Do acts of love cancel out the need to go to Mass?

[happygramma]

I am very busy working fulltime at night and working fulltime babysitting my grandchildren during the day so their parents can work and family can care for them. I also care for a handicapped son and an elderly mother-in-law in a nursing home. I often find it difficult to attend weekly Mass on Sunday. Are there circumstances such as mine where going to church is excused or the obligation can be met on another day? Does God allow for acts of love to replace attendance requirements?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Does God allow for acts of love to replace attendance requirements?

Why are you seeking to distinguish between “acts of love” and “attendance requirements”? Could it be that you believe your obligations to your family should cancel out your obligations to God and his Church? Perhaps you do not realize that the “attendance requirements” are in place to ensure that Catholics set aside sufficient time in their schedules to perform “acts of love” for God in return for all that he has given to us.

Strictly speaking, work obligations and the need to take care of children, the elderly, or the ill, are indeed just reasons to miss Mass on Sundays and holy days. But I suspect that you are asking this question to relieve yourself of the need to go to Mass at all. Only you can determine if that is correct. If it is indeed the case, then I caution you not to consider this permission to chuck your obligations to God. Instead I can only recommend that you find ways to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days, even if it means informing your children that they will have to make other arrangements for babysitting on Sundays and holy days, and arranging for a caretaker for your disabled son and mother for the one hour per day once per week (and a handful of other days) that the Church requires that you go to Mass.

Look at it this way: Not only does God deserve your undivided attention for an hour per week (and a handful more of hours on holy days throughout the year), but you deserve a break from all of the demands made on your time by your family. Spending those breaks with God, and receiving from him the grace of the sacraments, will make you better able to deal with all of the challenges of your busy life.