Difficulty praying during live-streamed Masses

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EnglishTeacher

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Like all of you out there, my only access to Mass right now are live-streamed ones that we (husband and I) have been watching Sunday morning. We are so fortunate to have access to this type of technology during this crisis. Yet, I have found it very difficult to pay attention and pray while watching Mass online.

Anyone else having the same problem, and if so, have you found anything that helps? I just can’t concentrate, and sad to say, I don’t really even want to watch the Triduum liturgies. I normally absolutely love Holy Week, and find those liturgies of this week to be so profound and so beautiful. I look forward to them all year, but have little or no desire to watch them online because it’s not the same and it’s too heartbreaking not to be there, and I just feel disconnected…
 
Try different churches online. It doesn’t even have to be your parish. One mass may appeal to you more than another online. Some masses have no music, some do. Some masses have better homilists than others. Most keep them online and you can look at last weeks to see what they are like.

It actually does help me to sit, stand and kneel as usual.
 
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I find following along in my personal missal, praying the entire mass with Father helps me the most
 
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I agree some parishes/churches are better set up for online streaming - they have been doing it for longer.
 
Perhaps if livestreamed Masses are not for you, you could try some other form of prayer, such as the Liturgy of the Hours (LOTH), or celebrating a Liturgy of the Word using the readings from Mass, with your husband.
I do both (the LOTH and a Liturgy of the Word) on Sundays and plan to do them during the Easter Triduum. I find that personally reading the readings and singing the psalm is more spiritually uplifting for me. That being said, many others find the livestream much more spiritually uplifting than celebrating the LOTH or a Liturgy of the Word.
 
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I don’t know if you will have access to this or not but I do it anyway due to my own issues…could you try using headphones? May be tricky if you are both using the same computer but if you have different devices easy enough. It cuts out background noise and makes it just you and the mass. Also try shutting the curtains and or choosing a room that doesn’t face the street or garden (assuming you have more than one room). Try face a different way than usual just so you aren’t looking at your favourite things ie the things you put around your home to look at! Its not surprising you struggle to concentrate, this mass is in the wrong place, it’s strange it’s different. Your poor brain, all our brains! Also take a moment at the beginning to try imagine being in church…if you have insence burn it or candles do so for psychological purposes. Let your brain and your body know, its church time, put your veil or hat or favourite church clothes on if it helps. Just make yourself feel like its church. Most of all have patience with yourself and don’t give up. God will reward your patience. God bless you
 
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Irishmom2 said:
It actually does help me to sit, stand and kneel as usual.
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Me too.

As long as we are aware - which I think we all are - that we are not at Mass, and Christ is not really present on our phone screens.
 
I feel the same way. As I watch, my mind wanders. I check my watch/clock/whatever.

It isn’t Mass and for me at least, it doesn’t feel even remotely like Mass.

I feel like I am pretending.

I normally attend Easter Vigil. I’m not sure what I am going to do this weekend.
 
I’m the same way–I I just pray the relevant Mass prayers, unite my intentions to the Masses being said that day, do the readings and make a spiritual communion.

You don’t have to watch Mass on TV if you don’t want to. You just have to keep the day Holy in accord with the commandment.
 
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Most churches, mine included, do not have the professional equipment necessary to do a good job live streaming the Mass. The picture is not clear, sometimes wobbly, and, even though the staff tries to move the camera from place to place, it’s very hard to pay attention to. I found that I did better just listening. So, I switched to watching EWTN or Bishop Barron because the fine quality of the production is easier on my eyes and I pay closer attention. Maybe this crisis will encourage more churches to invest in the equipment necessary to live stream in the future.
 
Well, to each his own.

I don’t have a issue with watching it all on TV. We sit, stand, and kneel. We speak when we have to.

Monday and Tuesday we attended mass with the pope. He had his private mass broad cased on the Catholic channel.

Pax et Bonum
 
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them .” .
 
Try to imagine you are in church and remember to switch off phones…
 
Well, I watch streamed Masses on my phone so I can’t exactly turn it off 😄
 
I’m not having that problem. I light a candle and bless myself with holy water beforehand, and take a good 10 minutes before Mass to pray. That sets the mood. I really like the Word on Fire daily Mass (Fr. Barron–just google it) because it is very reverent, the sermons are great, and the streaming and audio is excellent. (By contrast, my parish streaming is iffy, at best). During the Mass I say the appropriate prayers out loud and stand, kneel, sit, etc. exactly like at regular Mass. I make an act of spiritual communion and believe Jesus has entered my heart, so I worship and thank Him, with thanksgiving continuing for 10 minutes or so after Mass. Any way, all this is no different than what I do for daily Mass regularly, and it helps me pay attention!
 
@Genesis315 @maryjk

I also have trouble watching Mass on TV, and was wondering if it might not be that I am not that good at watching TV to begin with? I like it as background to doing something that does not require a lot of mental attention and don’t watch that much on my own.
 
We have been trying to transform the livingroom a bit so all of us but especially the kids aren’t feeling like we are just lounging around watching tv.

We dress up. Move the furniture. Make a line of dining room chairs like a pew. Lay a scarf across the entertainment center. Move some religious images and statues next to the tv.

I haven’t been having a lot of trouble concentrating, but I also am at a stage in life where I’m usually tending to a few squirmy kids during an actual Mass, so my distraction threshold is different than it might be in other stages.

My biggest problem is I seem to cry through the whole Liturgy of the Eucharist. Not over the top sobbing just awfully choked up during all of our responses.
 
Goodness, I haven’t even bothered with a livestream Mass or anything like that. If I’m not going to treat int as reverent, I’m not going to bother at all.
 
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