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pismopal
Guest
Leaving Mass before dismissed by the celebrant seems to me a sign of disrespect for both the mass and the other attendees. Apparently my priest agrees that it at the very least,improper.
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EasterJoy
Guest
If we have other morally-binding obligations that are truly more pressing, fine. If we leave early because we can’t be bothered to “waste time” sticking around a little longer, do you think that does no disservice to the Mass? Are we not saying to the Body of Christ, “You don’t need me and I don’t need this…you finish the worship, I have better stuff to do”? We are talking about the source and summit of the Christian life! Our obligation to attend Mass is an obligation to participate as fully as our circumstances allow.
It is not just a sin to leave early. It is a sin to willfully allow ourselves to be there in body only. God should have the most full presence we are capable of mustering, body, mind, heart, and soul, for the entire time and for whatever amount of time it takes in preparation beforehand and contemplation afterward to bring about our fullest participation. We owe God that much!
Most of us lack the self-possession to participate as fully as we should, and sickness or injury can mitigate our abilities as well, we may have to leave in order to remove children in our care who are making participation difficult for others, but once we reach the age of reason, we are morally bound to do our best.
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CatsAndDogs
Guest
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Digitonomy
Guest
And I agree we should participate at mass as fully as is practical, whether that is a mass fulfilling our obligation or not.
You seem to be confusing the OP with the obligation to attend mass on Sunday. The OP wasn’t about our weekly obligation. If we leave immediately after communion, that mass does not fulfill our weekly obligation. It doesn’t however make leaving early a sin. If we fail to attend a full mass Sunday, that would be a sin. Let’s not confuse the two issues.
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sseason
Guest
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sseason
Guest
That was my very first thought! He was the only one who did not give thanks after receiving the last supper. Yikes…thinking of THAT should make some of them(i.e. the ones who walk straight from communion to the back door) drop to their knee’s after communion.
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jmcrae
Guest
Because whatever it is that you are leaving Mass for is more important to you than your worship of God at Mass.
Can you picture the Israelites taking off half way through the Passover sacrifice, with the lintels still wet with the blood of the lamb, because there was a hockey game about to start, or because they needed to go shopping for shoes?
The Mass is our New Testament Passover Sacrifice. We should regard it with the same seriousness that the Israelites who were escaping from the slavery of Egypt took theirs, since theirs was only a material sacrifice that gave them material freedom, but ours is spiritual and eternal.
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JKS
Guest
Grocery store?!! That’s pathetic. What do you want, a drive-thru? Want that biggie-sized?
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EasterJoy
Guest
The OP said the announcement was made on a Sunday morning and applied to the morality of leaving that particular Mass early, so I believe that the Sunday obligation was implied.
Having said that, even at daily Mass there is the same saving Sacrifice on Calvary. There is the same sharing in the Body and Blood of Our Lord. I would argue that to leave any Mass before the dismissal when not compelled is reason to examine one’s conscience: Have we allowed our love of God to cool? If one had a solemn audience with the Sovereign of Heaven, would one presume to leave before being dismissed? Does one take the blessing of extra opportunities to enjoy this most excellent moment in the presence of God as an excuse to become cavalier about it? When one has a truly intimate moment with one’s beloved, is one in a hurry to end it? Sometimes, yes, other obligations oblige. Still, we do well to question what we are in such a hurry to get to.
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juliasmith
Guest
Bravo for this young priest!
We need more like him.
And we need more Catholics that regard staying for the entire mass to be the proper and respectful thing to do.
We need more like him.
And we need more Catholics that regard staying for the entire mass to be the proper and respectful thing to do.
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benedictgal
Guest
There were only three times that I can remember leaving Mass early (after Communion). They centered around my suffering from the beginnings of what later turned out to be an excrutiating migraine headache. The first one occurred when I went to Mass on my own. I felt bad leaving early, but, I couldn’t take it. I got home and collapsed. The second was with my Dad. I hung around until the dismissal and we left. I do not condone leaving Mass early just to leave, but, I was in pain. The third one concrned my dad. He took ill (stomach ailment); but, he tried to stay past communion. We left after the blessing. So, I can certainly understand illness, but, not trying to be the first to get through to the parking lot. .
Yesterday evening, I had to lock up the Church after the last Mass. I was upset becuase the lector, who had arrived five minutes before Mass began, decided to leave right after receiving Holy Communion. I looked at her and wanted to say something, but, an elderly woman in a walker was asking me if the celebrant could bring her Holy Communion. I asked one of the parish council members about this after Mass. She said that the lector’s conduct was consistent, consitently bad, because she has done this often. Since I was in the back, this was my first time witnessing this. The parish council member is going to address this with the pastor.
Yesterday evening, I had to lock up the Church after the last Mass. I was upset becuase the lector, who had arrived five minutes before Mass began, decided to leave right after receiving Holy Communion. I looked at her and wanted to say something, but, an elderly woman in a walker was asking me if the celebrant could bring her Holy Communion. I asked one of the parish council members about this after Mass. She said that the lector’s conduct was consistent, consitently bad, because she has done this often. Since I was in the back, this was my first time witnessing this. The parish council member is going to address this with the pastor.
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Digitonomy
Guest
You seem to have missed the point of the post. Whatever a person’s obligations, if he has an opportunity to stop by a mass and worship the Lord, would it be sinful to do so if he does not have the time to be there for all or even most of it? I don’t think so. Stop by church, whether mass is underway or not, to worship the Lord as often as is practical.
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Digitonomy
Guest
It’s highly unlikely that the mass the priest was celebrating was the only opportunity for members of that congregation to fulfill their obligation. Some may have fulfilled their obligation earlier that day, some may have done so Saturday evening, some may have planned to later that Sunday. So it’s simply not true that leaving mass early is by itself sinful. If the Sunday obligation was the issue the priest meant to address, he should have discussed that, and pointed out that a mass left early does not fulfill one’s obligation.
I think that’s a fair point, depending on what one means by “compelled.”
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puzzleannie
Guest
there is a nearby parish where ushers do not allow anyone to be seated once Mass has begun (the greeting and blessing), they seat latecomers after the homily (leading them right up front, cold, very cold), then no one is seated. you stand outside. came once when time for holy day Mass was announced wrong in the paper, and was simply not allowed in at all. I have left early, both times for acute attack of illness. Probably did it when younger because of recalcitrant children or toddlers. Prudential judgment is good enough to determine when it is necessary to leave, but OP’s priest was addressing those who routinely receive communion and keep walking right out the door, a reprehensible habit.
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Aramis
Guest
for a non-obligatory liturgy, like daily mass, sure, provided it causes no scandal.
But for Sunday mass, especially if it is the only one they are attending, then they are not fulfilling their Sunday obligation in full.
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Digitonomy
Guest
That is a very good point. People who do this should do so such that they minimize any chance for scandal.
It doesn’t really matter if it’s Sunday mass or a weekday. By leaving early, it doesn’t “count” as having attended a full mass, but that is not a sin. Failing to attend another full mass Sunday, either before or after, is.
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12Mary12
Guest
A point which has only been touched on is the distraction caused by the early leavers.
Sit in the back pews sometimes. The early leavers pick up speed the closer they get to the doors. Kids get noisier.
I try to mind my own business, and it is important to be careful when judging others, but it is distracting.
Not to mention answering “Mama, where are those people going?”
Sit in the back pews sometimes. The early leavers pick up speed the closer they get to the doors. Kids get noisier.
I try to mind my own business, and it is important to be careful when judging others, but it is distracting.
Not to mention answering “Mama, where are those people going?”
This does address something that I would have to consider.
For various reasons my teenage daughter sometimes attends a later Mass than my husband and I do. When I drop her off I usually leave and come back to get her but on some occasions I hang around and talk to people in the courtyard or worship garden. Maybe get a cup of coffee and a donut if I hadn’t done so earlier. And I sometimes wander into the back of the Church through the open side door to pick up a bulletin or diocesan paper to give me something to read. I’ve been known to wander in and join in with the communion song if it’s a favorite.
The back of the Church usually has people standing there. Some for reasons I don’t know. But others are parents with restless toddlers, ushers, and other parish volunteers who like me have already met their Sunday obligation but have some reason to be there.
I have never received communion under such circumstances and wouldn’t since I would not consider myself to be in attendance at such a Mass and would have already received at a previous Mass. As such, I would not consider myself to be leaving early.
For various reasons my teenage daughter sometimes attends a later Mass than my husband and I do. When I drop her off I usually leave and come back to get her but on some occasions I hang around and talk to people in the courtyard or worship garden. Maybe get a cup of coffee and a donut if I hadn’t done so earlier. And I sometimes wander into the back of the Church through the open side door to pick up a bulletin or diocesan paper to give me something to read. I’ve been known to wander in and join in with the communion song if it’s a favorite.
The back of the Church usually has people standing there. Some for reasons I don’t know. But others are parents with restless toddlers, ushers, and other parish volunteers who like me have already met their Sunday obligation but have some reason to be there.
I have never received communion under such circumstances and wouldn’t since I would not consider myself to be in attendance at such a Mass and would have already received at a previous Mass. As such, I would not consider myself to be leaving early.
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BSHoop96
Guest
You forgot the god of “getting to IHOP before everyone else.”
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EasterJoy
Guest
I don’t think it is wrong to go to Mass when one knows that one will have to leave early in order to meet other commitments. I don’t think the priest can say that everyone who leaves early is committing a sin. He can’t know that, because, as you imply, there are legitimate reasons to leave. Besides, reasons can come up over the time it takes for Mass to take place. You can get sick, you can remember a commitment you had forgotten, and so on.
For that reason, we can’t judge anyone who leaves early. Having said that, I wouldn’t leave unless I felt that the priest would find it permissible, were I to have had an opportunity to explain my circumstances to the priest. I don’t think it is simply OK to leave, no matter how slight our reason. There is an obligation to stay until dismissal, where reasonably possible, regardless of the day of the week on which the Mass is offered.
As an aside, I think the fraction at that Mass who were attending for the second time for the weekend and yet were planning on cutting out early would be very small, if not non-existent. Very few people, having met their obligation, stay for a Mass when they’ll have to leave it early.
I have never asked a priest whether it is better not to go to Mass when there is no obligation and one knows that one will have to leave shortly before or after Holy Communion. I think I will. I’m curious what they’ll say.
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