Planning to miss Mass... what do I do?

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Anilorac said:
I was going to talk to our parish priest, but my husband is insistent that we don’t need to and that the Church should not consider that a sin to miss since it would take us extraordinary effort and cost to get to Mass. I don’t know how the dispensation thing works. I also don’t want to go against my husband’s wishes and still talk to our priest (however silly that may seem to just want to talk to the priest).
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The part bolded above bothers me. Are you afraid of your husband? Is he controlling and/or manipulative? Or do you believe that the husband is to be blindly obeyed, regardless if he is right or wrong?
 
pnewton said:
The last was last year where traffic made me miss all the Masses in route I had looked up. It is not always possible to predict what will happen.
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I think that is obviously there is a difference between traffic blocking all your Mass options or your plane crashing in the Himalayas and deliberately deciding to spend the Lord’s day in a place you cannot get to Mass.
 
OP, it seems clear to me, and is confirmed by a priest, that you have no obligation to attend Mass as dragging four kids plus carseats around a city could reasonably be considered burdensome. Just because other people don’t find your circumstance to be burdensome doesn’t mean you are bound by their interpretation of burdensome. You are not.

OTOH, they have every right to their interpretation of burdensome and God bless them in their own decisions and it was nice of them to offer a different perspective.

Be at peace knowing that you have done due diligence and received your answer. .
 
I’m not sure why its such a fuss to you either. This thread is old. I’m not saying she is sinning. Im saying traveling doesn’t have to be that hard. It’s odd to think they wont be going other places besides the hotel anyway unless it’s an all inclusive resort. There were several ideas presented of things to try to make it NOT a hardship. Personally, if carting carseats around is a hardship and not just mildly inconvenient then there may be a real problem they need help with.
 
I don’t have a dog in this fight since all my kids are grown, but I seem to recall that the one time I just had to walk from through the airport to change flights while managing a car seat, carry-on luggage, and a 10 month old was a nightmare. My arms were aching by the time we got on the second plane.

There may be two adults here but a lot more kids and a lot more car seats.
 
On Friday, my wife, pregnant with our seventh will be leaving on a 3 week business trip to austraila. One of the easiest part the logistics of the trip was finding a Church for the 3 sundays she will be gone. Finding trasndpotarion and picking what Church to go to is just part of the planning. Just like you would pick a restraunt or beach.
 
I suppose it depends on the savvy and disposition of the traveling parents. My wife is a planner, and I’m Matthew McConaughey. Alright alright alright… and I’ve found airlines quite helpful as well as hotels and transportation services. But one has to ask, and know what to ask for. Again, are they going anywhere other than the hotel? How are they getting other places? Perhaps it’s a wedding at the hotel and they aren’t going anywhere else I don’t know. But traveling with kids is as hard or easy as you wish to make it.
 
The impression I had was they would be taking a shuttle bus (buses?) wherever they needed to go. I guess it depends on if the shuttle bus has a dedicated route or allows optional destinations. It would also depend on whether or not car seats are provided on shuttles which might mean taking fewer seats on the plane.

We didn’t ever do much air travel with children unless we planned to rent a car so what do I know?
 
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edward_george1 said:
Porthos
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[If you can’t go, you can’t go. It doesn’t sound like you can go. It’s not the same as deliberately skipping Mass, the circumstances just make it very difficult to go. Be at peace. Porthos is correct.]

We pretty much have an official answer. When a real, honest to goodness, ordained priest says it’s ok it’s ok. It’s nobody’s right to place more of a burden, even if it’s just extra worry or second guessing, on a person than the church does. This thread should end.

Edited to add Father’s quote that posted incorrectly
 
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Yeah. But worth asking at the front desk if a shuttle can help a family out. You’d be surprised what might happen. I’ve gotten shuttles st 11 PM for my family yo the holiest of places, McDonalds…lol
 
Hoosier-Daddy said:
. I’ve gotten shuttles st 11 PM for my family yo the holiest of places, McDonalds
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McDonald’s??? Were you punishing your children???

I see the point you’ve been making all along…You have to draw the line somewhere…Is it okay for the family to skip Mass so they can take Susie to her soccer game on Sunday morning?..Should they allow her to play on Sunday morning if it means missing Mass?..Is it okay to miss Mass on a backpacking trip?..We used to go to the Cathedral at midnight, celebrate Sunday Mass there, and leave for our trip after Mass…Inconvenient?..Yes, but doable…
 
Hoosier-Daddy said:
McDonalds allows us to survive.
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I came up with the ultimate torture a few years ago, but it only works on sophisticated people…Catch a Russian agent, and lock him in a padded cell…feed him only McDonald’s ‘food’, allow him to drink only light ‘beer’, and pipe in country ‘music’ 24/7…he’ll crack inside of 48 hours…
[It might be cruel and unusual, but it would work…]
 
I’m not so sure. McDonalds is pretty popular in Russia. And you are correct to put 'food" in quotes. The English language is insufficient to come up with a word to describe the absolute joy and happiness it entails.
 
I object to the country music part of this statement, unless the cutoff is 2001. Before that, it’s not torture. After that, all bets are off.
 
‘Country music’ is an oxymoron…listen to it for more than 15 minutes, and your brain begins to melt…
 
That faint crying sound you hear at night is your arteries begging for the sweet release of death fyi.
 
Well, we all gotta die sometime. At least I’ll drink from the cup and eat from the burger of life. Sweet sweet life!
 
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