Memorial masses

[waterdog]

A Baptist woman I know recently lost her mother. Her mother and the rest of her family are Catholic although apparently somewhat nominally. This Baptist woman claims she never had a concept of a personal Jesus as a Catholic which shows what type of faith her family lived. SHe went clear through Catholic Schools, go figure. Anyway her mother died. She is upset. First she feels that the doctor at the Catholic hospital made a decision to pull the plug before he should have. Then she worries did her mother get saved,. She is one of those protestants that believes some Catholics are saved – just so long as they had that personal relationship with Jesus. Anyway her biggest problem and the one I need help with, because I have some questions myself is about the memorial Masses. What is a resource I can give her to explain the Mass and the purpose of the memorial Mass. I understand that Prots have a different view of the soul after death. I am not sure why she is so disturbed by this, but I really feel the need to reach her on this.

Also a good resource for a thinking Protestant on Purgatory. We started to talk about purgatory and she mentioned some verses that show Jesus makes us pure when we die, this in response to my point that only the perfect can be in the presence of God.

The next question is my own. Mass stipends. it seems like all too often these groups that offer to say memorial masses border on simony. How do we square these donation requests? What if you wrote to an order or organization and said I would really like a few Masses said but I don’t have any money and they refused or ignored your request? That would imply that they onlly had the Masses said for money.

Sorry this is so long. Thank you for any response

 

[Phemie]

A Baptist woman I know recently lost her mother. Her mother and the rest of her family are Catholic although apparently somewhat nominally. This Baptist woman claims she never had a concept of a personal Jesus as a Catholic which shows what type of faith her family lived. SHe went clear through Catholic Schools, go figure. Anyway her mother died. She is upset. First she feels that the doctor at the Catholic hospital made a decision to pull the plug before he should have. Then she worries did her mother get saved,. She is one of those protestants that believes some Catholics are saved – just so long as they had that personal relationship with Jesus. Anyway her biggest problem and the one I need help with, because I have some questions myself is about the memorial Masses. What is a resource I can give her to explain the Mass and the purpose of the memorial Mass. I understand that Prots have a different view of the soul after death. I am not sure why she is so disturbed by this, but I really feel the need to reach her on this.

Also a good resource for a thinking Protestant on Purgatory. We started to talk about purgatory and she mentioned some verses that show Jesus makes us pure when we die, this in response to my point that only the perfect can be in the presence of God.

The next question is my own. Mass stipends. it seems like all too often these groups that offer to say memorial masses border on simony. How do we square these donation requests? What if you wrote to an order or organization and said I would really like a few Masses said but I don’t have any money and they refused or ignored your request? That would imply that they onlly had the Masses said for money.

Sorry this is so long. Thank you for any response

I can’t help you with most of these but I know that Canon Law says that a priest can’t refuse to say a requested Mass because no stipend is given – which is why if someone calls the office and asks to have a mass celebrated I put it in the book and it is celebrated. If they drop off a stipend, great; if they don’t, Fr. is informed he’s not getting a stipend for celebrating that one.

Those ‘organizations’ depend on stipends to help their priests live, I wouldn’t dream of asking them to celebrate a Mass without giving them a stipend for it.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Canon Law: THE OFFERING GIVEN FOR THE CELEBRATION OF MASS

tee

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

waterdog, you aren’t going to be able to explain it to your friend right now, as she is grieving in a big way. If it was my call, I would go ahead and have the Masses said, out of respect for the mother, and not try to explain it to her daughter. Just send the card. If she says anything, I’d just tell her, “Well, your mother is Catholic, and this is what we do. I wanted to honor her memory.”