Does watching mass on TV meat your obligation?

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If you are able to attend Mass, you must attend Mass to meet your obligation. Protestants services, T.V. does not at all meet your obligation.
 
I would think that if you were bed ridden and had to have the Eucharist brought to you at home or in the hospital, then viewing the mass on television would be acceptable, since you really have no other choice.

Aside from that, you need to attend in person.
 
Karl, correct me if I am wrong here, but if you are physically unable to attend mass (say bed ridden or in a hospital), then you have no obligation. At that time, TV mass is a good way to make a spiritual communion. If you can get to mass (even if you have a cold), then it in no way can fulfill the obligation.
 
If you are bed-ridden, then you are EXCUSED from attending Mass. Watching it on TV would be a nice thing to do but it wouldn’t fulfill your obligation because you are ALREADY excused from it.
 
Karl, I thought I remembered from the past that people 65 and over are excused from attending Mass. Is this true, or did I get some bad info. somewhere? Help!
 
There is no age limit on when you are dispensed from Mass - only if that age causes physical ailments that prevent you from attending

You may be thinking about fasting - people over 65 don’t need to fast on days of fast and abstinence but still are required to abstain.
 
If someone is too sick to go to Mass (not necessarily bedridden), they are not required to go. Also, their caretaker is not obligated to go to Mass, if their abscence would hurt the sick person.

This is my understanding. Otherwise, you better find a way to get to Mass!
 
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davy39:
Karl, I thought I remembered from the past that people 65 and over are excused from attending Mass. Is this true, or did I get some bad info. somewhere? Help!
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I heard that too. I told the person who told me that that he was full of (shall we say the waste products of solid food?). However, it kept bothering me that I couldn’t find anything to cite to show there was no such exemption. I finally asked my pastor. In fact, he pointed out that such a rule would mean priest (and bishops) would have to retire at 65.

John
 
I have heard such things as “If you are more than 200 miles away from your home” (or something to that effect- i.e.- On Vacation)…you are also excused from your obligation (I, for one, really enjoy going to Mass while on vacation, though…and my family does so 99% of the time).

I’d also like to add that if we don’t go to Mass, we are the ones who are missing out, not God. In my opinion, the Celebration of Mass is a privelege, not an obligation.
 
I seriously doubt that it meets the obligation: you are not with your fellow worshippers and you do not receive Communion.
 
It does not meet your obligation. If one watches the Mass on EWTN, what it does do, however, is show you that a normative Mass can be both beautiful and free from abuse and that Latin can be incorporated into a Mass with the vernacular in the way intended by Vatican II.
 
No, it does not fulfill your obligation----but there are a lot of people who can’t get to Mass & Communion on a daily basis but do watch it on television—it turns their minds to God & the Mass so it is a good way to spend the 30 to 60 minutes that the television Mass takes
 
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deogratias:
It does not meet your obligation. If one watches the Mass on EWTN, what it does do, however, is show you that a normative Mass can be both beautiful and free from abuse and that Latin can be incorporated into a Mass with the vernacular in the way intended by Vatican II.
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It amazes me what the searing heat of the desert can do to the creative process of the brain.

This of course comes with the standard disclaimer that this post was meant to be in good humor.
 
Karl Keating:
It neither meets it nor meats it.
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Unless----as i understand it---- you are sick, too weak or elderly to go to Mass, or in the event that you work on Sat vigil or Sunday Mass times in a profession which is good in itself (Doctor, nursing, or any good job that requires missing Mass on pains of losing the job…etc).
 
Just to provide some clear-cut guidance. If one is able to get to Mass (and this implies the Mass is accessible), then one has an obligation to go (even if one is on vacation). If there is no accessible Mass then the obligation is lifted. Mass on TV is a good alternative to doing nothing is one is unable to attend Mass, either due to physical limitations (sickness, infirmity, etc.) or becuase there is no accessible Mass (one cannot get transportation and the Mass is too far away to walk, there is no Mass, or the Mass that is offered is of such a great distance that one cannot get there in a practical fashion.

Let me give an example of this latter condition. I was camping at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The nearest Mass was over two hours away – one way! We did not attend Mass that day (turns out, the priest didn’t show up due to road construction and the congregation had a Communion Service in the Absence of a Priest).

Deacon Ed
 
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