Ash Wednesday

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Hello, all. I’m a junior in high school and an altar server. On Ash Wednesday, there is an 8:00 a.m. Mass at my church. They need altar servers for it and only have one signed up so far. Should I go to Mass and help out?

Here is the conundrum: School for me does not start on that day until 8:35, and our priest says Mass will be an hour in length as usual. Is it okay to miss some of my first class of the day (Psychology) to go to Mass? Do you think religious services will be a legitimate excuse for arriving late at my school?

Thanks very much for all your help. 🙂
 
spellinggirl said:
Hello, all. I’m a junior in high school and an altar server. On Ash Wednesday, there is an 8:00 a.m. Mass at my church. They need altar servers for it and only have one signed up so far. Should I go to Mass and help out?

Here is the conundrum: School for me does not start on that day until 8:35, and our priest says Mass will be an hour in length as usual. Is it okay to miss some of my first class of the day (Psychology) to go to Mass? Do you think religious services will be a legitimate excuse for arriving late at my school?

Thanks very much for all your help. 🙂
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You know I would talk to your teacher, (or have your parents inform the school) 🙂

I think wanting to serve is a great thing, and I bet if you present it right to your teacher that there is a good possibility they would be supportive.

Now I should preface that by saying, you dont have an exam or anything scheduled for that day do you?..If you are only missing part of the class and no exam is scheduled, hopefully things would be great…

But just dont miss class and then tell your teacher after the fact. Try to arrange it prior to. 🙂

Good luck! 🙂
 
spellinggirl said:
Hello, all. I’m a junior in high school and an altar server. On Ash Wednesday, there is an 8:00 a.m. Mass at my church. They need altar servers for it and only have one signed up so far. Should I go to Mass and help out?

Here is the conundrum: School for me does not start on that day until 8:35, and our priest says Mass will be an hour in length as usual. Is it okay to miss some of my first class of the day (Psychology) to go to Mass? Do you think religious services will be a legitimate excuse for arriving late at my school?

Thanks very much for all your help. 🙂
Click to expand...
Simple solution - let your teachers know beforehand that you will be running a little late on Wednesday because you will be serving at the Altar for the Ash Wednesday Mass. For extra coverage, have the priest write you a note of excuse to take back to school with you to show your teachers when they ask you where you were. 🙂
 
Is this a Catholic school? They in theory shouldn’t give you much of a problem if this is a one-time occasion because nobody is there to serve Mass and you are needed.

Is this a Public school? You may have a harder time. Sure, you would be missing class on religious grounds and most schools have an excuse policy for that (perhaps with your parent’s written consent), but it’s generally implied that its use is for non-Christians on their holy days so that with normal school breaks that “happen” to follow Christmas and/or Easter, there is no cause for establishment of religion. Ash Wednesday, for all its hype, is NOT a holy day of obligation. Unless you have taken off Good Friday (or some other very important observation) in the past or you and parents are known outwardly for being devoutly religious, I would be prepared for some looks and raised eyebrows.
 
As the above posters have said, make sure you tell your teacher(s) ahead of time. Get a note from your parents too if that is required.
God bless you.
 
Great advice so far. Since we are usually very busy in the afternoon/evenings, I usually take my daughter for ashes in the morning. And I also take her to Mass in the mornings for any holy day of obligation. So far I have had no troubles. I just send a note with her when she goes to class. I even had a young man offer to miss school so he could serve at my father’s funeral last month. I think its great that you would like to serve on Ash Wednesday.
 
spellinggirl said:
Hello, all. I’m a junior in high school and an altar server. On Ash Wednesday, there is an 8:00 a.m. Mass at my church. They need altar servers for it and only have one signed up so far. Should I go to Mass and help out?

Here is the conundrum: School for me does not start on that day until 8:35, and our priest says Mass will be an hour in length as usual. Is it okay to miss some of my first class of the day (Psychology) to go to Mass? Do you think religious services will be a legitimate excuse for arriving late at my school?

Thanks very much for all your help. 🙂
Click to expand...
There are many legitimate reasons for being late to class, It would be best to ask your parents permission to be late on that day, with your parents explaining the reason if necessary to your teacher.
 
spellinggirl said:
Here is the conundrum: School for me does not start on that day until 8:35, and our priest says Mass will be an hour in length as usual.
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From my experience, Ash Wednesday Mass is longer than a regular Mass - you basically take the time that the reception of the Eucharist for the entire community takes, then add that plus some to Mass (not everyone rec’vs the Eucharist, EVERYONE may receive ashes.)
 
kage_ar said:
As Ash Wednesday is NOT a Holy Day of Obligation, if the school wants to deny it, they would be able to.
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Unless the missed time is particularly important on that particular day, the school is not likely to deny a parent’s request for an excused late arrival due to a religious observance like Ash Wednesday. They grant the same thing for students who need their teeth cleaned all of the time.

If the OP is going to cause undue difficulties for a teacher, it would probably better not to help out at this point. For instance, in some places, a teacher has to write a whole different exam for students taking make-up exams. It would be better to avoid something like that, if there was an exam scheduled for the same time as Mass–and you’ll want to be generous in estimating how late it will make you. That kind of thing.
 
I recall as a kid that absences during the day for Good Friday or Ash Wednesday were NOT excused from my public school. There were very few (count on one hand) Catholic families in the district, and they were expected to attend mass when the protestants were at their services 7, or 7:30 p.m. Good Friday was not a day off of school. Things are very different now.
 
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