[Question:]{.underline} Is anything more to be gained by hearing two or more Masses at the same time, rather than just one?
[Answer:]{.underline} The multiplication of Masses is of great benefit to the Church and to souls, for each one is a true, propitiatory sacrifice, an unbloody reactualization of the sacrifice of the Cross. Consequently, there can be no doubt that a soul has much to gain spiritually by assisting at different Masses successively, even though he can receive Holy Communion at only one of those Masses, since each sacrifice will contribute to the purification of his soul and growth in the love of the Cross, by union with the divine Victim.
However, it often happens in large churches or monasteries that several priests will offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass on different altars at the same time. The question of whether or not anything can be gained by assisting at more than one Mass at the same time depends upon whether or not it is really possible to do this. For the assistance of Mass, as for example, when satisfying one’s Sunday obligation, the Church does not just require physical presence. It also requires the intention of worshipping God by assisting at the Mass, and at least some attention as to what is going on. This attention is not just external, by the fact of not doing anything else at the same time. There must also be some internal attention, by thinking of the essential elements of the Mass. However, it is in no way necessary to think of everything, which is why involuntary distractions do not destroy one’s attention to the Mass.
Now, it is manifestly possible for a person to have the intention of assisting at more than one Mass at the same time. It is also possible to have the necessary attention, for the attention to one Mass does not exclude the attention to what is going on at another altar, at least in the general lines. Consequently, a person who has the intention of assisting at two Mass and who pays attention to two Masses at the same time, truly does assist at two Masses, provided that he assists in this manner at all the essential parts of each Mass, or at least the moments of Consecration and Communion. It must be remembered that a person cannot combine different parts of different Masses together to make up the assistance at one Mass, for this is a condemned laxist proposition (Db 1203).
Consequently, a person who had promised to assist at two Masses, would truly fulfill his promise by assisting at two Masses celebrated simultaneously. However, it seems to me that he would not receive as much grace as if he assisted at two Masses successively, on account of the weakness and limitations of our human nature, on account of which we would be better disposed to receiving graces by assisting at two Masses successively, given the additional time for reflection that this would allow.
The other question that could be raised in this regard is whether a person could satisfy the penance of hearing two Masses, received in the Confessional, by assisting at two Masses at the same time. Since it is possible to assist at two Masses at the same time, this would seem possible. However, it would also depend upon the mind and intention of the Confessor who imposed the penance. If the Confessor intended to impose two successive Masses, and made this clear, then the penitent would commit a serious sin by omitting this additional circumstance of the succession of the Masses, thus making his penance much lighter. However, if the Confessor did not make it clear, then the penance could be interpreted in the same way as other ecclesiastical laws, and in a narrow sense. (Canons 18 & 19; 1917 Code). Since all admit that it is perfectly possible to satisfy two obligations at the same time, for example that of one’s penance of assisting at Mass by the same Mass that is the Mass at which one satisfies one’s Sunday obligation, or one’s family Rosary can also be one’s sacramental penance, then it follows that a person could satisfy the penance of assisting at two Masses, by assisting at both at the same time.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.