I have been given a prayer card as a gift previously, and a card with the 23rd Psalm on it. I use one as the bookmark for my Bible and the other as a bookmark in my devotional book for the Holy Souls in Purgatory (which contains prayers, Chaplets, information).
At Mass yesterday I overheard someone saying they were planning on buying a Mass card.
What are Mass cards/prayer cards meant to be used for? At RCIA we haven’t really talked about Catholic devotional objects e.g. scapulars etc even though they’re sold at Church, so I really have no idea about these things.
usually when you want to give someone a mass card, you send in a donation to wherever the card is from(whether it’s a convent or whatever) and they will have masses said for the person you request it for,
some mass cards offer a set number of masses, such as a months worth, or a years worth, or 15 years,
and then some mass cards, usually for a set donation amount, will offer perpetual masses for the person you request.
for example, here is one place that offers yearly and perpetual mass card enrollments - bluearmy.com/ymas_pmas/form.html
they have some information on the importance and benefits of being remembered at mass, and also an order form for receiving the cards, which you do not pay for but only send in a donation when you request a mass enrollment.
You can also get Mass cards at your local parish. You go to the office and give the name of the person for whom you wish the Mass to be offered and tell them whether the person is living or deceased. The secretary puts the name on the calendar for Masses, and when the day arrives, the person receives the special fruits of the Mass on that day and time. You make the customary offering and the secretary completes the card (sometimes even with the date of the Mass, but not always) and gives it to you to be mailed or given to the recipient. Many people carry Mass cards to the funeral home when they visit the family of a deceased person (at least in the USA - don’t know customs in the UK). Cards for the living are generally mailed, but there’s no rule.
If you see the list of Mass Intentions for the week in your church bulletin, these are the people for whom Mass cards have been requested.
Prayer cards are used as bookmarks, etc., just as you have been doing. Sometimes when you go to a funeral, there are prayer cards with the name of the deceased with the date of death and a prayer on the back of the picture. Those are nice keepsakes. There are no special rules about using them.
for somebody who was sick you’d get them a healing mass card, it would just say inside that you’d requested a mass in their name for their healing…
heres a link for some mass cards at the little flower society, i think their cards do more masses than a regular mass card you’d buy in town that only gives 1 mass, ive seen one of theirs before and the deceased person was included in the carmelites masses, prayers, goodworks each day etc for about 5 years
Ok, so when you say “It’ll get them 5 masses” does that mean a Priest will dedicate a 5 masses for them over the next few months? Still a little confused about this.
i dont think they would be spread out over months unless you got a mass card that specifys that masses will be offered for so many months/years…
if you buy a mass card (here in my town you can get them in the shop in the church, in the catholic shop in town and in some grocery stores and newsagents) the name of who you are having the mass said for will written down and passed on to the priest who says the mass…(the priest saying the mass is the one who signature is inside the car)
id assume that the priest would say the mass that you’ve requested as soon as his duties let him
you can ask at your parish, or through societies of missionary priest for a Mass to be celebrated for your intention–most often for a deceased loved one, or for healing, but it can be for any worthy intention. Some parishes or missionaries give you a pretty commemorative card which you can give as a record of your gift to the family or the individual. That is what we mean when we say “I gave or received a Mass card.”
Each priest is allowed to accept only one offering (which is modest and voluntary, usually about $5, called a stipend) for each Mass he celebrates. A pastor must celebrate one Mass each week for the people of the Parish. Since he is limited to usually one Mass a day, 3 on Sunday obviously there is a limit to the number of offerings that can be accepted by any one priest or parish. It is common for instance when arranging a CAtholic funeral for the family to ask in advance for a Mass to be said for their loved one on the anniversary of the death or funeral. Most missionary priests however are not scheduled so completely so a donation and request for Mass are accepted by those orders, and the Mass celebrated by any priest available. A priest can offer the Mass for an infinite number of intentions, but can accept only one stipend or donation for each Mass he celebrates.
the logic behind this is covered in the larger topics of intercessory prayer, indulgences, and prayer for the dead that you can research on the apologetics forum.
prayercards are just printed prayers and novenas on card etc that you can tuck in a prayerbook, put in your wallet etc when you have finished praying it…the various novenas prayercards are quite popular in the catholic shop here,
there are various scapulars from different apparitions of mary, each has its own heavenly promises that are granted to the wearer if they wear it with faith and fulfill the scapular conditions e.g…the green scapular, you just have to get it blessed, wear it and say a short prayer, where as the brown scapular you have to get it blessed, and get a priest to say the enrollment blessing to enroll you in it…then you have to recite the rosary, that is a main condition of it…also if you do want to wear the brown scapular ask the priest to enroll you in the sabhbatine privilege, theres a promise that mary takes you out of purgatory after your death if you go there on a certain day of the week, think its either the 1st wednesday or thursday after you die…
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