Mass and competitions

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angell1

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so I have this sport that I participate in, which is find if we’re not travelling. but when we go to tournaments, we usually leave Thursday and come hom on sunday. and due to scheduleing, sometimes attending mass is difficult.

this doesn’t happen too often though, maybe like 5 times ayear, at most.

should I stop participating if it causes me to miss mass? sometimes we have games all Saturday until late and finals are sunday morning and we have to leave sunday afternoon usually.

I really do try to make it but sometimes things come up, like extreme weather conditions, or can’t get a ride etC

I know we can ask for a dispensation but maybe this isn’t a good enough reason for one
 
Why not talk to a priest about this he will be able to understand your situation better.

God Bless
 
You might also want to mention it to your coach, or to parents who help with the team. If a coach is a decent person, he or she will try to make sure that kids who need to go to church, synagogue, etc. will get there and get back on time.

Alternately, you might want to ask around.

There may be Masses in the area you go for sports which are early or late enough for you to attend, especially if you are going to a college for tournaments, like a lot of highschoolers do.

Most Catholic areas have a church that has an evening Sunday Mass, and some even have ones at 10 or 11 PM at night (college areas, usually). If there are a lot of Catholic kids on your team, maybe Father can even hunt up a retired priest to do a Mass just for you kids on the team, especially if it’s only a few times a year.

If it is just really hard, your pastor can also dispense you from going to Mass. “Traveling” just by itself can be a grave reason that excuses you from Mass (ie, you’re not obliged to miss your plane to go to Mass). So yeah, the uncertainties of a competition schedule do apply.

(I will say that competition schedules are pretty inhuman these days. It used to be expected that teams would want to go to church, so they couldn’t start them so early in the morning on Sundays.)
 
My question always is, what other areas of your life does your sport encroach on? Do you always miss dinner with your family? Does you family have to drop everything and cancel plans, because your coach, on a whim, decides to hold practice? Just because the coach is obsessed doesn’t mean you have to be too. I am willing to bet mass is not the only thing you have to give up. Maybe, you should give up this particular team. If that is not an option, get your priest’s opinion.
 
Since you are in college, I would think you would understand that missing Mass without a serious excuse is a mortal sin.
I see this all the time from parents who have little ones. Seems everybody think their kids are getting sports scholarships. Did you receive a sports scholarship? Do you feel a larger obligation to the college team than to the Lord?
You really should discuss this with your confessor or pastor. There you will find your answer.
 
angell1 said:
so I have this sport that I participate in, which is find if we’re not travelling. but when we go to tournaments, we usually leave Thursday and come hom on sunday. and due to scheduleing, sometimes attending mass is difficult.

this doesn’t happen too often though, maybe like 5 times ayear, at most.

should I stop participating if it causes me to miss mass? sometimes we have games all Saturday until late and finals are sunday morning and we have to leave sunday afternoon usually.

I really do try to make it but sometimes things come up, like extreme weather conditions, or can’t get a ride etC

I know we can ask for a dispensation but maybe this isn’t a good enough reason for one
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I think you should ask. 👍
 
pianistclare said:
Since you are in college, I would think you would understand that missing Mass without a serious excuse is a mortal sin.
I see this all the time from parents who have little ones. Seems everybody think their kids are getting sports scholarships. Did you receive a sports scholarship? Do you feel a larger obligation to the college team than to the Lord?
You really should discuss this with your confessor or pastor. There you will find your answer.
Click to expand...
it’s not a college team, it’s a sport for the visually impaired, one of the few that we can participate in fully and get proper amounts of exercise.

it’s only a problem when travelling, not usually. of course I don’t think sports are more important than God. but I will ask
 
sscott said:
My question always is, what other areas of your life does your sport encroach on? Do you always miss dinner with your family? Does you family have to drop everything and cancel plans, because your coach, on a whim, decides to hold practice? Just because the coach is obsessed doesn’t mean you have to be too. I am willing to bet mass is not the only thing you have to give up. Maybe, you should give up this particular team. If that is not an option, get your priest’s opinion.
Click to expand...
did you read my original post? this has nothing to do with ordinary day to day coaching. we have schedules practice times every week that do not affect mass, or anything else
 
angell1 said:
it’s not a college team, it’s a sport for the visually impaired, one of the few that we can participate in fully and get proper amounts of exercise.

it’s only a problem when travelling, not usually. of course I don’t think sports are more important than God. but I will ask
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Yes, that would be a good idea…since it’s obviously very beneficial to you, I think he might have a good idea for you regarding Mass.
 
We frequently have to juggle our weekend schedule because of my daughter’s soccer games. It’s not nearly as difficult as your situation is, because most of the time we are near home and can find a familiar church to attend.

Is it possible to find Mass times in the places you travel to? There are online sources that list Masses.

Also, the times when it would have not been possible for us to do both, we’ve simply told the coach that my daughter would be late, or leaving early, etc.

It seems like your sport is very important to you. I’ll be blasted for this, but how about attending Mass on Monday? Yes, yes. I know it doesn’t fulfill the Sunday obligation, but it’s better than nothing.
 
on_the_hill said:
We frequently have to juggle our weekend schedule because of my daughter’s soccer games. It’s not nearly as difficult as your situation is, because most of the time we are near home and can find a familiar church to attend.

Is it possible to find Mass times in the places you travel to? There are online sources that list Masses.

Also, the times when it would have not been possible for us to do both, we’ve simply told the coach that my daughter would be late, or leaving early, etc.

It seems like your sport is very important to you. I’ll be blasted for this, but how about attending Mass on Monday? Yes, yes. I know it doesn’t fulfill the Sunday obligation, but it’s better than nothing.
Click to expand...
Only if her pastor says she can. She needs to ask him, not us.
 
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