No problem-when my Parish first started we alternated daily Mass at various homes until we found a gymnasitcs center that would let us do it in one of their training rooms!
Home Masses are not permitted in general. All Masses are to be public celebrations, not by “invitation only”. Mass should always be celebrated in a church or chapel with a consecrated altar or at least a blessed one. Only under necessity should Mass be celebrated elsewhere.
I guess this is the heart of my concern. From the invite I got, the parish intends to do these Masses in various different neighborhoods, all in individual’s homes. But their is a beautiful, newly renovated building that can and is used for daily and weekly Masses. There is no necessity here.
OK - I may come across as a snob here - but that is not the intent - but this did touch a nerve of mine for some reason. In reading your post Anima Christi - I was struck by just a sense of concern that at times blinds us all. The poster a few below did an excelent job of pointing out the church position on this. Unless given permission by the bishop - Masses are supposed to be in a sacred place, etc. Although your Mass was on a private altar - I’m sure that quite a few people who have “home Masses” would feel equally as intimate, equally as solemn, and feel it was equally lovely. But…our feelings like this aren’t really what should be the guide. In a bizzare twist of logic - someone who was having an “affair” could feel so much more “intimate, solemn, lovely” with someone not their spouse - but that again isn’t what it is about. We should strive to follow the church teaching on all such things - especially something so important as the Mass.I just went to a traditional Latin Mass last week that was celebrated in the priest’s home, on his private altar…the intimacy of the setting, and its simplicity made it very solemn in a way…it was lovely.
I know of many Masses celebrated “elsewhere”, always for a very special occasion, and likely by permission of the local Bishop.
Well, first of all I was merely commenting on the Mass itself, I was not using that to justify having Masses outside of a Church. I’m not sure why you are assuming the bishop did not give permission or that there was not a good reason to have a Mass in the priest’s home, but I perhaps I should have given some background information. Our local Latin Mass Community does not have its own church…it has to actually pay several hundred dollars per month to a parish in the diocese to use their church for Masses, since it is the only parish in town which still has its high altar intact and the only one where the tabernacle is actually located in the sanctuary, behind the altar (imagine that…one group of Catholics having to PAY another Catholic parish to use their church for Mass!) We have a “sacramental minister”, an FSSP affiliated priest, (not a pastor, since we are not a parish…but then again, it seems common in this diocese for parishes to have “sacramental ministers” but be pastored by a female “pastoral associate”–but I digress…) who says daily masses in the church, but sometimes due to circumstances we are unable to have Mass in the church. This particular occassion was a “First Friday”, so Father offered to have a Mass in his home so that those who were practicing the First Friday/Sacred Heart devotion could fufill the requirements of this devotion by going to Mass and receiving communion on that day, as Our Lord stipulated in His apparition to St. Margaret Mary, since we could not have Mass in the church that day. Is a priest supposed to go without offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just because he can’t say it in an actual church? Are people to be deprived of the graces of Holy Mass just because for some reason it cannot be celebrated in a church? Not only do I think that this was allowed because it was for a serious reason, but I have a feeling that a priest’s own private chapel does constitute a “sacred place”. Even if this is not the case, I doubt the bishop is concerned that Masses are not being celebrated in “sacred places”, since the cathedral parish has a “Mass in the grass” every year at their annual parish picnic…