foundation OF the order
Among the secular clergy, however
the same practice did not spread uni
versally. / am not conversant will
the usage of different countries, Blu