Can't go to Mass on Saturdays or Sundays

  • Thread starter Thread starter CreekCrawler
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CreekCrawler

Guest
After being out of work for a while I was happy to find employment recently. However, I will be working from 8am to 8 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, which means I will no longer be able to go to Mass on the weekends. Does this mean I will be living in sin ?
Thanks…
 
What is more important to you?

Ok, we do need to work but are you allowed a lunch break? Can you go to mass during that break (reschedule you lunch hour)

Will your employer let you have an hour at the time of mass?
 
ajecphotos said:
What is more important to you?

Ok, we do need to work but are you allowed a lunch break? Can you go to mass during that break (reschedule you lunch hour)

Will your employer let you have an hour at the time of mass?
Click to expand...
No, I do emergency service work in which I manage multiple jobs per day covering a large geographical area… there is no way I can take time off duiring the day for Mass. Lunch is 30 min.
So will I be living in sin ? that’s what I’m wondering…
 
CreekCrawler said:
No, I do emergency service work in which I manage multiple jobs per day covering a large geographical area… there is no way I can take time off duiring the day for Mass. Lunch is 30 min.
So will I be living in sin ? that’s what I’m wondering…
Click to expand...
Ask your priest or bishop to allow you to fulfill your Sunday obligation on another day, because of the nature of your work.
 
CreekCrawler said:
No, I do emergency service work in which I manage multiple jobs per day covering a large geographical area… there is no way I can take time off duiring the day for Mass. Lunch is 30 min.
So will I be living in sin ? that’s what I’m wondering…
Click to expand...
No you won’t. We all need to work. God doesn’t demand the impossible. If it makes you feel better you can ask your priest for a dispensation.
 
CreekCrawler said:
No, I do emergency service work in which I manage multiple jobs per day covering a large geographical area… there is no way I can take time off duiring the day for Mass. Lunch is 30 min.
So will I be living in sin ? that’s what I’m wondering…
Click to expand...
You have a wonderful job of service to others. Other posters mentioned about discussing it with your pastor, and he can tell you that you may go on another day. The respectful thing to do is to tell him about it and he gives you a dispensation to go on another day.

God bless you!
 
CreekCrawler said:
After being out of work for a while I was happy to find employment recently. However, I will be working from 8am to 8 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, which means I will no longer be able to go to Mass on the weekends. Does this mean I will be living in sin ?
Thanks…
Click to expand...
If you cannot make it to Mass due to work, you do not have an obligation so no sin. Make sure to get to Mass anytime you have a day off on a Sat or Sunday. It would be a good thing to attend Mass on another day but the obligation isn’t movable.

Of course, for the long term, keep looking for a job that gives you some more flexibility to attend Mass on Sunday.
 
CreekCrawler said:
After being out of work for a while I was happy to find employment recently. However, I will be working from 8am to 8 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, which means I will no longer be able to go to Mass on the weekends. Does this mean I will be living in sin ?
Thanks…
Click to expand...
Since I don’t know where you live, it’s possible a nearby university or college has Mass after 8 PM on Sundays or Saturdays. Likewise, many parishes do have a 6:00/6:30 AM Mass that you could look into as well.

God bless you. Congrats on the new job!
 
Looks like you have a rewarding job that helps others so i would now say to see your priest and ask his advice etc
 
I also have a job where I have to work most weekends. So far, I have had one Sunday off, where I attended Mass (2 weeks ago), and will be attending this coming Sunday. I will have 3 Sundays off next month. Normally I have to work both Saturday and Sunday. When I have Saturdays off, I can’t go to Mass because my chapel does not hold Mass on Saturdays, and I do not want to attend Mass at a Novus Ordo church. Instead, what I do is do a Holy Hour of Reparation and the Rosary - I was told that that satisfies the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays, when I cannot go. I will also talk to the priest about what he thinks I should do, so I won’t jeopardize my job; I work in the tourism business, and my place of employment is in its very busy season right now.
 
Reesefan said:
I also have a job where I have to work most weekends. So far, I have had one Sunday off, where I attended Mass (2 weeks ago), and will be attending this coming Sunday. I will have 3 Sundays off next month. Normally I have to work both Saturday and Sunday. When I have Saturdays off, I can’t go to Mass because my chapel does not hold Mass on Saturdays, and I do not want to attend Mass at a Novus Ordo church. Instead, what I do is do a Holy Hour of Reparation and the Rosary - I was told that that satisfies the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays, when I cannot go. I will also talk to the priest about what he thinks I should do, so I won’t jeopardize my job; I work in the tourism business, and my place of employment is in its very busy season right now.
Click to expand...
Who told you that you meet your obligation by doing a Holy Hour and a Rosary instead of attending Mass in the Ordinary Form (which, by the way, is good enough for our Holy Father, the Pope)? Is this chapel you attend in full communion with Rome or is it one of those rebellious sects that thinks the Mass in OF is invalid?
 
Reesefan said:
I also have a job where I have to work most weekends. So far, I have had one Sunday off, where I attended Mass (2 weeks ago), and will be attending this coming Sunday. I will have 3 Sundays off next month. Normally I have to work both Saturday and Sunday. When I have Saturdays off, I can’t go to Mass because my chapel does not hold Mass on Saturdays, and I do not want to attend Mass at a Novus Ordo church. Instead, what I do is do a Holy Hour of Reparation and the Rosary - I was told that that satisfies the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays, when I cannot go. I will also talk to the priest about what he thinks I should do, so I won’t jeopardize my job; I work in the tourism business, and my place of employment is in its very busy season right now.
Click to expand...
I would think that not wanting to attend an OF Mass is not a valid reason for missing Mass. I ever heard of a Holy Hour substituting for Mass. I don’t like the EF Mass, but if that was the only one available for me to attend I would put fulfilling my obligation (and I don’t see it as an obligation but an act of Love for our Lord) above my own personal preferences for the form of Mass.
 
Reesefan said:
I also have a job where I have to work most weekends. So far, I have had one Sunday off, where I attended Mass (2 weeks ago), and will be attending this coming Sunday. I will have 3 Sundays off next month. Normally I have to work both Saturday and Sunday. When I have Saturdays off, I can’t go to Mass because my chapel does not hold Mass on Saturdays, and I do not want to attend Mass at a Novus Ordo church. Instead, what I do is do a Holy Hour of Reparation and the Rosary - I was told that that satisfies the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays, when I cannot go. I will also talk to the priest about what he thinks I should do, so I won’t jeopardize my job; I work in the tourism business, and my place of employment is in its very busy season right now.
Click to expand...
Yes, you need to talk to your priest. You have a valid Mass available, and yet you do not go; you are deliberately not fulfilling your Sunday obligation.
 
As far as I am aware, it is a sin to be working at a time or in a position which would prevent one from daily prayers or obligatory church attendance.

So, you should probably ask your boss to allow you an hour, if not: it’s probably not the best job for you if they don’t accept your religious obligations.
 
When one’s job is of a nature that would not allow to attend at the vigil Mass or on Sunday, then they can discuss it with their pastor and he can allow a weekday Mass to take the place of the Sunday obligation.

People need to make a living and support their families, and in certain cases that is just fine.
 
You are never obligated to do the impossible, so if you cannot get to Mass because of work and you cannot live without working, then you are not obligated to attend Mass on Sundays. If you have a confessor/spiritual director you might benefit from asking for a formal dispensation if it eases your conscience, and maybe for the assignment of some alternate means of worship (such as praying a full rosary in the evening).

Alternatively, if there is an early morning Mass (like 6:15 AM) or a late evening Mass (like 9 PM) in the area, you could try to seek those out, though again if it is unreasonably difficult to get to one then the obligation does not bind.
 
The Traditional Catholic chapel I attend is a 40-minute drive from where I live, and the only scheduled Mass at that church is at 9am - I have to be at work at 8:15am. There are 2 other Catholic churches near to where I live, but they both are Novus Ordo churches. I do attend the Traditional Catholic Mass when I am not working on Sundays, but when I am scheduled to work Sundays, then I am not able to go. It is very hard to find decent work, and I am sure the priest at my church would understand that I cannot jeopardize my job, since that job is what keeps a roof over my head, clothes on my back, gasoline in my car, and food to eat.
 
Many bishops in the past decade have eliminated problems with liturgical abuses which were attached to the Novus Ordo over the years; and the English translation of the 3rd edition, the Ordinary Form, contains not the slightest ambiguity that would make the mass invalid. If one were to maintain that the Ordinary Form is still an invalid mass, than there’s a greater difficulty involved than missing mass – one would implicitly be contending that the popes had erred in authoritatively proclaiming that the rite is itself the same sacrifice that Our Lord made on Calvary.
 
Even if one does not like the music or the homilies, etc. for whatever reason, the MASS IS STILL THE MASS AND JESUS IS THERE FOR US!
 
My best source for information on this matter would be the priest at my chapel. I will be seeing him Sunday morning, and I will bring this matter up to him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top