Perfunctorily celebrated Masses do harm. So do utilitarian Masses

[babochka]

tafan2:

I go do an early morning (6:30am) mass many days. I have to be home to take the kids to school by 7:15. The church is 15-20 minutes away. The mass is typically over by 7:50-7:55. Communion starts around 6:45. I greatly appreciate the way the priest says it. Me, and many others who attend could not make a daily mass if it was not early and fast. If you watched any given portion of the mass, you would not know it would as a whole be so short, the priest does a very good job. Of course, there is no homily, or the prayers of the faithful, and it uses the short penitential rite and Eucharistic Prayer #2.

I don’t know if this qualifies as the OP’s utilitarian mass, I suspect it does. I am guessing the OP is judging too harshly situations he may not understand.

Why not take your kids to daily Mass before they go to school?

I have six kids, ranging in age from 2-15. The oldest two are in school; the others are homeschooled. School starts at 7:40 and is 20 minutes away. The only option I would have for daily Mass that would allow them to get to school on time is at 6:30. In order to get to the 6:30 Mass, we would have to leave the house by 6:15. This would necessitate getting six kids up by 5:45 at the absolute latest. With that kind of wake-up time. the youngest two children would need to be in bed by 6:00 PM. So much for a family dinner. Even the teenagers, who don’t get out of school until 3:20, would need to be in bed by 8 or 8:30. So between 4:00 (when they get home) and 8:00, they would need to eat, do homework, have some semblance of family time, prepare for the next day, help clean the kitchen, etc. Not to mention that they could not practically participate in extra-curricular activities in the evening. I strongly believe in adequate sleep for kids. Inour situation. this simply isn’t practical.

 

[babochka]

All this was taken care of by priests. Now instead of ministering, they spend their time managing a bureaucracy.

This is true. Everything has become a “program” or a ministry.

 

[Maximilian75]

post 64 of this thread. @babochka took the words out of my mouth

 

[Xantippe]

Choice #1 – Leave the house at 06:15 for Mass with the kids.

Choice #2 – Return home at 7:05 to pick up the kids so they can be at school by 7:15.

Choice #1 seems more than doable and it takes away a lot of excuses.

Have you ever gotten six kids (or even two little kids) ready to go anywhere at 6:15 AM?

 

[Gertabelle]

Duesenberg:

Choice #1 – Leave the house at 06:15 for Mass with the kids.

Choice #2 – Return home at 7:05 to pick up the kids so they can be at school by 7:15.

Choice #1 seems more than doable and it takes away a lot of excuses.

Have you ever gotten six kids (or even two little kids) ready to go anywhere at 6:15 AM?

How hard could it be?

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