Communion service instead of Sunday Mass?

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I think three things really raise concerns about CSs. First on Sundays, when a Mass “cannot be held”, what would it actually take to hold on? Would it mean importing a priest from quite a distance? Would it mean a local priest would not get the afternoon off? What exactly would it take? The answer might surprise in some cases.

Second, there’s the issue of attending a CS, when one’s obligation to attend Mass has already been eliminated by the lack of one. That’s been talked about here a lot.

Finally there is the issue of understanding the primary reason why we attend Mass. I think if one polled many parishes the most common answer would be “to get the host” and that’s obviously not the correct answer. It’s to be present at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to His Father for our sins. Many, many have no clue about this.
 
Thank you very much my friends, for the clarifications. May God bless you abundantly.
 
Best reason ever for a Communion Service…

Jesus said when 2 or more gather in My Name I am there with you.
 
Priests are spread so thin these days that I think parishes are simply having to come up with solutions that wont please everyone. I suppose there are 2 ways of looking at it, either it’s imperative to seek out the best mass and to make whatever sacrifices to get to it or it’s important to preserve local parishes even if it requires compromise.
 
Solomonson said:
I think three things really raise concerns about CSs. First on Sundays, when a Mass “cannot be held”, what would it actually take to hold on? Would it mean importing a priest from quite a distance? Would it mean a local priest would not get the afternoon off? What exactly would it take? The answer might surprise in some cases.

Second, there’s the issue of attending a CS, when one’s obligation to attend Mass has already been eliminated by the lack of one. That’s been talked about here a lot.

Finally there is the issue of understanding the primary reason why we attend Mass. I think if one polled many parishes the most common answer would be “to get the host” and that’s obviously not the correct answer. It’s to be present at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to His Father for our sins. Many, many have no clue about this.
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Well, I know that in our case having a Sunday Liturgy of the Word with Communion (the term used in Canada) means that both priests residing in the rectory are out of town. These priests serve different parishes: Fr. A is administrator of the First Nations’ parish 27 miles down the road; Fr. B is administrator of our parish and one other which can only be reached by air in the winter and air & sea in the summer.

Their absence could be due either to a diocesan function (meeting or more likely annual retreat) since the diocesan see is 625 miles away, or one’s on holidays and the other is in the distant parish.

While Fr. B doesn’t usually schedule a visit to the distant parish if Fr. A would be unavailable to minister to us, it’s not rare for the priest to fly there for a funeral with the intention of being back in our parish for the weekend but then see the weather come down and airline unable to land an aircraft there for a week or more. We’ve had that happen when a visiting priest has gone in for Christmas or Easter.
 
AmericanRose said:
My parish has been considering bringing back what our old priest used to do-- on the fourth Sunday of every month, we would have a Communion service that was just like Mass, with the Gospels and readings and everything, but no liturgy of the Eucharist, just the communion service. Does this fulfill the Sunday Obligation for Mass?
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NOT on WHIM, the NORM is a Mass with a homily… there would HAVE to be a real justification to do so.
 
Phemie said:
Well, I know that in our case having a Sunday Liturgy of the Word with Communion (the term used in Canada) means that both priests residing in the rectory are out of town. These priests serve different parishes: Fr. A is administrator of the First Nations’ parish 27 miles down the road; Fr. B is administrator of our parish and one other which can only be reached by air in the winter and air & sea in the summer.

Their absence could be due either to a diocesan function (meeting or more likely annual retreat) since the diocesan see is 625 miles away, or one’s on holidays and the other is in the distant parish.

While Fr. B doesn’t usually schedule a visit to the distant parish if Fr. A would be unavailable to minister to us, it’s not rare for the priest to fly there for a funeral with the intention of being back in our parish for the weekend but then see the weather come down and airline unable to land an aircraft there for a week or more. We’ve had that happen when a visiting priest has gone in for Christmas or Easter.
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That’s very interesting. Priestly retreats are scheduled from Tuesday-Thursday around here so as not to impinge on Sundays.

When priests go on vacation, the diocese sends a replacement at least for the Sunday Mass(es) they will be away.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
Priests are spread so thin these days that I think parishes are simply having to come up with solutions that wont please everyone. I suppose there are 2 ways of looking at it, either it’s imperative to seek out the best mass and to make whatever sacrifices to get to it or it’s important to preserve local parishes even if it requires compromise.
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It’s not a matter of “the best Mass.” In this case it’s a matter of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass versus a communion service. The two are obviously related, but they are vastly different.

The primary reason we attend Mass is to be present at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to His Father for our sins – the Liturgy of the Eucharist. A communion service does not replicate this.
 
Solomonson said:
That’s very interesting. Priestly retreats are scheduled from Tuesday-Thursday around here so as not to impinge on Sundays.

When priests go on vacation, the diocese sends a replacement at least for the Sunday Mass(es) they will be away.
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Every couple of years the bishop schedules diocesan meetings away from the province. That one usually involves all the priests of the diocese being gone for more than a week. He’ll usually try to get replacement priests for the larger centers, but it’s not easy to cover all parishes in this diocese the size of Italy. Other than the parish covered by the other priest in our rectory, the nearest parish is 365 miles away with only one community (a company town in the middle of the wilderness) in between.
 
Before I moved to my present community, I lived in a city with a Catholic “Community” based on language. They regularly had Communion Services if they couldn’t get the services of a priest who could celebrate Mass in French. That never sat well with me, as everyone in that community could speak English. The kids and I went to Mass somewhere else at those times and if I was scheduled to distribute Communion or read I still went to Mass elsewhere and then went to the service.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
Priests are spread so thin these days that I think parishes are simply having to come up with solutions that wont please everyone. I suppose there are 2 ways of looking at it, either it’s imperative to seek out the best mass and to make whatever sacrifices to get to it or it’s important to preserve local parishes even if it requires compromise.
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Excellent post. Sums it up perfectly.
 
Solomonson said:
It’s not a matter of “the best Mass.” In this case it’s a matter of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass versus a communion service. The two are obviously related, but they are vastly different.

The primary reason we attend Mass is to be present at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to His Father for our sins – the Liturgy of the Eucharist. A communion service does not replicate this.
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I think the concept of a local church at the heart of a community is often underrated though. If I had to commute for a mass I would be fulfilling my sacramental obligations but you would only ever be a visitor. Dioceses are clearly facing dilemmas but I applaud any attempt to try to ensure the people of this parish have access to a local gathering.
 
ConfusedLucy said:
I think the concept of a local church at the heart of a community is often underrated though. If I had to commute for a mass I would be fulfilling my sacramental obligations but you would only ever be a visitor. Dioceses are clearly facing dilemmas but I applaud any attempt to try to ensure the people of this parish have access to a local gathering.
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You are exactly correct.

In my experiences, it is precisely those who require the greatest pastoral care who are overlooked in these situations…the poor, the elderly, the sick, the disempowered and the disenfranchised, those overlooked and on the periphery. And they are the ones, more than the others, who must be attended to and assured of care.

Yes, Mass may be available in another church a mere 3 or 4 or 5 miles away…which for some may be a drive of only a few minutes. But for the elderly who can’t drive and the poor who rely on public transportation, SCAP can make the difference in being able to have a liturgical celebration in their parish, despite the absence of a priest, that they can get to instead of having access to nothing.

As I have said, SCAP is a great gift from the Church…one arrow in a quiver of pastoral care and accompaniment.

I have been happy to be part of this thread because i see it as a teaching moment. In many places in the near term, they will need to be radically different ways of operating.

And I am sure that the Deacons will more and more be a gift to the Church in the 21st century even as they began to be so with the restoration of the permanent diaconate. We had two truly visionary Popes at the time of the Council. For the second phase of the Council, under Pope Paul, now beatified – may he soon be canonised – and the Council Fathers who perceived and affirmed the vision, we had the tremendous gift that gave us the Permanent Deacons of the last 50 years…and we will be giving the Deacons more entrustment in the future.
 
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