Distance traveling to Mass

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For those of you that have to travel some distance to get to Mass, do you ever find it a little discourageing? I myself travel 18.5miles one way every Sunday. So 37 miles is a long way for some. Are there any of you guys that have to travel further? I’m just curious. My travelin’ distance isn’t so bad to me because i go farther than that to work.

God Bless!
Jess
 
Do you have to travel because of isolation from your parish? Or are you travelling to a specific parish? We are less than 10 miles from our parish, but some mornings if we hit every red light it can take 15 minutes to get there! Certainly not walkable though.

I always encourage people to attend at their local parish rather than going to a far away one, unless there is a truly serious issue at the local parish. And usually, if there is a problem that bad that the pastor or bishop can’t or won’t try to correct, than the entire dioscese is likely to be just as bad.
 
JPayne said:
For those of you that have to travel some distance to get to Mass, do you ever find it a little discourageing? I myself travel 18.5miles one way every Sunday. So 37 miles is a long way for some. Are there any of you guys that have to travel further? I’m just curious. My travelin’ distance isn’t so bad to me because i go farther than that to work.

God Bless!
Jess
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My parents would do about 40 miles each way to the nearest major town. They do the trip twice a week on average (one day for work/shopping/socialising, they’re semi-retired, and the other being Sundays).

They take it well - it’s just part of choosing to live in a sparsely-populated rural area. They’d probably move if it got too bad for them.
 
I drive 10.5 miles one way, so about 21 miles each time I go to Church. I do wish it were closer. There are probably at least 10 Protestant churches for each Catholic church. There are not as many Catholic churches out in the rural areas in this area of the country.

It is somewhat discouraging, because I have to be more choosy about when I go. I can’t go to just everything.
 
Yeah, I travel that far because I have too. there is another Catholic church about the same didtance to the north of here, but i have to attend the one im going to because of my work. when I’m on call for work i must be in a respond time of 30 min so the one to the south is the only real option. I like it better any way b/c the priest used to be a baptist minister before reconciling with the Catholic Church.
Down here where i live the protestant church to catholic ratio is more like couple hundred to one.
Glad to hear some responses though.
Thanks!👍👍
 
19.8 each way if I take the surface streets. Up to 21 each way based on how much of the Interstates I take.
 
Sr_Sally said:
Do you have to travel because of isolation from your parish? Or are you traveling to a specific parish? We are less than 10 miles from our parish, but some mornings if we hit every red light it can take 15 minutes to get there! Certainly not walkable though.

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I will answer this with a true story. Back in the 70’s & 80’s my wife and I traveled to Guatemala several times. A classmate of mine was a priest in Guatemala City. He took us to a particular place where the indigenous Indians walked two days to a certain place to attend mass on Sundays and walked two days to return home. They spent the other two days getting ready for the return for the honor of being able to be at mass again. And you think 15 minutes is long. They may be uneducated Indians, but they have a their priorities right.
 
There are about 5 parishes within 15-20 miles of our house. We go to the Cathedral - about 19 miles one way. The closest parish is, I think, about 17 miles (according to Google maps anyway).
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
I will answer this with a true story. Back in the 70’s & 80’s my wife and I traveled to Guatemala several times. A classmate of mine was a priest in Guatemala City. He took us to a particular place where the indigenous Indians walked two days to a certain place to attend mass on Sundays and walked two days to return home. They spent the other two days getting ready for the return for the honor of being able to be at mass again. And you think 15 minutes is long. They may be uneducated Indians, but they have a their priorities right.
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Wonderful story! I just heard one similar form a missionary priest in Nigeria. A group had asked permission to come out to their chapel in order to do a novena. The group of men and women walked to the chapel (a few days walk also), then after Mass the fist day, they began to say the rosary. They continued saying the rosary and other prayers all night, sleeping in shifts. The next morning after Mass they continued. This went on for nine days and nights. They had come to do a novena, you see!

Our parish is very close and we do appreciate that. We can easily swing by for adoration before or after work. When my son is scheduled to serve the early, early morning daily Mass, we can roll out of bed and arrive with no problems. I can commit to teaching CCD and be home quickly afterward to make dinner! All pluses. But the joy and devotion seen in the stories you and I told of those walking miles to get to Mass is a truly beautiful thing!
 
My closest Parish is essentially in my front yard. It is wonderful to sit on the front step of my home and see our small town church, but I drive 25-30 mins each way, because after my divorce I felt it was unfair to my children to loose their church family as well as a great deal of extended family. We have been active in that parish for many years and have a histor there, my kids have so many favorite grandmas there that it is worth the drive. Now if I have a morning that just falls apart on me, I always have the close church and I can get to church on time… or more often if I need to stay home with a sick child, my others can walk down to church to worship in my place.
 
13 miles - 45 minute travel time (more or less) one way - public transportation (it’s Europe).

But, then again, I go to the Extraordinary Form, so it’s worth it.

If the local parish wasn’t so abuse-filled, modern, and offered the EF, I’d go to that one. It’s a 30 minute walk from where I live, and about a 5-10 minute bus ride.
 
I travel about 30 miles one way to go to Mass on Sundays, despite having a parish about 3 miles away. I simply cannot stand to go to parishes that are filled with abuses. It also helps knowing this is temporary as I plan on moving much closer within the year.
 
I drive 13 miles to Mass. There’s one parish closer but its in a some what rough neighborhood so I dont go there. And the rest are around the same distance or so as the one I go to. The only time I find it discourging is if its raining super hard or its real foggy.

Heck I drive 15 miles to school. The bad part is is there’s a campus right near my house but they dont have my major there lol.
 
Our parish is only 4.5 miles from our house. And I have complained a lot about that, due to the difficulty in getting my mother there… and back. (she is severely disabled).

But after reading how much further most of you good people are traveling… I now feel a bit ashamed. :imsorry:

Thank You, Lord… for allowing us to find a house so CLOSE to our parish. :gopray:
 
2 miles/5 minutes each way on weekdays and about 25 miles/50+ minutes each way every Sunday for the EF. More than worth it. 😃
 
Another side of the coin are priests who serve more than one parish. Some of them also have some major travel time. One of the parish clusters I served, on Sat, I drove 22 miles to a mission church (I was the closest priest to the church). Then after that Mass, I would drive back through the town I came from and to another town 10 mi. a different direction to a second parish I served. Sun. I would have a 2nd Mass in this parish, drive home and have Mass in the central parish. Living in two rectories at the same time can be a bit of a problem too. It seems that what you need is often at the other place.
Yet when I look at this, I had it easy. A friend of mine had six parishes, and the closest any two of them were together was 25 mi.
I also visited one of our missions in Guatamaula–there 2 priests served 39 missions + the main parish. Needless to say, they only were able to go to each little church once a month.
 
Linuse said:
Another side of the coin are priests who serve more than one parish. Some of them also have some major travel time. One of the parish clusters I served, on Sat, I drove 22 miles to a mission church (I was the closest priest to the church). Then after that Mass, I would drive back through the town I came from and to another town 10 mi. a different direction to a second parish I served. Sun. I would have a 2nd Mass in this parish, drive home and have Mass in the central parish. Living in two rectories at the same time can be a bit of a problem too. It seems that what you need is often at the other place.
Yet when I look at this, I had it easy. A friend of mine had six parishes, and the closest any two of them were together was 25 mi.
I also visited one of our missions in Guatamaula–there 2 priests served 39 missions + the main parish. Needless to say, they only were able to go to each little church once a month.
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God bless you, Father.
 
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