Can you miss Mass while in Church?

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There are 3 parts of the Mass that you must be present for in order to fulfill your obligation. (Offertory, Consecration, and Communion,) if you do not give it your best to pay attention and just sit there (or kneel) through the Mass without much zeal in your heart, or possibly not notice when these imporant things take place, could you not have fulfilled your obligation?
 
I have been preoccupied many times in my life. I know it is not good, but I don’t think it was deliberate. I think God understands that sometimes we have a heavy heart or worries. I think scrupulosity can plauge us at times, because how can we ever be good enough for the presence of our Lord and God?
 
Somebody in another thread said that you can arrive just in time to receive the Eucharist and that fulfills the Sunday obligation.
This was in response to someone who had arrived really late through no fault of their own.
Is it documented somewhere?
 
I was taught that one had to arrive before the Gospel and could not leave before communion in order to fill Sundays obligation.

This past Sunday my mind was at work. It was difficult to concentrate. I was there, but not there.
 
And don’t forget all the moms and dads who might be banished to the atrium or “gathering space” with distracting kids…
 
It’s easy to be caught up with our own thoughts and distractions. I missed the whole of the Gospel reading due to a toddler in the row in front of us. She had been fussing and took an interest in me, so I distracted her for a short while to try to keep her quiet. Eventually the mother had to take her out anyway. But I did listen attentively to the homily.

Something that helps me to (usually) stay focused on the Mass is to get to church early enough to dispose my mind and heart. I offer the Mass to God for the intentions of the celebrant, and all there, as well as my needs and those of my loved ones. And then I lay all my sins at Jesus feet and put all my cares in his hands and those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then I take a mini-vacation from all my worries and problems for one blessed hour so that I might receive the graces of the Eucharist and go home from Sunday Mass refreshed and ready to face the world.

Also, after receiving communion, I ask Jesus for whatever is most pressing on my heart, which truly does help lift any burdens I may be carrying. And I give thanks to God after the recessional for the privilege of being in his house, receiving his grace and hearing his word preached. In a word, I make it a whole experience of worship and adoration and that cuts down on the distractions in my own heart and mind as well as those outside myself. 😉

Of course, I didn’t come up with this “formula” all by myself. Doing these simple but effective things has been taught by all the great spiritual directors who truly know what they are talking about. 👍
 
I have often wondered this as well. My wife and I have 3 children (7,3, and 10 months) and it is hard at times to concentrate and give my all to the mass. I have the same struggles with prayer. Although I am alone, my mind wanders. No matter how hard I try, I start to think of anything under the sun while I am praying. This has to be THE MOST frustrating thing about my prayer life. It is a vicious cycle that I cannot break. I pray for the strength to do so, I pray for the Holy Spirit, but still my mind (for lack of a better term) seems to have a mind of it’s own.

The same thing happens at mass. My heart has wonderful intentions, but they do not seem to be carried out every week. It is a constant battle for me and I know that I feel bad for this. I struggle with the lack of focus at prayer time and at mass. any suggestions?

Also, sometimes at mass it is difficult to pay attention (when my kids are being good, which they generally are) and others have kids that do not normally go to mass that are wa, wa, wa…mom, mom, mom, hold me, I want this, I want that. Hopefully you get the picture.

My :twocents:
 
Folks who are sometimes distracted or bothered by many other things, should not worry. I once heard a sermon that said we should " pray our distractions" - God knows there are many things on our minds and sometimes the most pressing things are ones that we need to pray for most.

On the other hand, we should be there before the Gospel and at least for the blessing after Communion.

A long time ago, we were taught that we had to be at mass for the Offeratory, Consecration and Communion. Lately the Chruch says we should be there for the readings through to Communion.

Personnaly I think it is rather rude to show up late for mass, and rude to leave early UNLESS we have a very good reason. It is a sign of respect for Our Lord for folks to show up on time and not to leave early. Ideally we should leave ONLY after the priest has left the altar. That is when mass is officially over.

It is always advisable to show up for mass a few minutes early so we can kneel and pray silently and prepare ourselves for the mass. Besides it make my job easier when folks show up on time rather than try to find seats for people after mass has started.
 
This is why I prefer to go to mass all by myself, so that there are no distractions. Of course, it is pretty rare that I get the opportunity to go alone.

One thing I like to do if I realized that I didn’t give the Gospel or the homily all of my attention is to go back and read it at home and then think if I were the priest, what would my homily be. Recently someone told me about this book, written by our priest who recently passed away, called Sunday Preaching. It is a book written for priests and covers all of the readings for the Sundays of the three cycles and gives brief homilies for each. I still like to read it even when I did give mass my full attention, because it is always nice to see what Father Miller’s homily would have been like.

Here is a link to the book on amazon:

amazon.com/gp/product/0818907827/sr=1-2/qid=1138742807/ref=sr_1_2/002-5716150-2103225?%5Fencoding=UTF8
 
if you are there then that fulfulls the obligation. What you get out of it is something different. At least that is my opinion.
 
Does anyone know what the official rule is regarding what time you have to arrive? I once got to mass while the priest was reading the gospel, because of traffic. I stayed for the rest of the mass. Did I fulfil my obligation that weekend or not?
 
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Flopfoot:
Does anyone know what the official rule is regarding what time you have to arrive? I once got to mass while the priest was reading the gospel, because of traffic. I stayed for the rest of the mass. Did I fulfil my obligation that weekend or not?
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First off it was not your fault that you were late, and second you made the effort to go to mass. I think you are on good grounds in this case.

Even IF you had arrived when mass was almost over and this happened to be the very last mass in your entire area, IF you made the effort to be on time, but you were delayed through no fault of your own, I think you fulfilled your obligation.

BUT if you arrive after the gospel and there is a later mass, then I think you should attend a later mass. At least that is my understanding of the new liturgy. I’m not sure if there is any hard and fast rule as to when you are officially missing mass.
 
Wow, I hope I still qualify.

By the time the kids are done with me I usually exit church a bundle of nerves with a slight twitch. 🙂 I dont’ even think I am aware of my own name. God knows my effort though. And He IS a merciful God after all.
 
The mortal sin which exists in not fulfilling your obligation requires that you did so with the full will to do so. If you tried to make it to Mass on time, you are not missing Mass by your will, so it is not a mortal sin.
 
Just a quick response to those posters with children: I know how distracting small kids are in church. I think that as we all pursue the vocation of parenthood, the best thing we can do for those children is to take them to mass, and let them grow up as active, practicing Christians. Of course, they are not able to sit quietly and fully understand what is going on at a young age. Therefore, it is our job to provide them with the care they need while in this environment. So I’d say a resounding YES, as long as you are there to honor and praise God, I believe that He fully understands if you don’t really get to hear and focus on a lot of what is going on. You are bringing your children and raising them with love in the church so that they might grow up and have faith and know Christ. It’s not an easy job, and some days it’s just downright difficult to try to get a little one to stay quiet and halfway still for an hour. But it is for God’s purpose, and he understands your situation!
 
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