Children and Mass

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nodito

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Hi friends,

I’m looking for authoritative resources from the Church that discuss children at Mass. I don’t have a specific topic in mind, I’m mostly just interested in reading the language that the Church uses to discuss children’s participation in and presence at the Holy Mass, as well as any guidance that it provides to parents with regards to discipline or behavior at church or to help parents teach the faith through the Mass.

Is there anything in the catechism or Familiaris Consortio or anywhere else that addresses these points?

Thank you so much in advance.
 
When children reach the age of reason they are obligated to attend Mass just like any other Catholic.
 
There are no documents that discuss behavior of children at Mass. The best education on the Mass would be taking your children to Mass from and early age and showing them what they should be doing and discussing things after Mass if they are old enough. Also maybe playing Mass at home so they know what is going on. I have always told parents that before Mass ask the children to notice when a particular thing is happening. For example, ask how many times the priest genuflects, or what do we sing before the Gospel. Not that we are making it a game but just helping them to notice what happens at mass.
 
You can’t get any more authoritative than this:

[BIBLEDRB]Matthew 19:14[/BIBLEDRB]
 
There is no law of the Church that says a child under the age of reason is obligated to attend Mass. A parent may make the decision, what works for their family - when in doubt, ask your pastor.
 
Castello said:
There is no law of the Church that says a child under the age of reason is obligated to attend Mass. A parent may make the decision, what works for their family - when in doubt, ask your pastor.
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I hate the fact that we see this as a legal requirement rather than a spiritual need. The question we should be asking is not, “what does Canon Law (or any other Church document) say about children in Mass?” Rather, we should ask what spiritual benefits do our children get by being in Mass.

We have a wonderful guest priest a few weeks back, and incidentally there were quite a few toddlers in that Mass, more than the usual. When one of the toddlers was about to run through the center isle where he was for his homily, the mom tried to stop the toddler. He turned around, looked at the mom and said, “no, let her. Children should be comfortable in church.” At the end of the Divine Liturgy he brought up the topic again and he said, “it is better for children to run this way (points to the altar) than the other way (points to the door leading out to the street)”.
 
At every Byzantine church I’ve attended, it is actually the norm for the children to come forward and gather around the tetrapod for the Gospel reading. The priest then presents the Gospel to each of them (and any adults carrying the infants)’ and they turn to their places (we kiss Holy objects a lot in the East–the Gospel, crucifixes,icons . . .)

hawk
 
dochawk said:
At every Byzantine church I’ve attended, it is actually the norm for the children to come forward and gather around the tetrapod for the Gospel reading. The priest then presents the Gospel to each of them (and any adults carrying the infants)’ and they turn to their places (we kiss Holy objects a lot in the East–the Gospel, crucifixes,icons . . .)

hawk
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That’s a cool tradition.
 
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