Does mandatory Sunday church attendance help or hurt the Mass experience?

[JRKH]

That can be carried to an extreme. Where does it stop?

Should I go to work or stay home and pray my rosary all day? Well, God must come first so I guess I will stay home and pray.

Should I feed my family or stay home and pray my rosary all day? Well, unfortunately for my family, God must come first so I guess I will stay home and pray.

Should I do this or that or something else that is important? Nope. God is more important than anything else so I should pray instead.

You are right - it could be carried to the extreme…and the Church has addressed this by setting up the rules as she has.

If I understand correctly…

1. There are two kinds of laws; the Laws of God and laws or the church.

1. Laws made by the Church can be changed. “Fish on Friday” for example is a Church law that was changed from every Friday to just Lenten Fridays.

1. God’s law, however, cannot be changed, and by extension, the Church cannot “create” new sins or “repeal” old ones.

Ergo, how can the Church say “missing mass is a mortal sin” when in fact mandatory mass attendance is a Church law?

I’m no “canon lawyer”…but…
I would call your attention to Christ’s own words in Mat 18:15-18 and the very clear and explicit instruction to “Listen to The Church” - which has the authority to "Bind and “Loose” - “Whatever”
In being obedient to the Church we are obedient to Christ - and to the Father.
The command of God is to Love God with all our heart mind and strength.
In order to prevent some of the extremes that you mention above…the Church provides guidelines, disciplines and rules…one of which is “Sunday Mass obligation”.

So - as I stated in my earlier post…perhaps not too clearly…It all stems from Love of God above all else - even obedience…

Peace
James

 

[iloveangels]

This is interesting. I’ve often wondered about what other people think of this. I don’t think it really affects mass attendance much but it does figure into peoples’ lore about the Church a lot. Huge numbers of Catholics don’t attend mass. However, the explanations are long and involved. Interesting.

 

[onmyknees]

God gave us the commandment to keep Sunday holy because he knows that if we do not go every week we can tend to drift away.

It is important for all Catholics to know their faith and what is exactly going on at the mass.

Those who are talking and laughing during the mass probably don’t realize that they are really and truly at Calvary! This is possible because with God their is no time. He is infinite. All the angels and saints come down from heaven above to participate with us in the holy sacrifice of the mass!
If you listen closely to the priest prayers at mass you will hear the passion, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. During the offertory we are offering up our own sacrifice ( our gift to the Lamb of God) . After we receive the Eucharist we kneel and have this most intimate time to thank, praise and talk with Him. So much more is going on too and we receive many graces when we truly participate in the mass.

I cannot believe that if someone knows what is involved in the holy mass that they would feel obligated to go, rather I would guess that they would jump at the chance to be with our Lord!

 

[ProVobis]

I have no point to make, but our pastor has mentioned more than once that after each First Communion Mass he celebrates, he comes to the sad realization that most of those receiving will never step foot inside a church again. And there’s not much he can do about it.

 

[iloveangels]

I have no point to make, but our pastor has mentioned more than once that after each First Communion Mass he celebrates, he comes to the sad realization that most of those receiving will never step foot inside a church again. And there’s not much he can do about it.

Yes, it’s kind of strange. You have to wonder what people like this think they’re getting out of this kind of behavior. There is the same very common pattern of “grab and go” with many of the Sacraments. Baptism, Confirmation and Marriage get treated the same way. The Church needs to do something about this.

PS: I think that many people have used these sacraments to try to convert people, or hang onto them when they’re on their way out of the Church, and that’s a bad idea. You don’t hang onto people this way; it doesn’t work. Rather, they need to provide catechesis & community activities for people having trouble and feeling left out; this is the only way to convert them or hang onto them. You have to give them a reason to stay. AFTER THAT HAS BEGUN IN EARNEST, and ONLY when they’ve demonstrated an interest in staying, via mass attendance over a period of time, should they get the sacraments.

 

[PJM]

=fisherman carl;10131174]Does mandatory Sunday church attendance help or hurt the Mass experience?

It’s God’s Commandment so the point is MUTE

IF everyone Knew and Believed the REALITY and Truth of the Eucharist BEING JEUS HIMSELF; we’d have to build bigger churches and could sell tickets ] [just kidding]