Mass and the frustrations of a traveller

[Phemie]

Phemie - I don’t know if you’re interested in the EF or not, but I have found the FSSP website to be up to date on its Mass/Confession times: fssp.com/press/locations/
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I’d be happy to attend an EF Mass but there are none offered in the dioceses where I was travelling so those sites are not of much good.

As for Masstimes.org, of the three dioceses I travelled through, only 3 parishes were listed and none had Mass times.

It’s been several years since I’ve seen hotels/motels include Mass times or even a listing of churches in the directory they put in the rooms.

 

[ccmcmg]

I’d be happy to attend an EF Mass but there are none offered in the dioceses where I was travelling so those sites are not of much good.

As for Masstimes.org, of the three dioceses I travelled through, only 3 parishes were listed and none had Mass times.

It’s been several years since I’ve seen hotels/motels include Mass times or even a listing of churches in the directory they put in the rooms.

I travel quite a bit, so I understand looking for Mass times and such. When Masstimes.org doesn’t meet my needs, I Google it. I can get just as easily get to the diocesan website or the parish websites of the city I’m traveling to. If they don’t have a webpage or a bulletin online, a simple phone call is all it takes. Many parishes even have answering machines so that when you call, it gives out the Mass times.

Many of the hotels I stay at (which would be 3 to 5 stars) do have a handbook that includes at the very least, nearby Catholic parishes as well as others. This includes casino hotels, believe it or not.

With all the tools at hand, there is no reason not to know at the least, what the Catholic Church in town is, if not the times, achieved with a simple phone call. Since we are already on the internet, it isn’t that much work to find it on Google.

I do have a funny quick story; I was in a town and thought I knew where I was going (I was plenty early). I drove through the small town (Grants) and didn’t see the Church where I thought it was, but I was probably looking in the wrong direction. Nonetheless, I pulled into a parking lot to turn around, and spotted some people putting their store purchases in the trunk. I asked them nicely if they knew were the Catholic Church was. The two men said they were going in that direction and to follow them; they drove me right to it and were very nice.

What was the parking lot? Liquor store parking lot. And I was a single traveler, a woman alone in an expensive (rental) car (not by my choosing, but LOVED it!). God was looking out for me, for sure. Pretty cool.

 

[Phemie]

I was trying very hard to find an early evening Mass yesterday as we had a 6:30 pm catered family reunion dinner and I was travelling today early with no time to stop as we had a ferry to catch. I had to presume that my arrival in this town would be after all Masses had been celebrated.

I went to a parish in the English cluster which the diocesan website said had a 4 pm Mass – nobody was there. There was only an answering machine and no Mass times. In the end I bolted my food in 10 minutes and made it to the 7 pm Mass in our village parish, one of 5 in the French cluster. There is one priest per 5 parishes cluster.

 

[SMHW]

So sorry you had to cut your family dinner short.

Masstimes, phone books (if anyone can still find one), Google, hotel lobbies, parish/diocesan websites, etc. are all very useful. But the truth of the matter is that they tend to be the most useful when one is in a suburban/urban setting and in those cases it is very likely that one has done research before leaving home.

But in those times where one is already traveling (particularly in rural areas and places where there are few Catholics) and when one has to make last minute changes to one’s plans, it is often not so easy to find a Mass.

It is often the case that there is limited cell phone service, no WiFi, and phone books are out of date. If one does find out where a Catholic parish is located, one finds out that Mass is only said during the visitor season, at an impossible time, or on every third Sunday of the month (when today is the second Sunday.)

 

[backprop]

This is a good time to let everyone know - if your parish mass times are incorrect on masstimes.org, you can change them and do everyone else, including travelers, a favor.

Click “Update this parish” and then go through editing each type of service (mass, perpetual help, confession, etc.) by clicking its link, then clicking Edit.

 

[grasscutter]

This is a good time to let everyone know - if your parish mass times are incorrect on masstimes.org, you can change them and do everyone else, including travelers, a favor.

Click “Update this parish” and then go through editing each type of service (mass, perpetual help, confession, etc.) by clicking its link, then clicking Edit.

Very good to know!

 

[MissRose73]

The masstimes site and the mobile app have been very helpful to me as a fellow traveling person.

 

[Boy_Wonder]

Find a local parish then call to get the Mass schedule.

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

I want to ask a question that is going to sounds tongue-in-cheek but it isn’t:

How did we find Mass times before the Internet?

In pre-internet, days, I traveled on business, and often found myself hundreds (or thousands) of miles from home on a weekend. This is what I did:

1. Ask the hotel desk clerk for a list of nearby churches.
2. Call the Catholic churches to find out the Mass times. If the list didn’t have phone numbers, I would look the churches up in the phone book to get the numbers and addresses.
3. If there was no list, I would use the phone book yellow pages to find churches (or I would use the white pages, checking for listings beginning with words such as “Saint”, “Sacred”, etc. Catholic churches didn’t always appear in the yellow pages, for some reason).
4. If phoning the churches didn’t help (sometimes no answer on Saturdays, for example), I would visit the nearby churches (the desk clerk can tell you which ones are within walking distance) to see if they had a sign with Mass times in front of the church.

As you can see, lots more work/leg work before the internet!

 

[schaeffer]

I am currently traveling and have been surprised at how many communities Catholic churches have bill boards or signs along highway welcoming travelers and listing Mass times and locations. I have also seen this information at some of the motels along the way.

When you return from your travels, check with YOUR parish to see how they are making themselves known to travelers and newcomers, it might be a mission you can help out with!

 

[WingsOfEagles]

I’ve had better luck with diocese websites being right. I usually look up the parish website and check it against diocese info to see if they match. They usually do. Most churches have a Mass starting between 10 and 11, so showing up for 10 is a safe bet.

 

[SMHW]

In the United States it is common for middle class and well-to-do parishes to have websites. It’s not quite so common for poor parishes. But parishes outside of the United States don’t always see the need to have a website.

Most of us have no problem finding a place to attend Mass if we are in large urban area. But when we are in rural and wilderness areas things get a bit harder.

I was under the impression that this thread was mainly about areas with very low population density.

 

[Phemie]

In the United States it is common for middle class and well-to-do parishes to have websites. It’s not quite so common for poor parishes. But parishes outside of the United States don’t always see the need to have a website.

Most of us have no problem finding a place to attend Mass if we are in large urban area. But when we are in rural and wilderness areas things get a bit harder.

I was under the impression that this thread was mainly about areas with very low population density.

The first weekend I was travelling I was in a town of 22,000 people, that’s about 3 times the size of my town. It was also the seat of the diocese. There were three parishes in the town and each of the villages and small towns along the drive also had a church. But the diocese did not list Mass times, and none of the parishes had websites, not even the Cathedral parish.

We got to town too late Saturday to find out anything so what I eventually ended up doing was going to the one of the churches on Sunday morning as we were leaving town and getting a bulletin.

There was only one Mass at the Cathedral parish, and that was over; the one at the church were I went was 2 hours later and we needed to get on the road. The other church was a Mission and closed.

As we drove I kept my eyes peeled and saw a parish where people were just arriving for Mass so we stopped there. From the bulletin I gathered that not every parish had Mass every weekend.