Has the Church ever studied why so many people attend Mass on Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Easter morning and Christmas morning?

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To live in perfect health, to have a healthy family, to own a car, to afford gas, many luxuries.
 
StAugustine said:
Guilt. People avoid their obligations. And they know it and overcompensate.
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So you think they feel they receive some level of expiation for their sins by attending Mass on these days? I think that might be a possibility as well.
 
What I find really astonishing is that almost no one remains in the pews for Communion on these days. You know 50% haven’t been to Mass since last Christmas and certainly didn’t confess.
At Christmas this year our pastor reminded people during the homily that they couldn’t get communion if they missed Mass without a valid reason and without confessing
 
There was also a trend recently to put glitter in the ashes a couple years back. Don’t know if that’s still a thing.
 
Exegete when im there for a long weekened i won’t for the simple fact that I have to drive 2 hours to get there drive half way home to get to church drive an hour back to my parents and then drive 2 hours home again
Also I’m usually only there for 2 nights parents are not church going people and I seem to stay there around 3-4 times a year I don’t actually see a problem with missing a mass or 2 per year
 
Exegete said:
I think there is a lot of truth to that. Now going a bit deeper, exactly why do they feel that way, particularly on Ash Wednesday and palm Sunday?
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These two days are popular because there are tangible takeaways, i.e., the ashes on the forehead and the palms in the hand. This appeals to people’s sense of spirituality.
 
The most amazing experience I had of that phenomenon was in chatting to a mom outside a dance class once. She told me she and her husband would drop her daughter off at a local evangelical Sunday School each week so that she would “be a good person” but didn’t attend church themselves! Bizarre…
 
Also I think it shows how sacramentality appeals to people. We are embodied, we respond to the physical around as and it can help us relate to God and our spirituality.
 
Exegete said:
What blows me away are those families whose children are in faith formation, yet they do not regularly attend Mass. That’s stunning to me. I could ask the same question there – why do parents do this? I know some people feel called to get defensive and say “at least their kids are becoming catechized!”, but again, I think there are things to be learned if such parents were tactfully debriefed.
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This has happened for the past several centuries. Parents want their kids to have a better education than the parents may have, and this includes religious education. (It also includes other things that the patents may lack, or at least lacked as children.) But they are unwilling to invest time in the Church themselves, either because they feel that it’s “too late” for them, or they don’t wish to give up their time and energy. I also think that this trend has gradually worsened since industrialism and consumerism have grown.
 
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joyfulandactive said:
The most amazing experience I had of that phenomenon was in chatting to a mom outside a dance class once. She told me she and her husband would drop her daughter off at a local evangelical Sunday School each week so that she would “be a good person” but didn’t attend church themselves! Bizarre…
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In this regard people look at the Church the same way that they look at Scouts, community little league sports, 4H, youth recreational centers, etc.
 
In case nobody has said it, I’m going to say it:

Easter and Christmas, more people attend because families get together and even non-practicing relatives go because their practicing relatives are going.

Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday: they give out free stuff.
 
My son goes to scouts every Wednesday during the school term my husband volunteers his time 1 Wednesday a fortnight so it will run ( we have a shortage of helpers in our community)
 
A friend of mine’s adult children don’t attend church any more (Catholic) and they also have not brought up their kids in the church. So my friend sometimes takes her grandchildren to church. She bribes them to go with donuts, which are usually available after Mass. Well, whatever it takes. At least it opens the door for discussion later on, when they are older.
 
A note to any readers here who were curious to attend or return to Mass on Easter.

Please know you are welcome, the Church is overjoyed for you to decide to go to Mass this Holy Week, or at Christmas, or on Ash Wednesday.

Do not fear, the vast majority of the people at the Mass will not be critical of your reasons for being there.
 
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I’m sensitive to the many pulls on families these days. I’ve been present when priests have chastised parents for getting kids to extracurricular activities but not Sunday Mass, and it’s always unpleasant even if you get your kids there regularly.

I did have a conversation recently with a friend during which I said I was struggling with the commitment to Scouts because, during a particularly difficult period, we had missed Mass but I felt we couldn’t miss Scouts because we were leading the group. And that felt…really wrong. (Because, of course, it is.) Her family is Catholic too and she gave lip service to the fact that her family had been missing Mass too and that was too bad – but she isn’t giving up Scouts to make room for Mass. That’s when I knew I was right to move away from leading Scouts.
 
I think the answer is pretty straightforward. People have different levels of commitment. Some have a busy life but when holidays come around, they come in the church to pray. Perhaps they pray all year and ‘don’t feel I have to be in a church to pray’. They still have a friendship with God.

I could ask another question. I have met Catholics who go regularly and yet they have not been to confession for decades. Why is that? They came from a time when there was a priest hearing confessions every Saturday. I heard 1 lady say that ‘we don’t have to go to confession any more’.

Catholics have a great range of commitment. That can change over the years too.
 
Whatever the reason people come to Mass it is always good that they are there. We should always do our best to be welcoming and encourage them to think about coming more often. Apparently the number one reason people return to church or a church event is friendships they have made, so just being a good friend is being evangelical.
 
Admittedly that is one reason why I liked Palm Sunday so much as a kid. It is still one of my favorite liturgies of the year!
 
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