Missing Mass due to exhaustion

[Poglife2171]

My fiancee has a job working night shifts Saturday evenings as a Patient Care Assistant in the hospital, and after I typically pick her up for mass. A few times I’ve found her passed out exhausted on her couch waiting on me after her parents let me in, and i told her she needed to stay home and rest instead of going to mass. Recently I’ve been looking for evening mass times but if I cannot in that situation, was I causing her to sin by telling her to rest instead of going to mass? We have very good and early attendance normally, and it has by no means been an often circumstance. My heart tells me it was the right thing to do, and I tried to take her to mass but I cared for her not to fall asleep or get dizzy in mass.

 

[ZemD]

Can you attend a 4PM mass on Saturday before her shift starts instead?

 

[Poglife2171]

Yes that is the plan going forward, but I did not think of that at the time

 

[PetraG]

She was exhausted due to doing work that is fully legitimate for a Sunday, bless her heart. This is for her to talk to her pastor about, but I don’t think you did anything wrong by telling someone they should not go to Mass in a condition like that. Yes, I think he’ll counsel her to go to Mass on the evening preceding her shift, if possible. It is what he says to her that matters; I am only saying that your decision was reasonable, based on what you described.

(Another possibility is to find a very early Mass on Sunday morning, if there is a parish near enough to her place of work, but it also depends on which Mass time and setting she finds most edifying.)

 

[Poglife2171]

The only issue is she lives 30mins away and my RCIA class is in my town so i pick her up and bring her to mine, but i am striving to find an evening mass near her.

 

[ASC]

I think that what your heart tells you isn’t necessarily what’s most important here. How important is the Mass to you? How important is your faith to you? It’s your (and her) decision.

 

[poche]

If she can’t make it to mass due to her work at a hospital then I would think that she would be excused from attending mass, Look at it this way. If someone were to take ill and they went to the hospital, but found it closed because all of the hospital employees (who were good Catholics) were going to mass, then where would we be?

 

[Poglife2171]

Important enough that i am looking for another evening mass? Some of the most important miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath was healing the sick. This is not an excuse to never go to mass, which better attendance is what we are working on for the future. But caring for her enough to give her the rest she needs seemed like the right thing to do.

 

[TheLittleLady]

She is capable of making the decision for herself, she can ask her priest about dispensation.

 

[PetraG]

She is capable of making the decision for herself, she can ask her priest about dispensation.

Yes, I’d say this is a matter to brain-storm with her pastor. It is a reasonable thing to bring to your priest, because he can ask about particular circumstances and help her to find solutions to try that take her exact situation into account.