Christmas vigil Mass was packed and overflowing. 90% of everyone went up for Communion

[sharmin]

Just curious as to how you know they are receiving unworthily. How do you know they aren’t practicing Catholics from different parishes? Our church was PACKED with out of town visitors yesterday. How do we know they aren’t regular attenders simply because they don’t attend your church?

Merry Christmas.

 

[ProVobis]

Our church was PACKED with out of town visitors yesterday. How do we know they aren’t regular attenders simply because they don’t attend your church?

Check back with us on New Years Day and report how many regulars you have at your church.

 

[Neofight]

I’m happy that the church was packed. But I got to believe that not a few of those in attendence were “holiday” catholics. And furthermore, there had to have been numerous unworthy Communions. I wish that that priest would have made a simple 30 second announcement prior to Communion that only those properly disposed to receive are welcome to receive. The numbers simply do not add up. There’s always a trickle of people in line for Confession(which is held for 1 hr each saturday). If I, who am a daily communicant feel compelled to go to confession once per month and sometimes more frequently, then there is probably a lot of catholics out there who do not fathom the concept of sin.

Remove the plank from your own eye before the speck from your neighbor.

 

[coachdennis]

From Shamin: Our church was PACKED with out of town visitors yesterday. How do we know they aren’t regular attenders simply because they don’t attend your church?

Check back with us on New Years Day and report how many regulars you have at your church.

I believe he was referring to the fact that they could be regulars at THEIR REGULAR CHURCH, and visiting this particular church as out of town visitors.

When we visit our son and his family out of state and go to Mass, most people think of us as strangers and do not know our spiritual background. What would you suggest as a solution – we all walk around with a letter from our pastor and a blood test???

Yes, the phrase blood test was meant to be taken with sarcasm.

 

[GangGreen]

Sacrilege against the Blessed Sacrament is a grave matter and should be taken more seriously. I’m not sure why people don’t.

 

[CO_Pilgrim]

During the holidays, visiting family members and friends attend at someone else’s parish, often resulting in huge numbers of people at Mass, most of whom take communion, and most of whom I suspect (and hope) are in good standing in God’s eyes.

 

[mommy_k]

The priest could have made this announcement. Some people need the reminder.

Currently we attend mass at three different locations on a regular basis to alternate. Our home parish that we love, but we moved a few towns away, our older children’s parochial. high school church to help support the school, and the local church where our youngest child attends religious education, so she can attend with classmates for sacraments. I am sure people who do not know us think we skip alot.

I think it’s funny when someone asks if everything is ok because they haven’t seen us, and we received communion. But thats ok, because they are asking because they love Jesus in the sacrament, and I admire that.

 

[OraLabora]

It’s wonderful that so many attended.

As for the numbers receiving communion vs those worthy to receive, others are right it shouldn’t be our concern.

Remember that at the holidays it’s normal to see people at Mass you don’t normally see. This doesn’t necessarily imply “holiday only” Catholics. Many Catholics from outside the parish were no doubt visiting family in the parish, which would account for large numbers of people you aren’t used to seeing in the communion line. For every elderly couple that you do recognize there are probably several families of offspring and their families attending that may not belong to the same parish. We usually attend my wife’s Anglican family service at 4 pm Christmas eve then Midnight Mass at the local abbey later (this year we missed it because of a power outage caused by an ice storm, but made it to Mass). Several families that we know fill the pews with their visiting sons and daughters (plus in-laws and children) who are from out of town. It’s a joyful time for the parents to have their grown children and their grandchildren there at Christmas.

Charity would thus implore us to believe that everyone there at your Mass was a Catholic in good standing.