Mass Attendance for Palm Sunday

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I went to mass at 9am in the nearby school auditorium (I normally go Saturday evening but didn’t want the long gospel) … it was crowded that overflow had to be on the stage. the fifth graders in Sunday school acted out the passion. After the passion, our pastor skipped the homily and went to the Creed
 
Attendance at the Masses were only barely higher than usual. At one of the Masses, hardly anyone even picked up a palm so when Father went down the aisle blessing their palms, NOBODY WAS HOLDING ANY! :eek:

And then for the special procession from outdoors into the church, hardly anyone bothered to take part in it despite signs on the doors indicating it and THREE announcements about where the blessing of palms was to take place.

Talk about a highly disappointing Palm Sunday. I guess I should get used to it because disappointment comes often here.
 
The_Curt_Jester said:
Attendance at the Masses were only barely higher than usual. At one of the Masses, hardly anyone even picked up a palm so when Father went down the aisle blessing their palms, NOBODY WAS HOLDING ANY! :eek:

And then for the special procession from outdoors into the church, hardly anyone bothered to take part in it despite signs on the doors indicating it and THREE announcements about where the blessing of palms was to take place.

Talk about a highly disappointing Palm Sunday. I guess I should get used to it because disappointment comes often here.
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I wish we had an outside procession. Ours consisted of the priests and servers processing in the aisles. I’m not sure what is standard
 
There are 3 options for the procession – outside, inside, and none. Sometimes the outside processions get confusing because half the people stay inside and the people outside in the procession then have trouble finding seats–or getting back to the seats being saved for them. A few Easters ago when it was really cold it was particularly bad at the vigil with people coming in and dealing with coats, excited children, lit candles, etc.
 
7pm Saturday - the church was about 1/2 full.

We had wicked storms going on, so that could have been part of the reason.
 
My church was packed. I hadn’t seen it this full all Lent. It was great to see so many!
 
I noticed this last year as well: my parish is very full on Saturday at 4:30pm for Palm Sunday. Waay more people than an average weekend. Also, strangely enough, way more than come on Easter Vigil. Usually when I go on Easter Vigil at other churches, it’s packed, but not at my parish. Weird. 🤷
 
frenchbeatle said:
I noticed this last year as well: my parish is very full on Saturday at 4:30pm for Palm Sunday. Waay more people than an average weekend. Also, strangely enough, way more than come on Easter Vigil. Usually when I go on Easter Vigil at other churches, it’s packed, but not at my parish. Weird. 🤷
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Attendance at the Vigil has dropped steadily in the last 7 years. Last year the church was only about 1/3 full. This year, with the late Easter and a Vigil that starts at 9 and ends around 11, we are likely to see even fewer people.

I’ve found that the Pastor’s attitude toward the Vigil spreads through to the community. The new pastor who was with us in 2002 really believed that the Vigil was the highlight of our year and he made it that. We had a wonderful Vigil that year, an a capella choir, a big fire, all readings, and a ‘break fast’ at the end of the Mass. The church was packed. That continued for the next two years.

The next pastor had no real interest in the parish, let the committee plan the Vigil with little (name removed by moderator)ut – his big thing was decorating, not the Liturgy. Attendance at Mass was dropping on Sundays and was reflected in the sharp decline in attendance at the Vigil over the years he was here.

This latest pastor refuses to follow Paschale Solemnitatis and has minimized everything: small fire, minimum readings, less pomp. Wouldn’t even have incense at the Vigil the first year although he relented last year. This has translated into a smaller attendance. The lateness of the Vigil this year will not help.
 
Yesterday was the first time I recall ebing at a Plam Sunday Mass.

(Despite being brought up in a ‘‘catholic’’ family and being scooled at ‘catholic’ schools and colleges, I have only become interested and started learning about my faith a few months ago. )

I thought that the Mass was really lovely, prior to attending, I didnt realise that it would be in any way different to other Masses. Like other people have commented I was surpised at how many more people were there compared to usual.

After the experience I am considering going to some of the other Holy Week services in my parish - just slightly worried that I won’t know what is happening or what I should do! 😊
 
My new parish was packed (SRO), but that’s not unusual. This is the reason why my new parish is planning on building a new building very soon.
 
We had 7 masses at our parish yesterday and they were all packed except the one English mass ( i live in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood) which was maybe 1/3 full.

I know because I was in the parish pretty much all day doing various things. We had a procession at 6 a.m. complete with donkey lol! It was lovely 🙂
 
felicity1984 said:
After the experience I am considering going to some of the other Holy Week services in my parish - just slightly worried that I won’t know what is happening or what I should do! 😊
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Go! 😃 The Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil) is the HIGHLIGHT of the church year. Don’t stress too much about not knowing what to do, just go and experience it. You can just follow along with what everyone else is doing and you won’t stick out. But I can pretty much guarantee it will be an amazing experience. 👍

Palm Sunday at my parish was packed, as usual. It also helps that I went to one of the two biggest masses as it is the one all the RCIA people go to. It was a bit sad this year as we didn’t have as many palm decorations this year as we usually do. We use real, local palm leaves, but this year we had a freeze at the wrong time and it made pretty much all the palm trees die back a bit and turn brown. Brown palm leaves just wouldn’t have quite the same effect. 😉
 
felicity1984 said:
After the experience I am considering going to some of the other Holy Week services in my parish - just slightly worried that I won’t know what is happening or what I should do! 😊
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Personally I like surprises (e.g., I try to know as little as humanly possible about a movie before going to see it), so how I wish I could be in your shoes and go to the Triduum liturgies and experience them totally fresh!
 
MarkThompson said:
Personally I like surprises (e.g., I try to know as little as humanly possible about a movie before going to see it), so how I wish I could be in your shoes and go to the Triduum liturgies and experience them totally fresh!
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I get to do that this week! woohoo!
 
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