I’m not especially ‘religious’ but I do like visiting churches. Back in the UK I occasionally popped into a church to sit for 5 minutes of quietness and contemplation (rather than prayer as such).
My village in France has two Églises that never seem to be open so I enquired by email about times of masses. I got a reply! The reply contains the term AD, as follows:
I’m absolutely not catholic but I understand it to means that it’s a Sunday service without a proper religious person officiating, so not a proper mass.
Despite as a child having been to far too many masses, I’m fascinated by the history of the construction of Catholicism and enjoyed your explanatory link, especially the pragmatic,
Le caractère sacramentellement inachevé de ces célébrations doit selon l’Église catholique inciter l’ensemble de la communauté catholique à prier pour les vocations.
Vernacular trans: Guys, if you want more priests, get praying.
Heartily agree.. I’d have thought everyone (religious or not) needs a moment of quiet contemplation from time to time…
Back in UK, wherever we were visiting, OH would wander off leaving me to my thoughts in the agreeable silence of the church (used or unused, always a great ambiance).
your village sounds more like a town (2 churches) or was it once some religious centre, way back when.. ?
Our village has one old church and it was locked-up when there was no Service/Ceremony. However, after a tragedy, the church door was locked and no-one had the key (?). So there was much wailing and grief as the family beat unsuccessfully on the locked door, while neighbours simply stood by. It was ghastly.
Huh.. nowadays I am “the keeper of the key” and the door is always wide open during good weather and “closed but unlocked” during inclement weather… just in case someone/anyone really needs “a quiet moment” or simply wants to check out an old building (it’s also nice and cool during a heatwave)
I am advised if our church is to have a Mass or any ceremony (BM&Deaths) but I have never seen any missive with AD in the context you offer.
Doubtless your Parish has a website with all info.. ??? or you can ask a neighbour.
Messe Dominicale - is presented by a priest etc. (what UK folk might well call Sunday Service ?)
In our local town there is a monthly “mass for the dead” and that is always Messe Dominicale (ie the full whammy).
It is possible that the email contains a spelling error… AD should really be MD messe dominicale as it’s on the Sunday
EDIT: asked my neighbour… as I understand her reply: messe dominicale implies an obligation to attend (and it is the whole whammy) it’s Sundays but also “holy days of obligation”
Many small places like where we are have to share religious leaders so they can’t all have Sunday mass. As that needs to be led by ordained person to be able to have a consecration.
So the Sundays which are not their turn for the head honcho they have an AD - assemblé dominicale - led by a lay person. So no mass and no consecration.
Our parish (deep in the countryside) has 30 churches in it and only 2 priests! Thus “messe dominicale” will be shared out, with some churches never getting a look in. People just flock to whichever church is “open” on a particular Saturday/Sunday.
There are some things undertaken by “lay” people. Prayer groups and Funerals are such… might or might not include the clergy… but messe is always with a fully-fledged priest.
Obviously, as with so many things in France… not every area/parish/whatever.. does things in the same way.
If I ever see one of our local priests I shall ask him about AD.
Exactly. Without a priest it can’t be a mass (messe). And some places choose to have a sunday assembly instead, in others people will travel to the full-on mass.
After consultation with the in-house Catholicism expert (lapsed) she has suggested a much more religious explanation for the use of ‘AD’ plus the timing and says a good hymn book be taken. Agnus Dei or ‘Lamb of God’ refers to the particular prayer and music used at the masses where the dispensing of consecrated wafers (the ‘Lamb’) is offered those who have presumably been to confession and behaved blamelessly thereafter.
Mind you, this particular ‘expert’ once spent four Friday Sabbaths in the Middle East enjoying her ability to re-use the Latin mass of childhood in a church on the same emplacement as a mosque, but puzzling over obviously non-Arabic sermons. Her very welcoming fellow worshippers had only broken English so it was finally only by chance hearing a couple of priests chatting in fluent French that the discovery was made she had joined an Armenian Catholic church operated by priests expelled by the then Roman Catholic pope!
Will check tomorrow with an octogenarian organist friend if ‘AD’ is indeed correct.
That wouldn’t apply in the context of the original post because as mentioned above, these gatherings don’t have a priest present (needed for transubstantiation and all that).
However, I remember as a child, people bringing what was presumably an already consecrated Communion Host to bedridden family members, Seem to remember it had a special black case with a white silk lining.
