My Bishop Gives Us The day Off!

[NewEnglandPriest]

Just because some Bishops tell people to stay home doesn’t mean that it’s because they think all people on the east coast are neurotic and stupid. I live on the east coast and our bishop just said to use our best judgement.

The east coast is a different animal from other parts of the country. Outside of northern new england other parts of the east coast seem to go bizerk anytime it snows. Half the population panics and buys enough milk, eggs, and bread for a week. The other half pretends that its not snowing and for whatever reason never learned to drive in the snow. Other parts of the country that get routine snow don’t seem to have the craziness of each snow storm. So, yes, there’s a sizable number of east coasters who need to be told its ok to stay home from church if the roads are hazardous.

Even in the worst of storms and most hazardous of conditions, I’ve always had at least a handful people show up for a mass who drive there.

 

[PaulinVA]

The east coast is a different animal from other parts of the country. Outside of northern new england other parts of the east coast seem to go bizerk anytime it snows. Half the population panics and buys enough milk, eggs, and bread for a week. The other half pretends that its not snowing and for whatever reason never learned to drive in the snow. Other parts of the country that get routine snow don’t seem to have the craziness of each snow storm. So, yes, there’s a sizable number of east coasters who need to be told its ok to stay home from church if the roads are hazardous.
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Well, the Federal government in the Washington area is closed tomorrow. That has only happened a handful of times in the last 25 years.

The Fairfax County Public Schools have given up for the week and have started Christmas break today instead of Wednesday afternoon.

Yeah, snow wimps. But, I grew up in Florida so I can’t make fun of anyone. See, we don’t have the huge plows or anything. We have dump trucks with blades on the front and those drop-in salt spreaders in the bed.

The homeowners association’s streets and office parking lots are cleared by the landscaping crews - I am very glad they do it, but, frankly, a lot of the drivers are people from temperate climates who have never even SEEN snow, much less driven in it.

 

[EasterJoy]

Its just the neurotic east coast that needs to be told to stay home. Most other Catholics use common sense.

Oh, no. No matter where you are, there is the fraction that takes a dispensation at anything–or nothing!–and then there is the fraction on the other end that go no matter what: walking pneumonia, ice storm, blizzard, flood, you name it. If they’re not strapped down, or if somebody hasn’t put them in a hospital and hidden their street clothes, they try to get there. Even virtues can be taken too far.

The last time we had a bad ice storm in Oregon, our pastor said we literally had older people using walkers still creeping up that sidewalk from the parking lot, determined to come to Mass. He was exceedingly relieved that none of them broke a hip. When the freezing rain is still falling, there is only so much that can be done to make the walkways even marginally safe for normal pedestrian traffic, let alone that. He let them know that taking this kind of risk was not commendable. There is a time to use common sense.

As for the sick people, he tells the parish at least once a year that not only may a dispensation be assumed for serious communicable illness, but that potential Typhoid Marys have a moral duty to STAY HOME!!! They have no right to spread their diseases to everyone else. So no, common sense is not more common any place else, either.

 

[EasterJoy]

The east coast is a different animal from other parts of the country. Outside of northern new england other parts of the east coast seem to go bizerk anytime it snows. Half the population panics and buys enough milk, eggs, and bread for a week. The other half pretends that its not snowing and for whatever reason never learned to drive in the snow. Other parts of the country that get routine snow don’t seem to have the craziness of each snow storm. So, yes, there’s a sizable number of east coasters who need to be told its ok to stay home from church if the roads are hazardous.

Even in the worst of storms and most hazardous of conditions, I’ve always had at least a handful people show up for a mass who drive there.

We thought that only happened in Oregon. Do you have a run on batteries when high winds are forecast, too?

 

[baltobetsy]

Half the population panics and buys enough milk, eggs, and bread for a week.

You forgot the toilet paper. A couple of years ago, the Maryland Lottery had a scratch-off game with bread, milk & toilet paper for the winter. And isn’t it funny how we all buy eggs, even if we don’t usually eat them? I always make sure there’s Bisquick, too, in case we run out of bread.

In defense of the Middle Atlantic wusses, our snow really is different from the snow in more northern areas. You all have light, fluffy snow that stays that way because your weather stays really cold. You plow it off the roads, and that’s it. In our warmer weather, our snow is slicker and heavier and melts and freezes on the roads every day and night. They can plow all they want, but that melting snow will wet the road during the day and freeze at night.

But I confess to being a total wuss. I am terrified of falling on the ice, so this week, I expect to leave the house for the first time on Christmas Eve. Mass today? Not a chance.

Betsy

 

[Hotchkiss]

You have not received a “day off”, you have been excused from attending the Mass for circumstances that the Bishop recognizes is beyond your control. However, **you still must spend 1 hour on Sunday in worship to God, through prayer, reading the bible, hymns, or whatever moves you to express your love of God. ** The Mass is not the sole excercise of honoring or keeping the Sabbath, and regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself, that obligation is not execused as long as you have the health to at least pray.

And as for the Mass being “routine”, just meditate on how lazy and without faith that statement is. Clearly the miracle of the Mass has yet to come to fruition in your faith.

While spending time worshiping God is always time well spent, it’s not a requirement within the context you suggest.

 

[surritter]

…You still must spend 1 hour on Sunday in worship to God, through prayer, reading the bible, hymns, or whatever moves you to express your love of God.

Julian – is this stipulated in canon law or elsewhere as a *requirement *when we cannot get to Mass? I think it is a good idea, but I didn’t know it was a “must.”

 

[surritter]

Really, the bishop didn’t have to do that. We are obligated to attend Mass unless we have a good reason. Each person should know what constitutes a good reason, and over a foot of snow is probably a good reason. I’m not knocking the decision; he at least clarified it for people who might not know the rules and would trudge out in spite of the unsafe conditions.

But we should not be conditioned to feel that a bishop’s announcement is required.

 

[Sarabande]

The east coast is a different animal from other parts of the country. Outside of northern new england other parts of the east coast seem to go bizerk anytime it snows. Half the population panics and buys enough milk, eggs, and bread for a week. The other half pretends that its not snowing and for whatever reason never learned to drive in the snow. Other parts of the country that get routine snow don’t seem to have the craziness of each snow storm. So, yes, there’s a sizable number of east coasters who need to be told its ok to stay home from church if the roads are hazardous.

Even in the worst of storms and most hazardous of conditions, I’ve always had at least a handful people show up for a mass who drive there.

I don’t know. My husband has lived all over the country and have experienced the same kind of craziness you described as well, even in places like IL and MA where he lived for a number of years and some family still live. I’ve lived in Maine for a while and have seen it there, although the roads are much better taken care of there than in PA, DE or NJ, for instance and was always easy to get around. Although for the past couple of years, they have gotten much better with it and therefore the people feel more confident to drive. In the rural northern parts of PA, for example, where my family owns property as well as some who live up there, they tend to be much better prepared and take it in stride because they are used to it.

For this storm, I didn’t see any craziness happening where I lived prior to the storm, I think that is due to the fact that many times the forecasts have been so wrong and opposite. The media always tries to create a frenzy and most people around here don’t really care anymore because the forcasts have often been wrong. They just handle things as it comes now in terms of the weather. In the city, where I have my church job, they will obviously have more people come to mass because they can walk to church.

In defense of those east coasters who live further down south, it’s not as common for them to get lots of snow, so I think it is understanding that they would go a little bazerk. I just think it is a tad unfair to paint all east coasters the way that you did. It’s like assuming that all people from MA are “M—holes” and telling others who are not from the state that, due to a few jerk drivers on the road - which you’ll find anywhere - or just jerks in general who you’ll find anywhere as well. But I remember hearing that all the time from other New Englanders who lived outside of MA. That wasn’t a fair assessment in my mind.

Basically, I think you’ll get it almost anywhere.

 

[Sarabande]

Oh, no. No matter where you are, there is the fraction that takes a dispensation at anything–or nothing!–and then there is the fraction on the other end that go no matter what: walking pneumonia, ice storm, blizzard, flood, you name it. If they’re not strapped down, or if somebody hasn’t put them in a hospital and hidden their street clothes, they try to get there. Even virtues can be taken too far.

You said this much more eloquently than I did.

 

[Julian0404]

Julian – is this stipulated in canon law or elsewhere as a *requirement *when we cannot get to Mass? I think it is a good idea, but I didn’t know it was a “must.”

No, this is not a stipulation or cannon law, it is simply the approximate amount of time that Mass would require so it is in that vein of comparison that I suggest it.

 

[EvelynEVF]

Julian, I think it is a beautiful thing when Mass becomes part of the routine. Think of how the monastics stop their day periodically to pray. Routine doesn’t mean dull; think of it as “settled.” My weekday routine includes daily Mass on several days, and I find myself marking time through the flow of the week by which days I go to Mass and when. i’m settled in enough that I know without thinking whether to eat breakfast when I get up, or whether to skip a midafternoon snack. It’s routine in a very positive way.