Do you go to Mass while on Vacation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MGEISING
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Before my husband retired I often accompanied him on business trips. Checking out churches in the area was always a pleasant pastime - esp. local shrines. In Philly St. John Neumann’s body is displayed in a local church - and don’t miss St. Rita’s Shrine. In Boston there’s St. Anthony’s Shrine - although I hear it has fallen into liberal hands lately. I loved that you could go to confession and Mass just about any time during the day there. There are beautiful Italian churches in Boston also. I must say that the Paulist Center on Boston Commons was the scariest "church " I’d ever been in(couldn’t find the tabernacle - and so…unfriendly). Annapolis has a lovely church with school attached - I don’t recall the name but it was beautiful. I attended Mass at a beautiful and neglected church and an Hispanic church in New Brunswick. San Juan has a beautiful but fallen on hard times cathedral that houses the remains of a Spanish explorer. Ask at the hotel desk for directions to the nearest Catholic church and enjoy! The bonus is…you get to receive the Body of Christ!
 
Before we leave on vacation, I always check out www.masstimes.org to find out the local churches and their mass schedules. It’s awesome.

We even try to go to daily Mass if possible. I always love checking out different churches. It always makes me realize how big a family we all belong to in sharing our Catholic faith.
 
40.png
brbschrmnn:
Before we leave on vacation, I always check out www.masstimes.org to find out the local churches and their mass schedules. It’s awesome.

We even try to go to daily Mass if possible. I always love checking out different churches. It always makes me realize how big a family we all belong to in sharing our Catholic faith.
Click to expand...
That’s so cool. My family does that too. Maybe big families are just great like this and find time for Mass! YAY! After a while, however, Mom and Dad get good at remembering Mass time!

God Bless–JMJ
Laura 🙂
 
40.png
UxoretMater:
We ALWAYS try to go. But, only once, on our honeymoon, did we fail to because we we on a Greek island with no Catholic Church and no ferry service on Sundays!! There was one church, so we went to the Greek Orthodox service and just prayed and had no idea what was going on…couldn’t believe that the one island we picked for the weekend had no Catholic Church. We went to every Catholic Church we could find for the remainder of the trip. That was the only time it was physically impossible for us to get to mass on Sunday!!
Click to expand...
I think the greek orthodox mass meets the req’s for obligitory Sunday mass.
 
My friend and I were on vacation in West Virginia, and the rural mountains. There were only about 15 - 20 people at the 1 Sunday Mass; the Catholic Church was a converted house.

When the congregation saw us, they stopped us afterwards to congratulate us in joining their church.

They were surprised and saddened when they heard our ‘Northern’ accents and we explained we were visiting.

They thought their congregation grew by 10%.

Thank you.
MrsCinMI
 
h(name removed by moderator)2four said:
masstimes.org/ASP/

No excuse to miss Mass anymore :tsktsk: 😉
Click to expand...

Unless of course, the parish changes the schedule and doesn’t let the website know. Which happened to my wife and I last week. We wanted to go to Good Friday Services and when we showed up at the Church we found it dark and locked with no one in the rectory office. :bigyikes: Apparently, they have been having troubles at this parish.
 
When I was young, my parents were very good about making sure we always attended mass while on vacation. Even if we were camping in the woods, we would drive to the nearest town to attend mass. I think that is the correct thing to do.

I hate to admit that sometimes when I travel out-of-state now, I don’t attend mass. I think it is because my coworkers are not Catholic, and I feel like it would offend them to say “Hey, you can’t take the rental car this morning to go sightseeing because I need the car to go to church.” I know that is wrong, and I really need to work on that in the future.

Karen
 
I definitely make plans to attend mass when on vacation. I sometimes do research on the internet before leaving to see what churches are in the area, mass times, etc. That way I have a good idea of what to expect as far as mass schedules when I get there. If you can’t find exact mass times online, you can often find the phone numbers of churches in the area and even call them ahead of time, or email them!
 
We always attend Mass while on vacation. Besides being obligated to attend Mass every Sunday it’s always a great opportunity to see different churches. This morning I attended a Mass in which the altar rails where used during communion which I found interesting since it was my first time to receive communion this way.
 
Augustine,

Yes, I guess I should have worded my response that I would work on that in the present. The reason I stated I’d work on it in the future is because I don’t have any business trips planned at the moment ( in the present!)

Karen
 
We always attend Sunday Mass, and use the MassTimes website for information (and usually check the diocesan website as there might be some really neat churches to visit).

Joe
 
Well, the last time I had a real vacation was in 1998 when my son and I went to Northern Ireland. While there we went to St Peter’s in Belfast for Sunday Mass and it was wonderful, very meaningful for me.

Lately, I’ve been out of town for a training program and I attended Mass twice at a parish in the part of the state I was training in. It was a beautiful parish but they had simply awful vocalists!! Oh well, can’t have everything, I guess!

Thank God I’m home again!
 
40.png
Naphali:
Maybe I’m coming from a different prespective being a convert but really, if I totally disagree with the entire order of service, with the attitude and words coming from the priest and feel as though there is nothing in the place that makes me feel closer to God why WOULD I take communion with them?

Perhaps I’m spoiled by my wonderful parish where everyone is joyful and you feel Christ’s presence in every part of the service.

I know not every church is going to feel just like my home parish to me but I do expect at least a little respect, reverence and joy at being assembled to receive Christ … to have those things so totally lacking I don’t feel like I should be taking communion in that frame of mind. I need to be in a proper state myself and being in a church that inspires the opposite feeling in me is not an option.

I also don’t want to expose my children to a service so dead in spirit and tell them that it’s ok just because of the sign on the door … it’s not ok with me.

Anyhow … this is just how I feel. I’ll try again. I’ll try whenever we’re away, but if I feel like there is no joy of Christ in the body of the church then I won’t be receiving him with them at their Eucharist.
Click to expand...
Naphali, I sort of know how you feel. Though I know that the Eucharist is still the Eucharist, even when blessed by a not-so-good priest, I’m not sure how I would act if I was at a really weird Mass. I’ve been to at least one Protestant service before with my Catholic family (we have Protestants on Dad’s side and Mom’s best friend is a Protestant). Whenever I’m at a Protestant church and they’re celebrating communion that Sunday, I don’t receive it because I know it’s not the same thing.
 
I went to mass during my peru travel and get the chance to hear a spanish mass in a church of arequipa I think the name of the church was la compania.

It was beautifull!!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top