Missing Mass While Traveling

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TruthSkr said:
The problem is that the Church does not allow for unreasonably difficult because it doesn’t trust us to not take advantage of that judgment.
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Of course it does.

You are placing a burden on yourself the the Church does not.

I think you are confused about what the Church teaches in this regard.
TruthSkr said:
If only the Church would allow us to make our own decision based on what is “reasonable” and done “in good conscience” that would be a big help.
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It does.
 
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Thank you for clarifying this, 1ke. I previously thought individuals did not have the authority to make such a judgement call. I thought you could only miss Mass if it was impossible to attend rather than unreasonably difficult.
 
You are definitely allowed to make judgement calls on whether to go to mass or not.

For example, you could attend mass while sick with the bubonic plague and that would be unreasonably difficult but not impossible. Does not mean you have to attend mass.

The best course of action of course would be to not go to mass at all and go see a doctor.
 
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I don’t know if you are familiar with Montana or skiing but I assure you Big Sky has over 4000 feet vertical and with multiple trips per day at around 11000 feet a few hundred feet is laughable. Tonight, I’ll ski about 8 runs night skiing at a resort 14 miles from my hometown. (not in Montana) At 1000 vert. per run I’ll log about 8 thousand feet vertical and close to 10 miles. I will not be going to the lodge. No time for Apres Ski. Gotta get home and put the kiddoes to bed…

I can’t think of a resort in the lower 48 that would interfere with Mass. One must get to the resort somehow sooooo… Transportation is not really a problem. Even little out of the way resorts like Anthony Lakes in Oregon don’t interfere. Open Thurs- Sunday and about 2-4 hours from any lodging one is always in a nearby town for Mass either on Saturday or Sunday. The OP’s predicament is not "extreme weather and transportation issues prevents me from going to Mass. But rather, “I didn’t schedule a way to attend with foresight.”
Either way it all is solved with another bit of foresight… A dispensation.

We travel a lot. I mean a lot. Internationally and domestic, big cities, and high mountain lakes, by ourselves or with 6 kids in tow, for business and pleasure and never once have we found ourselves unable to attend Mass. However, we don’t cruise and I understand that is generally a hard thing to schedule.

Subsequent posts by the OP have included perhaps a misunderstanding of Mass, and the Church. Looking at it as an obligation that the Church places on you as life hindering instead of life giving.

Imagine really imagine the Lord’s body becoming an amazing miracle before you, out of sacrifice and love, for your redemption and salvation. What is more re-vitalizing than that!? Sunday is a day of "RE creation. Just that word itself, recreation… should be involved in the Sunday privilege of the Mass. A privilege saints have died to attend, that people still in this world die to attend. That God himself died to attend… But alas… 7 miles from a ski resort in the year 2019 with tech and transportation to get you up a hill so you can slide down in a way God created you far superior from other animals…

Writing this out reminds me that I should cut my skiing tonight short for lent and attend an hour of adoration tonight on my way home!
 
That happened to me several years ago.

I was in a strange place and couldn’t get to mass without a car. I have asked but was refused.

No public transportation or Uber. Friends and family refused to drive me to church.

I ended up not going.

I just realized as I type this that I could’ve taken a taxi. It just didn’t occur to me at the time.

Is this sin for not thinking it up of this option at the time?
 
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LOL Dont ask me if it is a sin. I am only in charge of my own conscience. However, mistakes happen and situations come up that require prudence and logic.
 
I suppose for an experienced traveler such as yourself this kind of situation is no problem at all. This was my first ever trip to Montana and I felt a bit overwhelmed finding my way around the first few days. We arrived at our condo by bus late Saturday and the only Catholic Mass at the Chapel seven miles down the road was at 8 AM the next morning. I didn’t know getting to Mass would be so complicated. If I had known I would have researched it ahead of time. Thanks to your comments I did some research today and learned there is a bus that could have taken me to Mass. At the time, however, I had no knowledge that there was a transportation system as I had not seen any sign of it. Next time I will be better prepared. As for my attitude about Mass, I would love for it to be more about the love of Jesus, but the way I was raised it was all about mortal sin and the threat of eternal damnation. I often envy non Catholic Christians who never experienced the fear of hell because they didn’t know if they tried hard enough to get to Sunday service.
 
I truly do not believe that you can sin in hindsight, meaning you could have thought of a better way but didn’t.

To sin you have to be in full knowledge, meaning you know of a way to get there but instead chose not to.

Just because another knew how to get to mass in their situation and you didn’t, doesn’t mean you sinned.
 
Probably, but there is prudence. It is prudent when planning a trip to figure these things out. I mean we think about how we will eat…
 
I think employing logic is important.

Yes, in a way you were raised correctly. IF one dies in mortal sin, hell is the destination. And yes, we are obliged to attend Mass Sundays. So deliberately knowing that and disobeying would be grave. But that is not the case here. You didn’t disobey, you just made a mistake while traveling. I get the sense you are younger, that is part of the blessing of youth. I’ll bet when I was your age I would never have attended. I wouldn’t have known how and I would not have been formed correctly that I even had to attend. I converted in College at 20. I didn’t have the fortune of having parents who really had any beliefs whats so ever to pass down. So, I had to figure it out on my own. This led to years and years of mistakes and living a hedonistic and non Catholic life.

My father was fond of saying, “The mountains are my church” That is how I was raised.

For future reference Masstimes.org is helpful. Latinmass.org is not as reliable and one would need to call in advance to see if it is accurate.
If traveling one can receive a dispensation but I LOVE attending Mass in other places. Where I live does not have a strong Catholic culture and seeing other places really helps. Not to pile on but you didn’t just miss Mass (which is excusable) but you Missed Mass in a really cool diocese. The diocese of Helena is a soft spot in my heart. The Cathedral in Helena is amazing and Carroll College (my alma mater) is one of the only colleges run by a diocese. It is where I was confirmed. And these western states usually have winter and rural attendance covered well.

If you were at Big Sky I know that Chapel. Where I am there is a world class ski resort about three hours from my hometown and a wonderful young priest has the privilege of being the pastor in a resort town. The Parish and the Diocese really relies on finances from tourists. Luckily he gets to ski and pastor. you know like St. JPII!
 
Yes however even with prudence it is not possible to think up of all the alternatives. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. There are some things that become clear to us after the fact. We take it as lessons learned and proceed from there hoping to learn from that event.
 
I too like to attend mass when traveling.

I missed out on a mass conducted in Hawaiian because I could not find a ride to church. Friends and family refused to drive me and there was no Uber or public transportation. I realized in hindsight that I could have availed of a taxi.
 
Actually, I am 71 years old. Surprised, huh? It’s not that I don’t know how to find my way around; it’s more that I’ve been skiing and going to Mass the same place every year for so many years and have only ever skied a few western mountains other than Vail. In Vail I get the shuttle outside our door to Lionshead and then take the city bus to the Chapel in Vail Village. I always go to Mass on Sunday at 4 PM and then meet my friends in the Village for dinner. It’s so easy that I mistakenly thought it would be like that at Big Sky. Now I know different. One of the other problems at Big Sky is that my friends and I are ALWAYS in line when the lifts first open at 8:30 AM which is not an issue with 4PM Mass. Had I gone to Mass at 8 AM I would have had to either ask my friends to wait an hour or two for me (horrors!) or try to find them on one of the biggest mountains in North America that none of us had ever skied before since none of them go to church during ski vacations. Any suggestions on how to deal with that dilemma? Happens to me all the time because I am the only one of all my friends or family members who goes to Mass on vacation. My wife and I were both raised Catholic; both went to Catholic school for 12 years but she left the Church many years ago and has serious issues with it.
 
“Hey, guys, you sleep in an extra hour on Sunday and we will be in line when I get back from Mass”.
 
71!!! Awesome! now I am the kid. My mom skis at 71 as well. She has blown 4 ACLs! So now she only skis on sunny perfect days. Freshly groomed runs. I do have an answer for your dilemma though. Cell phones… Cell phones…

I am overjoyed that you went on that ski trip! That sounds amazing and I pray that my health keeps me doing that at 71. Seriously, I’m beyond impressed!
 
Thanks. I do feel truly blessed to be still doing this in the 8th decade of my life. And yes, cell phones would probably work.
 
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Ha ha, you don’t know my friends. Sleeping in on a ski day is tantamount to heresy, lol.
 
I just want to say thank you for your kind and thoughtful comments in this thread.
 
You’re welcome.

May you have more fun skiing holidays in the future.

I’ve had snowboarding lessons and it was really fun, even falling was fun.
 
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