Length of Mass

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pnewton:
Two differnt people on this thread has refered to the Mass as mess. If you want to call each other names, that is your business. But you should tread carefully about calling the Holy Mass, in an form, the Mess. That’s my Lord’s sacrifice you are talking about.
I quite agree. I asked about the length of mass and somehow we seem to have gotten a wee bit off track. Could we please just talk about how long you think mass should last and why. 👍
 
While young and naive, if the Mass is longer than an hour, it bothers me then. Back then, the readings come in one ear and out the other… same way with the homily. Now, I don’t mind it being longer as I love attending it. It is full of meanings.

This maybe my opinion only but those who wants the Mass to be short usually have activities right afterward. Otherwise, they would stay after and adore the Blessed Eucharist. :bowdown2:

Warmest regards,
Ben
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“When I do good things, no one remembers (except God!)
When I do bad thing, no one forgets”
 
I wish I had voted for “as long as it takes”, because that is how I feel…Guess my mouse slipped!

We are pretty much hemmed in by time constraints at our parish…It is large (3,000 families), so our Masses are almost alway about an hour long. There is the problem of parking…People have to go, so others may come.
 
How long should mass be? For the Sunday Morning liturgy, when our parish has back-to-back masses, good timing is extremely important. It would be quite a mess if one mass ended 30 minutes late, right when the next mass was supposed to begin!

But for the Sunday evening mass (A LIFE TEEN Mass here), there’s no logistical reason for keeping mass to one hour. Actually, mass can go from an hour and thirty minutes to an hour and forty-five minues! It’s wonderful, and one doesn’t want to leave at the end. An passionate and truthful homily, music that touches the spirit, prayers that are never rushed through (ie: the “Blessed are you Lord, God of all Creation, for your goodness we have this bread to offer…” etc all the way to “clease me of my sins” is done silently at some other masses, but not at our LT mass). The longest part is usually the eucharistic medition (after communion); that is just awe-inspiring and spirit-rousing.

Anyhow, like you Meggie, I find that a well-done LIFE TEEN liturgy is absolutely wonderful. As a CORE member myself, you are quite a treasure. God bless.

While I love LIFE TEEN liturgy, I completely acknowledge and appreciate other liturgy, like Charismatic masses, and Latin masses. These people really are connected to God better through that type of liturgy, and that is absolutely OK by me. 🙂 However, always stay obidient to your bishop!
 
Catholic Eagle:
Yet if I wanted a Solemn High Traditional Latin Mass[or even a Missa Cantata] with an hour long sermon every Sunday … in every parish… I would be called a schismatic. Yet the Solemn High Traditional Mass is an almost perfect expression of Catholicism, while Life Teen messes have many things borrowed from Protestants
I think there should be many Latin Masses (like those you describe) in every diocese. However, every parish may not be well suited to a Latin mass (just as not every parish may not be well suited to a LIFE TEEN mass). I don’t appreciate LIFE TEEN masses being called messes. Please be more charitable. 🙂

I certianly do not think you’re a schismatic! It would be quite hipocritical for one to say “it’s okay to have a mass that is geared towards the Young” and also say “it’s not okay to have a mass that is celebrated in Latin.” It would be like saying it’s okay to have a mass in Spanish but not in English, or vise versa!
 
By external appearance I meant the way there prayers look like. I didn’t say anything about the people’s attire.Kneeling,standing,arms clasped. et cetera. Life Teen messes are almost always in the suburbs in my area. My parents almost never earned more than 30,000 dollars yet I had a suit and I wore one to church. Most people who live in the suburbs can’t live on such meagre wages as my parents.
At a LIFE TEEN Mass here, you may find that many people in the congregation, instead of praying with thier hands folded, will hold thier hands out open in front of them or raised to the sky. You may find during the Our Father that youth and many Young Adults will put their arms around eachother. During the Sign of Peace, many youth and adults will hug eachother rather than just a handshake or only exchanged words. During the closing song, you may find clapping to the beat of the music.

As far as clothing is concerned, it’s tasteful clothing. We don’t see alot of suits.

Now, what is really indicative of orthodoxy? It’s about deep prayer, a building of a profound relationship with God. It’s about total submission to God. That means when a teaching seems hard, you believe it even though it’s hard. That means going where you are called, doing what God has in mind for you. It means being obedient to your bishop and your Pope.

It’s not neccessarily wearing a suit to mass. It’s not neccessarily celebrating mass in Latin. It’s not neccessarily silent prayer. It’s not even neccessarily praying with your hands in the air or in front of you. It’s not neccessarily about LT music, or the Gregorian Chant. These are preferences, not orthodoxy.

These things can help you reach that Right Worship (also called Orthodoxy), but they aren’t Orthodoxy by themselves.

For this reason, it seems quite clear that no matter what kind of music or what kind of clothes you wear to mass, the purpose is total submission to God. If LT Music helps you get there, excellent. If a Latin Mass helps you, awesome. I don’t really care how you get there, I care that you get there.

With Love,
Exalt.
 
<<<For this reason, it seems quite clear that no matter what kind of music or what kind of clothes you wear to mass, the purpose is total submission to God. If LT Music helps you get there, excellent. If a Latin Mass helps you, awesome. I don’t really care how you get there, I care that you get there.>>>

Thank you…
 
Once again, folks, let us show Lance the consideration he deserves and get back to the topic. You can always start a new thread.
 
As I am sure most of you may be aware that the Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy can last up to 90 minutes or more. Our Easter/Pascha Liturgy lasted 3 hours.
However a traditional European Pascha/Easter Liturgy would last ALL night starting with Vespers on Holy Saturday and a wide variety of prayers and reflections that would last till the Easter Sunday morning with Matins, the Divine Liturgy and the blessing of Easter foods as a conclusion.
Reason why the Roman Mass doesn’t last longer is simply because there are at least 3 or 4 Masses on a given Sunday, depending on the size of the parish.
SInce most Eastern Catholic Parishes are small, one long Divine Liturgy is sutiable. Each parish is required to have only ONE DIvine Liturgy performed per parish per Sunday, regardless the size of the parish.

go with God!
Edwin
 
Glory be to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!

Being Ukrainian Catholic anything under one hour and fifteen minutes I would feel cheated.
 
It’s not the length of time that’s crucial BUT how long it seems. If your spiritually into the Mass, great singing, excitement abounds, awsome sermon, etc. It could go on for 2 hours and you’d say, “Why was Mass cut so short”.

but unfortunately, what we encounter Mass after Mass is no one really singing, no enthusiasm, and another flaky sermon with no substance. The Mass under these conditions seems endless even if it’ s kept to 45 minutes.
 
A priest tells the teenagers at his parish this story:

I came into some money. After paying some bills, putting some in savings and investing some I found that I had $168 left.

I had a friend that I knew could use the money, and since I didn’t really need it I decided to give it to her. I called her and asked her to meet me out for coffee. We met at the coffee shop and I handed her an envelope with the $168 inside. She gratefully accepted the money and put the envelope in her purse.

After we talked about some other things for awhile we decided to order some coffee. When I reached into my pocket for my wallet I realized that I have left it on my dresser. Knowing that my friend had $168 in her purse I asked her if I could please have just $1 to pay for the coffee. My friend said “no”, paid for her own coffee, got up, and left.


The priest would then sit and listen attentively while the teens went on and on about how selfish the friend was…how ungrateful…how could she do such a thing…if she was really your friend she would’ve given you the dollar…and so on. What is you’re OWN reaction?? Think about it for a second before you read on.

The priest would then say:

God gives you 168 hours every week as a free gift. All he asks of you is 1 hour of it for Himself. How willingly do you give it?

Is it really possible to say that X number of minutes or hours is “long enough” to spend in worship of our Lord? Our Lord didn’t complain that his suffering was “long enough”, yet we complain about the amount of time He asks us to worship him with our faith communities? We act as though He’s asking something utterly ridiculous of us when we should be down on our knees thanking him for the priviledge of what we get to do every Sunday.

(climbing down off soap box)

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
That’s a wonderful story. It really illustrates how little God asks of us to be with Him each week.
 
About having your hands raised…last winter a nun came to our parish. She is from another rite of Catholocism and during three or four prayers during mass, including the Our Father, she has her hands raised.

I do not see any problem with had rasing…so long as it is not too wild.

As for myself, I am usually not comfortable rasing my hands.
 
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Lance:
Has anyone else noted that mass seems to be getting longer and longer? At our parish it is approaching an hour and a half. When we were in Italy in 2001 mass never lasted longer than 45 min., even at St. Peter. I think an hour is long enough. What are your thoughts?
Since the quality of homilies differ…church to church…I think an hour (as a general rule) is probably for the best.
 
I love going to Mass so much that if it took ALL DAY, I’d be more than happy to go-I’d be pleased and thrilled. And Father’s homilies are wonderful-he touches on sin, but doesn’t harp on it to the point that he makes you feel like a big, horrible loser that can never do anything right. He likes to make his congregation feel encouraged and loved-and I believe people do better when they’re encouraged, rather than beaten-up. Of course, my priest may be the exception-I don’t have anyone to compare him with since I just converted this past April.

Scout :tiphat:
 
I voted “as long as it takes” – I’m an Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Liturgies ‘typically’ are longer than the Roman Mass. We used to go to a Ukrainian Catholic Church where the priest’s homily alone was 45+ minutes!! It was wonderful! I could have listened to him for HOURS! (Too bad we moved away from the area 😦 )

Now we attend a Byzantine Liturgy (Ruthenian) and it’s about 1 hour and 15 minutes long…(considered short compared to where we used to go 😉 )…
 
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Buckeyejoe:
It’s not the length of time that’s crucial BUT how long it seems. If your spiritually into the Mass, great singing, excitement abounds, awsome sermon, etc. It could go on for 2 hours and you’d say, “Why was Mass cut so short”.

but unfortunately, what we encounter Mass after Mass is no one really singing, no enthusiasm, and another flaky sermon with no substance. The Mass under these conditions seems endless even if it’ s kept to 45 minutes.
Absolutely agree.
Time is relative.
It is the quality of the Mass and the spirit that matters not the length.

Some can queue for more hours for a 5 minute ride in Disneyland or rollercoaster but complain about a full hour of Mass?

A Papal mass takes at least 3 hours of your time - the need to be early(security & queues), readings and sermons in multiple languages, etc.

In the parish, practicality is what matters. There must be sufficient time for those leaving and coming, some parish priests may have to say more than one mass a day, needs of the family especially the younger ones, etc.

The only things that really extend the time of standard the mass are the sermons, hymns, number of people for communion and/or sharings, otherwise 45 minutes will cover the essentials.

It is far better to attend daily mass where you can receive the Lord thoroughout the week (7 times) instead of a 3 hour mass on Sunday when you can only receive Him once.
 
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