No Morning Mass on days with a funeral?

[Jegudiel]

It’s up to the priest, period. Of course he may elect to offer 7 am Mass in addition to the funeral later. That is one of those MANY exceptions the rule means.

Some priests are devoted, some less so.

For example, in my area there are 3 parishes, note the ages and practices.

Priest #1 is 50 years old. He offers weekday Mass Wed-Fri. All funerals must be scheduled on those days and he cancels AM Mass. On Mon and Tues, the church is locked and abandoned and he disappears to places unknown for his “days off.” Also, no Saturday AM Mass.

Priest #2 is 64 years old. He offers weekday Mass Tues-Fri, locking the church and disappearing only on Mondays. No Saturday Mass, except First Saturday, which was outright demanded by the older folks.

Priest #3 is 81 years old. He offers weekday Mass all days, Mon-Fri, and every Saturday morning. He offers regular morning Mass in addition to the funeral Mass. He also will add an extra Mass (AM and 5:30 PM) for non-holy obligation days such as Thanksgiving, All Souls, Parish Saint’s Feast Day, or St. Blaise Day, which are always well-attended. He does not take a day off.

I have been observing these three priests for some years and there’s a direct connection between their love of the Mass and making it available, and the number of converts, reverts and increased devotion of the parishioners.

So we see it’s not always rules and regulations, but the holiness of the priest.

Fascinating and beautiful. It’s remarkable that anyone would even suggest limiting the Mass because of “ancient praxis.” Giving people the opportunity to attend Mass should ALWAYS trump “ancient praxis.” While my parish is blessed with more than one priest I cannot imagine a scheduled Mass being cancelled because a funeral Mass was going to take place – and we have 2-3/week.

May God richly bless that 81 year old priest!

 

[Jegudiel]

Sunday is a little different because Mass attendance is “obligated”.
In my diocese, priests are allowed to celebrate 3 Masses of Sunday Obligation.
That would mean one on Saturday & two on Sunday or three on Sunday.

Weekday Mass is not an obligation, therefore one Mass per day.
The Bishop may allow the priest to say more than one Mass in case of a funeral, or he may not. I also believe that the Pastor of the parish has the final say.

Yes, it is frustrating when a regularly scheduled daily Mass is cancelled due to a funeral or some other issue, especially when one plans their day around it, but in the end it is what it is. Priests are not “sacramental machines” and to treat them as such is wrong.
As I said before the best thing we can do is pray for and encourage more vocations to the priesthood- then we will have enough priests in every parish that this will not be an issue.

Daily Mass just doesn’t get cancelled around here. It’s that important. Cancelling a morning Mass or a lunchtime Mass because a funeral Mass was celebrated is unfathomable around here. It just isn’t done. If it ever was, it certainly wouldn’t be because of the 1 Mass/day “rule.”

 

[odile53]

One Mass a day on weekdays? Hmmpf. That’s odd. My home parish has Mass Monday through Friday at 7 AM and 8:30 AM, except Tuesdays in the summertime when there is Eucharistic Adoration from 2-5, with Mass immediately following. No morning Mass on Tuesdays, and I think it’s actually Father’s golf day! Big deal. Priests deserve some recreation, and the spiritual needs of the flock are still being addressed, just later on in the day. There is one priest, the pastor. Masses of Christian Burial are usually at 10 or 11 AM, and I’ve never heard of the regularly scheduled Mass being “pre-empted.”

 

[Sirach2]

Jegudiel:

It sounds like it boils down to little more than a difference in work ethics.

You raise a good point. One needs to consider the very reason a person becomes a priest. Celebration of the Eucharist is the single most important service a priest can render. I asked earlier what valid purpose a priest might have to replace the offering of a mass for his people??

Does the pastor have the final choice of whether or not to follow the rule of one mass per day, despite the dispensation for funerals?? Does the bishop give directives regarding this?

 

[Sirach2]

Oldie53:

My home parish has Mass Monday through Friday at 7 AM and 8:30 AM, except Tuesdays in the summertime when there is Eucharistic Adoration from 2-5, with Mass immediately following.

Another bane was to see in the bulletin that 24-hour First Friday adoration was cancelled due to practice for first holy communion. What about the other 22 hours? We usuallly close the 24-hour Adoration on First Saturday with 9 AM mass. This was also cancelled, even though first communion is not to take place until Sunday afternoon. Many people devote First Saturdays in honor of our Blessed Mother, and since May is the month set aside for Mary, I am still scratching my head, pondering what the valid purpose might be to set it aside.

And no, there was no wedding scheduled Saturday afternoon. This was announced in the bulletin a week ago, so there was no funeral either.

I am saddened to say what comes to my mind as I ponder these new changes.

 

[mcmitton]

GASP!!! You have a daily mass???

Our priest serves two parishes, 22 miles apart. The time he spends driving between our parishes is great. [Rumor has it that it’ll soon be three…]

How he manages our two parishes is remarkable, I think. At the parish wherein he resides, confession is offered every Saturday before 5 pm mass. At our parish, confession is offered after mass on the 2nd Sunday, but always availble on request. His “scheduled” day off is Monday. But most often, it isn’t time away from “work”.

He celebrates morning daily mass at his home parish. We have Wednesday evening masses here at 6 pm.

One parish will have the Easter Vigil, and both parishes will celebrate Easter Sunday. Whoever gets Holy Thursday >> the other parish gets the Easter Vigil. Both parishes have an evening/night Christmas Eve masses/

Finding a “replacement” priest to susbsitute when our priest has vacation or diocsan duties is difficult. Fr. told us the other day that he is “booking” a vacation priest replacement a year in advance.

PRAY FOR VOCATIONS!

mc

 

[Phemie]

GASP!!! You have a daily mass???

Our priest serves two parishes, 22 miles apart. The time he spends driving between our parishes is great. [Rumor has it that it’ll soon be three…]

How he manages our two parishes is remarkable, I think. At the parish wherein he resides, confession is offered every Saturday before 5 pm mass. At our parish, confession is offered after mass on the 2nd Sunday, but always availble on request. His “scheduled” day off is Monday. But most often, it isn’t time away from “work”.

He celebrates morning daily mass at his home parish. We have Wednesday evening masses here at 6 pm.

One parish will have the Easter Vigil, and both parishes will celebrate Easter Sunday. Whoever gets Holy Thursday >> the other parish gets the Easter Vigil. Both parishes have an evening/night Christmas Eve masses/

Finding a “replacement” priest to susbsitute when our priest has vacation or diocsan duties is difficult. Fr. told us the other day that he is “booking” a vacation priest replacement a year in advance.

PRAY FOR VOCATIONS!

mc

We have a similar situation.

Our 1500 member parish doesn’t have a Pastor, the diocese is working on that. There is a priest in residence in the diocesan residence next to our church, but he’s the Pastor of a 1000 member Mission 26 miles down the road and the missionary for two other Missions (one to the north, one to the south) which can only be accessed by air in the winter and by boat or air in the summer. He’s Administrator for our parish and the only priest available for our town’s hospital, which also serves all 3 of his missions. The closest other parish with a Pastor is 600 Km away – a 7-8 hour drive away, depending on the condition of the 300 Km gravel section of the road.

Weekday Masses in our parish are scheduled for Tuesday & Thursday 6:30 p.m.
Sunday Masses are Saturday 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.

At the Mission down the road, weekday Masses are Wednesday & Friday 12:00 p.m.
Sunday Mass is Sunday at 12:00 p.m.

The northern Mission might get Mass once every couple of months and at Christmas and Easter when a visiting priest is sent in.

The southern Mission last had a Mass celebrated at Christmas when a visiting priest was sent in. That was the first Mass they’d had since July when our former Pastor had spent 3 weeks there before being transferred to the other end of the country. We couldn’t get a priest in there for Easter as there is no longer regular commercial air service (the only regular flight in and out of that community is the medevac plane that takes patients back and forth to our hospital). They are hoping that when marine service resumes in the summer a priest can go in to spend a couple of weeks.

This priest is 65 and not a well man so it’s not rare that the weekday Masses are cancelled. The Saturday evening Mass is cancelled more often than not.

It doesn’t help that he’s a religious priest with administrative responsibilities to his congregation’s Province. That means that he is often required to be absent from the parish on the Province’s business: he was absent last Sunday and we had a Sunday Liturgy of the Word with Communion. He will be absent again for the last Sunday of May and the first Sunday of June. They only send in a replacement if he’s going on holidays and will be away 3 Sundays or more. Luckily we have 4 people trained to lead a Liturgy of the Word with Communion and they are used on a regular basis.

There are parishes with bigger problems than having the daily Mass replaced by a later funeral Mass.

 

[jpjd]

To bury the dead is one of the corporal works of mercy. There should be no problem to attend a funeral Mass instead of daily Mass.

This is exactly what I was going to say. A funeral Mass is very similar to a regular Mass, and is just as beneficial to your soul if not more so, and your prayers are beneficial for the deceased.

If your parish has funerals frequently, and a great number of people are driving a long way to attend daily Mass only to find that it is cancelled for a funeral, there is an easy solution to this problem. Get the email addresses of all the regular, out-of-town attendees; when you hear that a funeral has been scheduled, send out a group email to the group. The out-of-towners need only to check their email daily to see if Mass is cancelled for the next day. This is a very easy and simple solution.

 

[jpjd]

Another bane was to see in the bulletin that 24-hour First Friday adoration was cancelled due to practice for first holy communion. What about the other 22 hours? We usuallly close the 24-hour Adoration on First Saturday with 9 AM mass. This was also cancelled, even though first communion is not to take place until Sunday afternoon. Many people devote First Saturdays in honor of our Blessed Mother, and since May is the month set aside for Mary, I am still scratching my head, pondering what the valid purpose might be to set it aside.

And no, there was no wedding scheduled Saturday afternoon. This was announced in the bulletin a week ago, so there was no funeral either.

I am saddened to say what comes to my mind as I ponder these new changes.

Is it possible that the priest was taking a vacation?

 

[Sirach2]

jpjd:

Is it possible that the priest was taking a vacation?

No. He had taken a break right after Easter Monday, so we did not have mass for any of the high octave liturgies right after Easter. I am wondering if he has health problems that prevent him from being as active as our former priest. We are spoiled, perhaps, and I may need to rethink this problem. If I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies.

Your solution sounds very good. I think we may need a sign up sheet in back of the church to let outsiders know how we can contact them in this event of a cancellation. Someone could be responsible for the emails. This is good, and I have pondered the problem, but not figured out a solution. Others who responded were simply taking sides without offering real help.

Another thought might be for the pastor or secretary to contact the family who had scheduled a mass for that day and let them know not to come, as well as when their scheduled mass will be re-assigned.

 

[I_am_Iron_Man]

Same with our parish, but the pastor is probably busy with preparing for the funeral. I see nothing wrong with this.

 

[felsguy]

Your solution sounds very good. I think we may need a sign up sheet in back of the church to let outsiders know how we can contact them in this event of a cancellation. Someone could be responsible for the emails. This is good, and I have pondered the problem, but not figured out a solution. Others who responded were simply taking sides without offering real help.

Another thought might be for the pastor or secretary to contact the family who had scheduled a mass for that day and let them know not to come, as well as when their scheduled mass will be re-assigned.

Does your parish have a website? If so, any recent changes to the announced Mass schedule could be posted as they happen and checked by those planning to attend a weekday Mass.

.

 

[Jegudiel]

Same with our parish, but the pastor is probably busy with preparing for the funeral. I see nothing wrong with this.

I do. Burn a little midnight oil and celebrate BOTH Masses. The graces to the priest and to those in attendance at immeasurable.

 

[Sirach2]

Does your parish have a website? If so, any recent changes to the announced Mass schedule could be posted as they happen and checked by those planning to attend a weekday Mass…

Yes. There is a special section for news and announcements, but I’m not sure if the Webmaster, whoever that is, can get the news posted in time for outsiders to check it. I sent an email to the paster this evening about this possibility, and also using the sign-up sheet in the vestibule so we can contact outsiders by group email. There is bound to be a good way of handling this to accomodate those who travel from other parishes, and perhaps he is already considering the options. I sincerely doubt that the policy will be changed, so we have to find adjustments to adapt to it.

Also, the secretary is the most likely one to contact those who have scheduled a mass for their family, so they can make other arrangements.

 

[Jegudiel]

I think so much of this has to do with parish culture. My parish is very “lukewarm Catholic” with fairly utilitarian Masses. Two positive points however is that Masses just don’t get cancelled and they start on time.

We had a very short-lived pastor that didn’t understand this. If he didn’t get up in time and Mass started 15 minutes late he thought that was just fine. Knock on the rectory door and he would get ANGRY! One of the first things he began talking about was consolidating Sunday Masses (no more early morning Mass) and also eliminating the daily early morning Mass. He didn’t last more than six months.

 

[Jegudiel]

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

A daily Mass requires about 25-30 minutes of a priest’s time and effort. Possibly a bit more in prep if he is going to preach a homily which is optional. (Yes, a priest can spend a great deal more time praying on the readings, etc. but that’s not a requirement.) If the daily Mass is actually attended and a priest stops making that effort because he is going to celebrate a funeral Mass later in the morning then something is definitely wrong given the graces that flow from celebrating the Mass.

In my parish the M-Saturday Mass begins at 07:00. Everything is set by the time the priest arrives. If it’s the pastor he arrives at 5 minutes to 7. He arrives from the rectory, vests, places his homily notes next to the ambo, does a quick visual to ensure everything is in place and we begin at 07:00 on the dot.

 

[Julia_Mae]

In my home parish we started the Rosary at 7, Mon-Sat. Mass was at 7:30, over by 8. Every day no matter what else was going on. Except when Father was on vacation.

Then we still had Rosary at 7 and at 7:30, the readings were done, prayers said and reserved Eucharist distributed. If you have a Deacon, you can have a homily. I think if you have the same kind faithful daily Mass attendees we did, you just need to go to the Pastor and propose a committee who takes care of this.

You don’t need a priest for a prayer service and you don’t need him for Mass if you have reserved Eucharist. And more Deacons would be a big help. (I can’t recall if they still call it Mass when the priest doesn’t confect the Eucharist during it, but it’s essentially the same thing.)

 

[Phemie]

In my home parish we started the Rosary at 7, Mon-Sat. Mass was at 7:30, over by 8. Every day no matter what else was going on. Except when Father was on vacation.

Then we still had Rosary at 7 and at 7:30, the readings were done, prayers said and reserved Eucharist distributed. If you have a Deacon, you can have a homily. I think if you have the same kind faithful daily Mass attendees we did, you just need to go to the Pastor and propose a committee who takes care of this.

You don’t need a priest for a prayer service and you don’t need him for Mass if you have reserved Eucharist. And more Deacons would be a big help. (I can’t recall if they still call it Mass when the priest doesn’t confect the Eucharist during it, but it’s essentially the same thing.)

And there you have the biggest problem with allowing ‘Communion Services’ on days other than Sunday – and even then, if truth be known. The laity starts to believe that having a Communion Service is just as good as Mass. As long as Fr. consecrates a couple of hundred hosts who needs him until the ciborium is empty?!

A Communion Service is NOT essentially the same thing! Calvary is NOT re-presented when we have a Communion Service.

Would people come to a Liturgy of the Word if Communion was not offered? In my experience, no, because for most it has ceased to be about worshipping God as a community and it’s all about what** I** get out of it.

Rome is right, in Redemptionis Sacramentum, when it says that Bishops should think long and hard about allowing Communion services during the week. Evidence has shown that allowing indiscriminate use of Liturgies of the Word with Communion leads to wrong thinking. Mass becomes unimportant except as a source of Hosts and becomes a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

 

[Sirach2]

I have seen a couple posts that indicate their parish has a Saturday A.M. mass. Wow! That never happens in my area! I think once a priest starts abandoning the celebration, others follow suit, and there is no daily on Saturday … anywhere. Same thing now with abandoning the A.M. liturgy when there is a funeral. One day, no church will have A.M. masses with others copying the legality of the Canon to avoid celebrating. I read a comment by a priest who excused this by saying that a daily mass is not obligatory. Oh? Maybe we should all stay home?

Yes, I do believe it is a matter relating to the priesthood. If a priest had not a single parishioner attend, he would still offer the holy sacrifice with the altar server, “for My good and the good of all His holy Church.” Why else become a priest? What message does this send?

Phemie suggested that mass will become unimportant when it is routinely replaced by communion services. How about the message of abandoning it on Saturdays and funeral days? Not important enough?

How about scheduling a vacation break during the octaves of Christmas or Easter? Not important? Oh people, we do not need to pray for vocations, but for our priests to be more dedicated, faithful, ardently giving witness to the importance of the mass.

 

[Phemie]

I have seen a couple posts that indicate their parish has a Saturday A.M. mass. Wow! That never happens in my area! I think once a priest starts abandoning the celebration, others follow suit, and there is no daily on Saturday … anywhere. Same thing now with abandoning the A.M. liturgy when there is a funeral. One day, no church will have A.M. masses with others copying the legality of the Canon to avoid celebrating. I read a comment by a priest who excused this by saying that a daily mass is not obligatory. Oh? Maybe we should all stay home?

Yes, I do believe it is a matter relating to the priesthood. If a priest had not a single parishioner attend, he would still offer the holy sacrifice with the altar server, “for My good and the good of all His holy Church.” Why else become a priest? What message does this send?

Phemie suggested that mass will become unimportant when it is routinely replaced by communion services. How about the message of abandoning it on Saturdays and funeral days? Not important enough?

How about scheduling a vacation break during the octaves of Christmas or Easter? Not important? Oh people, we do not need to pray for vocations, but for our priests to be more dedicated, faithful, ardently giving witness to the importance of the mass.

I have to admit that I haven’t been in a parish in 30 years that had daily Mass on Saturday. Once Saturday evening Mass started to meet the Sunday obligation, that was all we got.

For the record, not every parish has morning Mass. Our parish hasn’t had a daily morning Mass in over a decade. Daily Masses are celebrated at 6:30 p.m. As a rule, funerals are celebrated at 2 or 3 p.m., usually 3 so that the teachers who constitute most of the choir are out of school and able to be there to sing.