Attending Mass. Church is failing us

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Thomas4

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This may be a familiar situation. Our parish requires reservations to attend Mass in this covid environment. Less than 50% capacity allowed. My situation prevents me from knowing far enough in advance if Ill be off work Sunday to attend Mass. I cant get reservations. Seats are gone by the time I know my wife and I are off work. My ability to attend service is very infrequent.

Our parish live streams mass, but the stream is iffy. Mainly due to my lack of IT skills. I get very frustrated trying to obtain the stream. Often 30 min into the Mass I can finally connect. Ruins my entire Sunday getting angry and frustrated. I’ve requested our parish send easy to connect links or instruction for so those of us challenged can connect to the stream prior to service beginning. Nothing happened.

At this point, nothing will change in the short run. I don’t see any point continuing with this parish. However, no other Catholic church for 60 miles. Without communion, I may as well attend any other church. The sacraments are the point for me.

Our parish is in the middle of Stewartship campaign. I just cant see continuing. Its not working for us.
 
Have you thought asking your priest to meet with you privately to discuss the issues you’re experiencing?
 
Can you reserve a seat early in the week and then if you end up having to work, just cancel your reservation?

I’m sorry you don’t like your parish and there are no other choices.

I like to stream the “daily tv mass” from Canada on YouTube.
 
If you can’t attend Mass in person, feel free to watch any Catholic Sunday Mass (from any parish) on YouTube. Just go to youtube.com enter into the YouTube search field “Sunday Mass” and you will literally have hundreds of different Catholic Sunday Masses to choose from.

Yeah, it probably won’t be the one from your local parish, but it will a Sunday Mass.
 
Thomas4 said:
My situation prevents me from knowing far enough in advance if Ill be off work Sunday to attend Mass.
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What about Saturday vigil masses? Do they not do them, or are you unaware of your Saturday schedule as well?
 
I’ve messaged him and took some time after confession to discuss. He offered no solution other than make reservations. and try to show up. I’ll end up wasting a seat alot of times by not able to attend. Im sure others in our parish are experiencing the stream problem. No out reach so far to the parish to see if there is a problem with the stream. Strange.
 
Not sure if Saturday Mass has returned.
 
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Thomas4 said:
My situation prevents me from knowing far enough in advance if Ill be off work Sunday to attend Mass.
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Make a reservation anyway and if you end up having to work, cancel it or just don’t go.

Contact the pastor and ask if a few reservation spots can be held back until later in the week and then added, for those who don’t get their work schedules far ahead.
Thomas4 said:
Our parish live streams mass, but the stream is iffy. Mainly due to my lack of IT skills. I get very frustrated trying to obtain the stream.
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I’m not sure I understand the problem. How it it that you need IT skills to connect to a livestream? Is the stream on Facebook, You Tube, or the parish website?

Is there someone in the parish who you know that is able to connect who can walk you through it? Or your internet service provider? Is your connection not sized to allow streaming? Like your service speed is so slow the stream is really far behind?

I can say that my husband and I are live-streaming the mass for our parish and we are VOLUNTEERS. We cannot help everyone get connected, but we try. We also suggest the older folks get their adult children to help them set it up.
Thomas4 said:
Without communion, I may as well attend any other church. The sacraments are the point for me.
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Call your pastor and ask if he can bring you communion at home.
Thomas4 said:
Its not working for us.
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We are in the middle of a global pandemic and your parish (and likely volunteers) are doing the best they can in an unprecedented time. . . .
 
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We have an email system called Flocknote at my parish.Every. Monday a new Mass sign up is posted.One can reserve seats for whatever the number is.If you should need to cancel or even switch to a different Mass ,there is that capability.
 
Our seats fill the first or second day. ( Tues or Wednesday) way before i know my work schedule.
 
I am sorry you are unable to get a seat at Mass. I am fortunate myself to live in an area where there are many parishes close together, most of which have large churches and sufficient room that it is not necessary to sign up for Mass. I am able to just pick a Mass and show up and there’s always room, although I’ve found it’s a bit easier to get a seat at Sunday afternoon Mass and Saturday vigil Mass, so I mostly attend those. If there is another parish within a distance you can access, you might check and see if they are requiring reservations.

With respect to the live streams, I would suggest that you try tuning in to a different church. Some churches unfortunately just don’t have the tech savvy to put on a good live stream. You might try the cathedral for your diocese; most of them have it well figured out for a while. Or try a cathedral in a large city such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles etc, whatever is in your time zone. Many of them have been streaming very beautiful Masses via Youtube.
 
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I understand,my point was, can you sign up with the understanding that you may need to cancel ?
 
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Thomas4 said:
Our seats fill the first or second day. ( Tues or Wednesday) way before i know my work schedule.
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Would you be able to reserve seats anyway? Or ask your Priest if he can take two seats off the reservation list and save them for you?
 
1ke said:
We are in the middle of a global pandemic and your parish (and likely volunteers) are doing the best they can in an unprecedented time. Do you have NO compassion or empathy for what they are trying to do?

My husband and I spent our own money to try to figure out how to hook up audio and video streaming, we had to buy equipment and we ended up having to put in a Wi-Fi service at the church. Your post is out of frustration I’m sure, but look at it from other peoples‘ perspective because from where I sit you sound kind of whiny.
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Thanks for the judgement of my situation. I can feel the love. Glad you have the money to attend Mass. also a great lesson in compassion. Just thanks.
 
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Thomas4 said:
EWTN is great. Sacrament would be nice.
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In regards to receiving the Blessed Sacrament, call your parish office to see if they can have a EMHC go to your home so you and your family can receive the Blessed Sacrament. (I understand though that not all parishes are allowing this at this time due to the pandemic.)
 
Thomas4 said:
Thanks for the judgement of my situation. I can feel the love. Glad you have the money to attend Mass. also a great lesson in compassion. Just thanks.
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I’m really sorry you’re having such difficulty, but that’s not what @1ke was saying. She’s saying she’s spending her own money trying to set up streaming services for others, not that she pays to attend Mass.

The point is that while I get that this is frustrating, you have to remember we are in the midst of a global pandemic, and your local parish simply isn’t equipped to adequately address it. It’s not like this is something they planned for at every parish council meeting. Be patient with the pastor and the staff: they’re overwhelmed and winging it just like the rest of us.
 
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Thanks. Almost all your replies were helpful and kind. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. Have a blessed Sunday.
 
Maybe you could ask your boss or whoever sets the schedule if you could have a regular schwdule on Sunday, like you work every other Sunday, or have every 3rd Sunday off? That way you would know when you will have Sundays off.
 
Thomas4

I don’t have anything to suggest besides what’s on the thread, but just wanted to welcome you to CAF. Hope you find it interesting. Remember besides everything else we also encourage prayers for persons and situations
 
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