"Hurry-Up" Mass

[BlyssfulDreamer]

Thank you Cat for your nice words. They mean alot. Folks here have taught me so much about what kindness is and respect for others and their feelings. I have been blessed just by reading some of the posts…

Thank you again…

God Bless…
:heart:Blyss

 

[m134e5]

This afternoon I attended Mass at my parish. The priest was about 10 minutes late starting…no big deal…i would wait and wait…but then he seemed to rush through it. No, in fact…he DID rush through it. He was moving it along to fast he was stepping on our responses. He was still washing his hands when he said “Brethren…pray…” and that was the way it was and Mass finished in 15 minutes…with about 12 people coming forward to receive Communion.

This is not like Father…he is usually much more reverent…and I left feeling a little taken aback.

Any comments? Should I just let it go and shrug it off and see what happens in the future?

Thanks…

:heart:Blyss

Many people going to daily Mass depend on it getting out on time in order to get to work or other things they have to do throughout the day on time. Priests should be very careful to start Mass on time, and keep them within a predictable time frame (20-40 minutes for a weekday/saturday morning Mass & 45-70 minutes for your typical Sunday Mass).

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Many people going to daily Mass depend on it getting out on time in order to get to work or other things they have to do throughout the day on time. Priests should be very careful to start Mass on time, and keep them within a predictable time frame (20-40 minutes for a weekday/saturday morning Mass & 45-70 minutes for your typical Sunday Mass).

Agreed.

I am a Byzantine Catholic and our parish does not have daily liturgy anymore. We used to have it three times a week or so, but there is no “low mass” so to speak. I give Father a lot of credit. He used to take it daily even for just 2-5 retirees… It takes about an hour, and the whole thing is chanted.

It was on the other side of the city (this is no small city either) and I couldn’t possibly make it there, take an hour and get back to anywhere in time.

I am very grateful for the simple, dignified daily noon (actually 12:05) Mass at the cathedral. They “pack in” 30 -40 (or more) people on their lunch hour.

A couple of the priests are just plain brilliant and I would sit there for two hours if they preached as long… And some of them could. (These Dominicans live up to “Order of Preachers”!)

 

[BritishCatholic]

As an altar boy back in the late 50’s I served Mass for a variety of priests at my home parish. I recall one who would routinely say the entire Mass in fifteen minutes or less. In Latin, last Gospel (John chapter 1), and all.

Matthew

To me that’s just silly. I mean, the Tridentine Latin Mass, personally, is one of the most beautiful and sacred events one can partake in. Rushing it just demotes it’s spiritual value. Especially during the distribution of Holy Communion. The whole “Corpus Domini Iesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.” for every person itself takes a while. I love it when I kneel on that altar rail, and the priest slowly places the Sacred Body of our Lord on my tongue while reverently saying that Latin prayer…Man, it gives me goosebumps really.

 

[Sarabande]

I was at my very first “hurry-up” nuptial mass a couple of months ago. I was one of the hired musicians for this wedding and had never been to the church before - an absolutely beautiful, old, little gem along the Jersey shore. The priest to celebrate the sacrament was very nice. I arrived an hour prior to the ceremony, as I always do for weddings as a musician, and met with him to ask about things I needed to be aware of, etc. He told me that he didn’t tell the bridal couple, but another wedding was accidently scheduled immediately after theirs. Apparently the Spanish parish had closed down and was consolidated into their parish, but the pastor of the Spanish parish forgot to tell him about his scheduled wedding mass and they didn’t realize it until a few days before the wedding date. Neither pastor told these bridal couples of the error because they didn’t want to cause a fuss. Mistake number one.

Anyway, he told us just to be wary of the length of the music and to not mention anything to the groom and his family, which I didn’t when he came in. Of course, the bride was almost a half hour late. We could see from the organ loft how nervous the priest was. It was the fastest wedding masses I had ever seen. We cut parts of our music, he had the mass parts recited, and gave a really short homily. He was done in a half hour and they had a large congregation attend, most of whom received communion. My husband, who came with us, said that he felt sorry for the couple because the Sacrament went so quickly, you almost didn’t witness it. At the same time, the bride shouldn’t have been so late, although who knows what happened. (I was 15 minutes late for my wedding because my grandmother had fallen getting into the vehicle which was to drive us to the Cathedral and we were attending to her. She was fine.)

The priest was cutting off the string quartet after the organ was done and the other musicians for the next wedding were coming in to set up. And while the receiving line was being done for the wedding I did, guests and the bridal party of the other wedding were already coming in. What a surreal experience.