How late is "too late"?

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how late would one have to be to be able to not attend Sunday Mass and not have it be a mortal sin? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? untill you missed the homily? untill you miss the Concecration? or something else? or what?
 
Jesus_rules said:
how late would one have to be to be able to not attend Sunday Mass and not have it be a mortal sin? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? untill you missed the homily? untill you miss the Concecration? or something else? or what?
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Although in the past I understand being late was defined as arriving after the homily I don’t think there is a specified time period now, although the past rule makes sense to me.
However, I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you talking about deliberately arriving at Mass late or arriving late through no fault of your own (which certainly would not be a grave sin).
 
well, here’s the story:

I was on the computer, when I looked at the clock and was like “Oh no, it’s already 5:50! I’m gonna be late for 6:00 Mass (the last Mass of the day)” so I drove on over to my church, which happens to be about 15-20 minutes away or so. On my way there, I called my mother (yes, I’m still in high school) to tell her not to worry, I would be arriving only a little late. Because my mother was already out with my younger brother, I had assumed that they would just go to Mass. When I called my mom, she told me that they were, in fact, just arriveng home and would . Because it was still five till (and conciously aknowledging the fact that it was a grave matter to miss Sunday Mass), I debated for a second over whether or not to protest this and tell them to go back out to church, but decided to just

I have just been worrying that this was the wrong choce and that I have committed a grave sin by ok-ing the fact that they would miss Mass.
Plus, Im worried that I have led them to mortally sin. I’m not sure whether or not they know that it is a grave sin to miss Mass.
 
Remember, Sin is an act of the will. If you knew it was a mortal sin, and did it intentionally that would be a problem.

I wouldn’t think that a one-time slip is a mortal sin. Unless it’s habitual.

The good news is that as Catholics we have the gift of the confessional.

-G
 
I would take this to your priest in Confession, then make sure you don’t surf too late next Sunday. 😉

~Liza
 
Jesus_rules said:
On my way there, I called my mother (yes, I’m still in high school) to tell her not to worry, I would be arriving only a little late. Because my mother was already out with my younger brother, I had assumed that they would just go to Mass. When I called my mom, she told me that they were, in fact, just arriveng home and would . Because it was still five till (and conciously aknowledging the fact that it was a grave matter to miss Sunday Mass), **I debated for a second over whether or not to protest this and tell them to go back out to church, but decided to just **

I have just been worrying that this was the wrong choce and that I have committed a grave sin by ok-ing the fact that they would miss Mass.
Plus, Im worried that I have led them to mortally sin. I’m not sure whether or not they know that it is a grave sin to miss Mass.
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Also, remember that you are in high school. Your mother is an adult. If she missed mass, that is her sin, not yours.

My Mother missed Mass on Monday. She had a doctor’s appointment that she didn’t feel she could change. 🤷 Yes, there was only one Mass she could attend. The rest were after dark and she can’t drive at night. I called her in the morning to remind her about Mass, she missed it. Not my sin. And I am an adult.
 
As far as I know you need to be there in time to hear the Gospel in order to not be late for Mass.

Antrim.
 
Jesus_rules said:
Plus, Im worried that I have led them to mortally sin. I’m not sure whether or not they know that it is a grave sin to miss Mass.
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The question is maybe also, if they didn’t know, did they sin?

I had a similar situation recently, I was visiting my great aunt and because of my visit it made her miss mass because she came to meet me at the station (she wanted to go on Saturday but it was so icy and the weather was so bad, so she didn’t feel it was safe (she is over 80 years old).
I worried about whether I should try to find out if she knows that missing mass could be a great sin (even though in her case I am pretty sure it wasn’t??) I felt guilty because even though unintentionally, I was part of the reason.

Of course you can ask your Mom whether she knew?

Maybe you can all go to Confession together? 🙂

But also, about you maybe not telling them the right thing: You also have to ask yourself, how much time did you have to think it over at the time? Were you trying to do the right thing while debating?

Kathrin
 
As we all know we should do our best to be present all during Mass. However the nuns were adamant that if we were unavoidably late, we hadn’t fulfilled the Sunday obligation if we were not present for the Offertory, the Consecration and Priest’s Communion…if we were present for these three, given that our absence for all else was unavoidable, then we had met the basic requirement.
 
Trishie said:
As we all know we should do our best to be present all during Mass. However the nuns were adamant that if we were unavoidably late, we hadn’t fulfilled the Sunday obligation if we were not present for the Offertory, the Consecration and Priest’s Communion…if we were present for these three,** given that our absence for all else was unavoidable**, then we had met the basic requirement.
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If your absence was truly unavoidable, illness, taking care of someone that was ill, working and unable to leave, then you are not required to attend mass at all.

Now, if you were late because you got up late, lingered too long at breakfast or were sure you could make it 15 miles in 10 minutes, you better find another mass to attend.
 
I just read today that Vatican II changed it to be that as long as you are there, even if really late, you have fulfilled your Sunday obligation.

Only God knows why you’re late and if you did it on purpose.
 
Since the Mass has two distinct parts, too miss one or the other would mean that you didn’t attend Mass.

For instance, If you didn’t hear the Gospel proclaimed, you missed the liturgy of the Word.

If you leave Mass early, say after the homily, you missed the liturgy of the Eucharist, so you didn’t fully attend Mass.

Of course you have to look at the circumstances surrounding all of it. But this was the general rule of thumb I was taught.
 
Serap said:
I just read today that Vatican II changed it to be that as long as you are there, even if really late, you have fulfilled your Sunday obligation.

Only God knows why you’re late and if you did it on purpose.
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That isn’t quite what Vatican II said. If I remember right, pre-Vatican II, if you made it to Mass before the offertory, you’d fulfilled your obligation. Vatican II changed that and gave no specified time, which could mean one of three things:
  1. Missing any part of Mass is not acceptable; if you aren’t there from beginning to end, that doesn’t count (unlikely).
  2. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re there at some point (unlikely).
  3. If you did your best to fulfill your obligation, and you made it to as much of Mass as you could, you fulfilled your obligation (most likely, I think). Naturally, showing up for the final blessing probably wouldn’t cut it, but now I think there are situations when one can fulfill your obligation despite missing the offertory, and ones where you have failed to fulfill your obligation despite being there for the Gospel (if you just decided that you feel like getting there late).
 
Kathrin said:
The question is maybe also, if they didn’t know, did they sin?

I had a similar situation recently, I was visiting my great aunt and because of my visit it made her miss mass because she came to meet me at the station (she wanted to go on Saturday but it was so icy and the weather was so bad, so she didn’t feel it was safe (she is over 80 years old).
I worried about whether I should try to find out if she knows that missing mass could be a great sin (even though in her case I am pretty sure it wasn’t??) I felt guilty because even though unintentionally, I was part of the reason.

…

But also, about you maybe not telling them the right thing: You also have to ask yourself, how much time did you have to think it over at the time? Were you trying to do the right thing while debating?
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But the CCC states that we are obligated to correct others when they’re incorrect, or else we might as well be partaking in their sin. Maby you should tell your great aunt…?
 
I agree, maybe the best thing to do now is to tell your aunt your concerns.
 
I have a question then, for the past 5 Sundays my husband and I have had intentions on going to mass however, 1 day my husband was sick, then I was sick the next week, the weather was not good for driving conditions, we were out of town, and last weekend my husband got a terrible blow out on the freeway that we had to be towed home and did not get home until 4am (which surely did not give us enough rest after the terrible and scary incident); I am concerned because when the intent is there something prevents us from going…My husband and I pray about it together, and for me since I am going through RCIA I go to the vatican website to review the masses daily, and read scripture daily. I feel that I’m getting ridiculed by certain people that are catholics. I found myself crying and asking for forgiveness and for God to help me to learn how to be closer to him. Can anyone offer some advice??? My RCIA group does not meet this week, we are going to mass on Ash Wed.
 
LLM 6179

Talk to the Priest and explain it to him. He will advise you and not be judgemental or get you upset.

Antrim
 
It’s “too late” for your Sunday Mass to count the moment the priest removes the paten off from the chalice for the second part of the Mass. (Before you had to arrive before the Gospel was read in order for the Mass to count.)
 
ready said:
**It’s “too late” for your Sunday Mass to count the moment the priest removes the paten off from the chalice for the second part of the Mass. ** (Before you had to arrive before the Gospel was read in order for the Mass to count.)
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I do not think that is true but I would stand corrected if you can show me the Church documentation stating that.
 
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