Mass = *yawn* :(

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Franciscan said:
Maybe you could read The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn which will undoutbtedly lead you to a new, deeper apreciation for each part of the Mass.You’ll go from seeing it as an obligation to seeing it as an opportunity.

Also you could pre-read the readings for Mass and atleast during the Liturgy of the Word you will already be invested.

Also you can practice Eucharistic Adoration which will heighten your spiritual senses when receiving Cmmunion.
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This is a great suggestion. After reading this book, the Mass will never be the same.

If you was walking down the street and everyone was looking up to the sky and Jesus was coming down to earth; what would you do? Would you fall on your knees in total Adoration? Fear? Regret? My friend in Christ, our Lord is truely present at each Mass and is waiting on you to receive him. He died on the cross, just for you. Has anyone love you that much in your life? We celebrated his birth yesterday. Can we understand how our Lord, our God, was born as a man, to take on the sins of the world. He freely entered a world of animals to turn them into saints.
 
What helps me is to offer the Mass at the beginning for my intentions, as others have suggested, but also I pray that I might “assist with ardor and devotion,” IOW, with all my heart, mind, and strength. I make myself pay attention to the readings and prayers, the homily and to being properly disposed to receive the Eucharist. It’s like preparing for a love tryst, not merely for receiving a host and a sip of wine. I anticipate embracing my Beloved with my body, mind, and heart. And when I return to my pew I kneel and ask him for the deepest intentions of my heart. At the end of Mass I thank him for the great privilege of being allowed to enter his house and receive such graces gained for me at the price of Christ’s own blood.

I don’t do all these things because I thought them up or am particularly good or anything like that. I do them because the Church, particularly in the writings of the Saints, has given us many such holy suggestions for truly being present at Mass and not merely occupying a pew. It makes dryness bearable and times of spiritual wakefulness even sweeter.
 
Hi, I always found mass extremely boring. I love God alot, I just hate going to mass becaus it is so boring. I fall asleep. I used to love mass, but now I think…hmmm…when is it going to be over???
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If we cannot spend one hour worshipping God what makes us think we can spend all of eternity in an eternal Mass?
 
I find that if I’m not getting anything out of the Mass, it’s usually because I’m not really paying attention. If I don’t hear what I need to hear, it’s because I’m not listening. Pray for God to open your ears and your hearts.
 
mrs_abbott said:
I can hear an echo of my mother here. The answer is “yes” to all of your questions listed above. 👍

We are here on this earth to know, love and serve God. I think the Mass is a good way to do all three. Don’t you? 🙂

I’m so happy to hear that you don’t think the Mass is boring. Some of us don’t have that luxury, as some of us are experiencing “spiritual dryness”.
I’m glad that you are doing good in your spiritual journey, though. Pray for those of us who aren’t.
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Just a suggestion or two:

Try thinking of the following during various parts of the Mass.
  1. use the beginning of the Mass, when we are asking forgivness for our sins to truly repent of the sins you may ave on your conscience.
  2. During the Word of God, the readings, try to understand thier respective relationships (first reading, Psalm, Second Reading). Listen intently to the Gospel and try to hear Gods Word.
(I should probably say something about the homily but I find this is often my least favorite part of Mass. The priests seem to almost deliberately water down the Word to something more fitting for an elementary school child).
  1. When we “pray with all the Angels and Saints” look up and envision many many Angels floating above the people at Mass singing.
  2. Contimplate the host turning into the body and blood of Jesus. Truly contimplate it and concentrate on your going up to receive the body of the creator of the universe and all it’s creatures.
5.) Look often at the Cross and try to feel the pain Jesus felt hanging there with the nails through His hands and feet. Then think of how comfortable we are to be sitting in the pews thanking Him profoundly for His passion.

Works for me 😉
 
Mass doesn’t have to be boring if you can have the right attitude. For example. I enjoy singing so I get involved with that and while I need to work on placing too much emphasis on the singing for my own enjoyment instead of for God, overall, the singing has made me appreciate the other parts of the mass more. I’m Eastern Catholic so I sometimes attend the Divine Liturgy. Nearly everything is chated in the Liturgy so people are more involved. I think the more one gets involved with the mass or liturgy the less boring it will become.
 
Mijoy2 said:
Just a suggestion or two:

Try thinking of the following during various parts of the Mass.
  1. use the beginning of the Mass, when we are asking forgivness for our sins to truly repent of the sins you may ave on your conscience.
  2. During the Word of God, the readings, try to understand thier respective relationships (first reading, Psalm, Second Reading). Listen intently to the Gospel and try to hear Gods Word.
(I should probably say something about the homily but I find this is often my least favorite part of Mass. The priests seem to almost deliberately water down the Word to something more fitting for an elementary school child).
  1. When we “pray with all the Angels and Saints” look up and envision many many Angels floating above the people at Mass singing.
  2. Contimplate the host turning into the body and blood of Jesus. Truly contimplate it and concentrate on your going up to receive the body of the creator of the universe and all it’s creatures.
5.) Look often at the Cross and try to feel the pain Jesus felt hanging there with the nails through His hands and feet. Then think of how comfortable we are to be sitting in the pews thanking Him profoundly for His passion.

Works for me 😉
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good advice, thank you!
 
Mijoy2 said:
Just a suggestion or two:

Try thinking of the following during various parts of the Mass.
  1. use the beginning of the Mass, when we are asking forgivness for our sins to truly repent of the sins you may ave on your conscience.
  2. During the Word of God, the readings, try to understand thier respective relationships (first reading, Psalm, Second Reading). Listen intently to the Gospel and try to hear Gods Word.
(I should probably say something about the homily but I find this is often my least favorite part of Mass. The priests seem to almost deliberately water down the Word to something more fitting for an elementary school child).
  1. When we “pray with all the Angels and Saints” look up and envision many many Angels floating above the people at Mass singing.
  2. Contimplate the host turning into the body and blood of Jesus. Truly contimplate it and concentrate on your going up to receive the body of the creator of the universe and all it’s creatures.
5.) Look often at the Cross and try to feel the pain Jesus felt hanging there with the nails through His hands and feet. Then think of how comfortable we are to be sitting in the pews thanking Him profoundly for His passion.

Works for me 😉
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I do focus on your point number five, since there is a big crucifix in front of the church.
The rest though is hard, since I’ve been away from church for so long that I don’t know quite how to feel about it.
I’m trying to want to be there but it’s not happening.
I’m going purely out of obligation, for now.
 
JoeSchmeau said:
I find that if I’m not getting anything out of the Mass, it’s usually because I’m not really paying attention. If I don’t hear what I need to hear, it’s because I’m not listening. Pray for God to open your ears and your hearts.
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That’s probably a large part of my problem. :o Thanks for the advice! 👍
 
Hi,
Yes, in the old days when i was a teen I sometimes felt like you do. I have gone through a long faith journey since then, I left the church for about ten years just to return with new faith and determination. I don’t know if you like to read, but there’s a very inspiring book by Scott Hahn called “The Lamb’s Supper” in which he explains the beauty and meaning of the Mass that is awesome. I highly recommend you read it.
Also to overcome sleepynes ask Our Lord to help you - pray for this.
I hope this helps.
Maria rose
 
Does anyone practice mortification anymore? From time to time I think all of us have experienced a dryness in our faith. I have always found that if I do something to inflict discomfort or very mild pain it helps me focus on the prayers. The key is to do the mortification cheerfully and offer up your discomfort to God. You can do something as easy as pulling your tie too tight or putting something in your back pocket making sitting uncomfortable. Through the years, though not recently, I have noticed people that didn’t use the kneelers, instead kneeling on the floor.

Mortification used to be used a lot in the past, but I don’t hear much about it anymore. If you are bored, you might try it. If nothing else, it will keep you alert.
 
SnorterLuster said:
Does anyone practice mortification anymore? From time to time I think all of us have experienced a dryness in our faith. I have always found that if I do something to inflict discomfort or very mild pain it helps me focus on the prayers. The key is to do the mortification cheerfully and offer up your discomfort to God. You can do something as easy as pulling your tie too tight or putting something in your back pocket making sitting uncomfortable. Through the years, though not recently, I have noticed people that didn’t use the kneelers, instead kneeling on the floor.

Mortification used to be used a lot in the past, but I don’t hear much about it anymore. If you are bored, you might try it. If nothing else, it will keep you alert.
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Sometimes just kneeling for an exceptionally long time causes discomfort and causes me to focus more. I try and kneel until the Mass starts, even if I get there 15 min. prior to Mass starting.
 
Yet one more person here suggesting “The Lamb’s Supper” by Scott Hahn. A second book I’d reccomend to read is “The Mass of the Early Christians” (author’s name slips my mind).

Each of these books not only brought Mass to life, it became a time for tears of joy!
 
If you are falling asleep at Mass, well bless the Lord you are there, it is better than missing Mass altogether.

If you fall asleep during the Rosary, I’m sure Mary is glad you where thinking of her and her Son, rather than not at all.

If you honestly did what you could, the bless you even more. Sometimes we just go a bit dry, and even if our heart is not into it, it is good you still do your obligation. Sometimes the good soil goes into a drought, the roots are still their and will sprout back up once the rain comes. If the roots die, when the rain comes, nothing will happen. You will grow better, if you pray and learn and be as you ought. If you take each moment as a prayer you’ll grow stronger. If you take your dryiness as a prayer, you’ll learn. If you go to Mass and see how your week relates you’ll be more at peace and with more love of yourself, your neighbor and God.

If you fall asleep, try to be as a child and say, I’m sorry Lord, I did what I could, I’ll try better next, but if I was going to sleep at least it was with you.
 
SnorterLuster said:
Does anyone practice mortification anymore? From time to time I think all of us have experienced a dryness in our faith. I have always found that if I do something to inflict discomfort or very mild pain it helps me focus on the prayers. The key is to do the mortification cheerfully and offer up your discomfort to God. You can do something as easy as pulling your tie too tight or putting something in your back pocket making sitting uncomfortable. Through the years, though not recently, I have noticed people that didn’t use the kneelers, instead kneeling on the floor.

Mortification used to be used a lot in the past, but I don’t hear much about it anymore. If you are bored, you might try it. If nothing else, it will keep you alert.
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I just read a very interesting article in The Tilma, the publication for Marian Catechists on this very subject…
 
jman507 said:
If you are falling asleep at Mass, well bless the Lord you are there, it is better than missing Mass altogether.

If you fall asleep during the Rosary, I’m sure Mary is glad you where thinking of her and her Son, rather than not at all.

If you honestly did what you could, the bless you even more. Sometimes we just go a bit dry, and even if our heart is not into it, it is good you still do your obligation. Sometimes the good soil goes into a drought, the roots are still their and will sprout back up once the rain comes. If the roots die, when the rain comes, nothing will happen. You will grow better, if you pray and learn and be as you ought. If you take each moment as a prayer you’ll grow stronger. If you take your dryiness as a prayer, you’ll learn. If you go to Mass and see how your week relates you’ll be more at peace and with more love of yourself, your neighbor and God.

If you fall asleep, try to be as a child and say, I’m sorry Lord, I did what I could, I’ll try better next, but if I was going to sleep at least it was with you.
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Thank you for the above 🙂
Sometimes I do fall asleep during the homily :o

I learned that to combat sleepy spell, I would lean forward and sit on my hands (a bit of mortification).
Or I would sing silently a favorite hymn (I love singing).

Tak
 
You didn’t mention which Mass you usually attend. Maybe you are more of a night owl than a morning person. Perhaps if you try the Vigil Mass on Saturday instead of a Sunday morning Mass this won’t be a problem for you.

You also may want to offer it up to God and see how He works on you. God really does do wonderful things for us if we offer up our hardships and difficulties to Him.
 
djamu said:
Hi, I always found mass extremely boring. I love God alot, I just hate going to mass becaus it is so boring. I fall asleep. I used to love mass, but now I think…hmmm…when is it going to be over???
I also fall asleep doing the rosary. 😦
I know life isn’t all about me, but I can’t follow that rule. I’m addicted to putting myself first. 😦 anyone relate?
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Perhaps some good catechesis on the Mass would help. When we are at Mass we are present at the foot of the Cross. Jesus perpetuates this salvific action by His last supper and allowing all future generations to participate in this event. The Mass is and never was meant to entertain. In this society of advanced technology, an event that would merely place us in the most Holy atmosphere known to humans could be construed as boring. I don’t know how old you are even though spirituality is not chronological. I will pray for you because when you experience the Mass as Christ meant it to be you will never again want to be at or do anything else.🙂
 
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