At what point is showing up to Mass too late?

[RJB]

FWIW, I read sometime ago that one should be in attendance at least prior to the second reading of the Gospel.

 

[AltarKnight]

FWIW, I read sometime ago that one should be in attendance at least prior to the second reading of the Gospel.

There is only one reading of the Gospel.

 

[babochka]

I’m not sure the rubrics of the situation either. According to one poster on here, you technically have missed Mass if you have missed the Gospel reading.

There were a number of common opinions of moral theologians popular at various times, but the Church does not appear to have a definitive teaching on the matter.

But yes, it would be wise to not go up for Communion if you happen to be that late. It’s probably the Protestant in me, but I can’t imagine going to Mass but missing the homily completely.

I would say that you lack imagination. I am a compulsively punctual person and take pride in always being on time. I hate being late anywhere and my family of 7 is almost always on time for church. Two years ago, God decided to give me an opportunity to learn humility. Once a year, our usual route to church is blocked due to road closures for an annual marathon. I always keep up on this and we plan an alternative route to church. This particular Sunday, it was raining heavily, so we left 15 minutes early than usual to compensate for the rain and the alternate route. (Our parish is usually a 23 minute drive.) On the way, we ran into significant flooding on the freeway. We could have turned around and would have been justified in staying home that day, but we were almost there. We decided to keep going, but it took a really long time. Finally, we reached our exit, only to discover that the exit was closed! This added an additional 5 minute delay. We finally walked into the church, barely in time for communion. My parish only has one Divine Liturgy, so it was not possible to wait for the next one. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good idea to go to a local Latin-rite parish close to home or stay home entirely, but hindsight is 20/20 and we acted in good faith. Yes, this was extraordinary, but you just never know what has delayed a person in their good-faith efforts to get to Mass on time. We did go to Communion because we were most definitely in need of the graces at that time.

 

[UnumCorpus]

I would say that you lack imagination. I am a compulsively punctual person and take pride in always being on time. I hate being late anywhere and my family of 7 is almost always on time for church. Two years ago, God decided to give me an opportunity to learn humility. Once a year, our usual route to church is blocked due to road closures for an annual marathon. I always keep up on this and we plan an alternative route to church. This particular Sunday, it was raining heavily, so we left 15 minutes early than usual to compensate for the rain and the alternate route. (Our parish is usually a 23 minute drive.) On the way, we ran into significant flooding on the freeway. We could have turned around and would have been justified in staying home that day, but we were almost there. We decided to keep going, but it took a really long time. Finally, we reached our exit, only to discover that the exit was closed! This added an additional 5 minute delay. We finally walked into the church, barely in time for communion. My parish only has one Divine Liturgy, so it was not possible to wait for the next one. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good idea to go to a local Latin-rite parish close to home or stay home entirely, but hindsight is 20/20 and we acted in good faith. Yes, this was extraordinary, but you just never know what has delayed a person in their good-faith efforts to get to Mass on time. We did go to Communion because we were most definitely in need of the graces at that time.

I could definitely understand that sort of lateness if the weather was that bad! I used to live in an area that had absolutely monstrous blizzards. If the visibility was bad and the roads turned to ice, I would either not go or maybe find a better time. One time, I was driving to Mass (I was on my own) and I skidded really badly on some ice and my car ended up on top of a snow bank. I was eventually pushed out by some kind strangers, but by that time, the Mass was probably about three-quarters of the way through. So I just gave up and went home.

Bad weather is definitely a factor, though on the particular Sundays I was talking about, the weather was fine. So it’s hard to say.

I do apologise for being judgemental though. I don’t want to make it seem like I sit and glare and make life difficult for late-comers! I’ve been late before myself (though not by more than 10-15 minutes).

 

[WilT]

I’m not sure the rubrics of the situation either. According to one poster on here, you technically have missed Mass if you have missed the Gospel reading.

But yes, it would be wise to not go up for Communion if you happen to be that late. It’s probably the Protestant in me, but I can’t imagine going to Mass but missing the homily completely.

I hope I haven’t caused any offense to other posters. My apologies if I have. I just felt like complaining I guess.

 

[WilT]

There were a number of common opinions of moral theologians popular at various times, but the Church does not appear to have a definitive teaching on the matter…

I would say that you lack imagination. I am a compulsively punctual person and take pride in always being on time…

It sounds like a little bit of bsession or obsessive compulsive behavior babochka

 

[Brandon_Cal]

Dr. Edward Peters just recently wrote a post about this: canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/how-much-of-mass-can-i-miss-you-know-and-it-still-counts/

He argues that what’s more important is the reasoning for being late, and the intention of those being late over how much of Mass has been missed. A person who arrives just at the Consecration because of an emergency at home has “met” the obligation to assist at Mass while the person who arrives even one minute late to Mass because he was sitting in his car in the church parking lot listening to a sports game on the radio has not met his obligation.

 

[babochka]

It sounds like a little bit of bsession or obsessive compulsive behavior babochka

Why, yes it is. I’m working on it.

 

[ServusHumilis]

There is only one reading of the Gospel.

I’m not sure what RJB meant but it’s usually read twice in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, first in Latin then in English.

 

[truetofaith]

I’m not sure what RJB meant but it’s usually read twice in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, first in Latin then in English.

I thought he meant the second reading…not of the gospel.

If you know you will miss the gospel and definitely the homily, wait for the next Mass or say an act of contrition & plan on confessing that you missed Mass last Sunday!

 

[robwar]

Yes. A half hour late is a bit ridiculous. Just wait till the next one!

first of all, you do not know why that person is late. Was there car trouble on the way? Was there some kind of accident and trafffic was blocked? Was there a flat tire? Was the person unable to get out of work on time. There are a million reasons either legit or illeget based in peoples heads of why someone showed up at Mass rather late. Maybe the better attitude is I would rather see someone come in late than not all. Maybe if we spent more time praying for others instead of judging other, we would have fuller Churches.
One time while going to work, when I went to the car and grabbed the door handel, I also grabbed a bee which promptly stung me. So needless to say, I was a half hour late while I tried to give myself some frist aide. Yes people should be at Mass and on time but we do not live in an ideal world and life happens and i would rather give someone the benefit of the doubt instead of gossiping about people being late to Mass (or anything else).

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

I agree, but it is very distracting when they have to climb over you! I wish I had the ability to 100% focus on what is happening at the altar (and I do try), but sometimes distractions can come by way of latecomers, screaming children, or people talking/laughing around me. I’m not perfect, nor is anyone else.

So forgive me if I sometimes fail to maintain 100% focus on what is happening when situations like this occur. It is something I am working on. Coming from a Protestant background though, it does startle me to see people coming in this late. Punctuality is important and respectful to those performing the Mass, though as I said, I understand lateness can be unavoidable. But I just can’t fathom missing the homily, especially since I’m used to homilies/sermons being the focus of a church service. I would imagine that teaching is very important, even at a Mass where the Eucharist is the focus.

You could try sitting up at the very front. No one will bother you up there.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

Dr. Edward Peters just recently wrote a post about this: canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/how-much-of-mass-can-i-miss-you-know-and-it-still-counts/

He argues that what’s more important is the reasoning for being late, and the intention of those being late over how much of Mass has been missed. A person who arrives just at the Consecration because of an emergency at home has “met” the obligation to assist at Mass while the person who arrives even one minute late to Mass because he was sitting in his car in the church parking lot listening to a sports game on the radio has not met his obligation.

Eh, being one minute late for mass regardless of the reason still meets the obligation requirement.

 

[UnumCorpus]

You could try sitting up at the very front. No one will bother you up there.

Normally an excellent suggestion! In my case, I would but it’s always filled up with nuns, no matter how early I get there. My parish is probably one of the few I’ve been to where it fills up from the front to the back, and not vice versa.

 

[Elizium23]

Eh, being one minute late for mass regardless of the reason still meets the obligation requirement.

Dr. Ed Peters:

Then the Lord says to the other man who walked into church at the exact same time, “You were late for Mass that Sunday.” He replies “Yes Lord I was late, I wanted to find out what the score was.” The Lord says “The score? The score? I’ll tell you what the score is. Step over there and you’ll see what the score is.”

 

[hwriggles4]

I always thought you could only receive Communion once a day. You can’t have 2 Bodies of Jesus in your stomach, at the same time!

TruetoFaith:

A few years ago, a good priest told our group when he was asked “How often can a Catholic layperson receive communion in a day?”

The answer was: Twice, but one of those times had to be in the context of a Mass. One of those times could be attending say, the Saturday morning daily Mass and then later that afternoon going to a Catholic wedding. That would be a circumstance where communion could be received twice in one day.

Same goes for funerals, but I am not sure about taking the Eucharist to a home bound person.

 

[babochka]

Eh, being one minute late for mass regardless of the reason still meets the obligation requirement.

Which again brings up the question: When is the cutoff? If one minute late, regardless of reason, is acceptable, what about 2 or 3… or 10 or 15? I tend to agree with Dr. Peters. The reason matters.

 

[truetofaith]

first of all, you do not know why that person is late. Was there car trouble on the way? Was there some kind of accident and trafffic was blocked? Was there a flat tire? Was the person unable to get out of work on time. There are a million reasons either legit or illeget based in peoples heads of why someone showed up at Mass rather late. Maybe the better attitude is I would rather see someone come in late than not all. Maybe if we spent more time praying for others instead of judging other, we would have fuller Churches.
One time while going to work, when I went to the car and grabbed the door handel, I also grabbed a bee which promptly stung me. So needless to say, I was a half hour late while I tried to give myself some frist aide. Yes people should be at Mass and on time but we do not live in an ideal world and life happens and i would rather give someone the benefit of the doubt instead of gossiping about people being late to Mass (or anything else).

 

[Mintaka]

Technically… and obviously this isn’t something you would want to do all the time unless you have really awkward Sunday Mass times…

Technically, if you miss Mass during the entire Liturgy of the Word, you can walk in at the Offertory, receive Communion, stay for the next Mass, sit through the Liturgy of the Word, and get up and leave after Father’s homily. You’ve gone to an entire Mass and fulfilled your obligation.

OTOH, it is going to look bad to other parishioners, so lurking in the back is recommended! Don’t scandalize the kids!

But yeah, there have been a couple of really super-awkward times when knowing this fact has come in handy. And now you know also.

Also, my family’s general rule was “get there by the end of the Gospel or go to the next Mass,” but technically the old books say you’ve heard the Liturgy of the Word if you even get there during Father’s homily. Technically.

If things are bad enough already, it’s better to know the technicalities than to feel guilty over something you can’t help. And if you’re way past any cutoff, at least you’re sure that things have gone totally wrong. (Although it also helps to know what the absolute latest Masses in town are.)

 

[ProVobis]

OTOH, it is going to look bad to other parishioners, so lurking in the back is recommended! Don’t scandalize the kids!

Thank you. I was hoping someone would say that. As it is I notice some standing back there and wait until a break from the readings or after the sermon to seat themselves.