Aargh! People coming late to Mass!

[truetofaith]

Somebody catechized you poorly.

Yeah, the Dominican, nuns!

 

[victrolatim]

Then a deacon friend of mine made the comment to try to visualize yourself back in Christ’s day when he was walking and bearing the cross, and all of the distractions then.

Thank you for this. I love this advice. I tend to sit near the back of the church or in one of the transepts. I get claustrophobic in groups of people.

 

[Neofight]

Yeah, the Dominican, nuns!

No doubt…they are infamous for having done a lot of that back in the day, fortunately that doesn’t go on so much anymore.

 

[adawgj]

Over the years I’ve learned just be grateful people still try to make the commitment to go.

 

[Inquiringperson]

I think maybe you need to pray for patience and charity to overcome your frustration. You don’t know the reasons why these people have for their tardiness, in spite of their tardiness that you are witnessing, their arrival to mass may be a sign of their true commitment to attend and participate at mass no matter what hardships they had to face to get there.
I’m a registered nurse who occasionally has to work 12 hours on both Saturday on Sunday. The last mass in my community on the weekend starts at 7:00 at night (The same time my shift ends at work). The church that has this mass is only 5 minutes away from my work. Occasionally I can arrive on time. But other times, I arrive at the beginning of the first reading, during the priest’s homily, or during the collection.
Even when I’m horribly late, I’ve always considered mass to be a top priority, which is why I attend even after I’ve worked a long and exhausting 12 hour shift and I know I’m going to be late…I will be at mass, it’s a priority.

Have you ever tried checking if there’s a church in your area with an 8 or 9 PM Mass? That way, you can have more time to prepare for Mass and say some pre-Mass prayers.

I commend you for doing what you can to get to Mass though.

 

[Millie123]

Have you ever tried checking if there’s a church in your area with an 8 or 9 PM Mass? That way, you can have more time to prepare for Mass and say some pre-Mass prayers.

I commend you for doing what you can to get to Mass though.

Yes…I’ve looked up every parish within a 40 mile radius of me. This is the very last Sunday mass that is offered in my community. I’m very fortunate that this church is only 5 minutes from my work.

 

[retire_early]

Somebody catechized you poorly.

Offertory, consecration and communion. If you weren’t there for at least those parts of the Mass, you did not fulfill your Sunday obligation. That’s what I was taught.

Now, you fill me in on where the good Sisters were incorrect.

 

[ProVobis]

I was taught that if you missed the Offertory, you missed Mass. So, she committed a sacrilege by receiving Communion!

I hate to see people receive Communion and then walk out of Mass still chewing on the Host, without even stopping to say a prayer & swallow it.

I know. These little irritations occur in grocery stores as well as people eat the food before they even pay for it. Life is full of those irritations and the more people there are the worse the irritations. I don’t think I’ve ever been at the “perfect” Mass without some kind of irritation experienced. We’re all human.

 

[LilyM]

Offertory, consecration and communion. If you weren’t there for at least those parts of the Mass, you did not fulfill your Sunday obligation. That’s what I was taught.

Now, you fill me in on where the good Sisters were incorrect.

You were wrong in the parts where you a) presumed with zero basis that this person did not have perfectly acceptable reasons for arriving and leaving when.she did, and b) presumed that one must attend Mass on order to receive Communion. One can be at the bedside of a sick person, at a non-Mass Communion Service (eg Good Friday service) or even in the street happening past an open Church with a willing priest and, if you have fasted for a n hour and are in a state of grace, receive.

 

[truetofaith]

You were wrong in the parts where you a) presumed with zero basis that this person did not have perfectly acceptable reasons for arriving and leaving when.she did, and b) presumed that one must attend Mass on order to receive Communion. One can be at the bedside of a sick person, at a non-Mass Communion Service (eg Good Friday service) or even in the street happening past an open Church with a willing priest and, if you have fasted for a n hour and are in a state of grace, receive.

If the person thinks they fulfilled their Sunday obligation for Mass…they are wrong!

A Communion service or bedside Communion is a completely different case. The nuns were CORRECT in their instruction…how can anyone call arriving just in time for Communion & leaving right after…fulfilling their Sunday obligation?

It’s a mortal sin compounded by a sacrilege.

 

[Neofight]

Offertory, consecration and communion. If you weren’t there for at least those parts of the Mass, you did not fulfill your Sunday obligation. That’s what I was taught.

Now, you fill me in on where the good Sisters were incorrect.

Okay.

Oh, and by the way, the good sisters are not infallible. What they taught, may in their day, have been “conventional wisdom”, but often we find conventional wisdom is neither conventional, nor wise.

Where were the good sisters wrong?

We come to Jesus in the Mass, and it is never too late to come to Jesus.

The danger in teachings that there is a mandatory timeline, is that it can lead people to believe “its too late” to attend even a portion of the Mass (whether the legalistic requirement for attending Mass is met or not).

Again, it is never too late to worship and honor the Lord in any setting, and especially the Mass.

See Matthew 20:1-16 :

1*“For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; 4and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, 12saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13¶ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. 15¶ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16*¶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”