My parents don’t want me to go to church today cause they need me to help them for a holiday and transportation they don’t necessarily want to do. I have work straight after and they say its a hassle to get ready. What do I do?
To me, the Church asks us generally just for ONE hour/week. We are to give of our “first fruits”, best to God, in the ideal.
I remember a friend of mine had stopped going to church, what with work, school, and I what else. Do you know what I said to him, I quoted Mother Angelica. I said that she said if you’re too busy to go to church, you’re too busy!
I’ll tell you also something my mother said to me years ago when I didn’t want to go to church. She said that Christ could die a horrible death by crucifixion, and all that was asked for me was just a little thing of going to church. I had difficulty giving him a single hour a week!
I felt ashamed, went right away.
There are several levels to this. One is that going to church, if one is Catholic, isn’t really optional. It’s mandatory, number one.
It’s a tiny commitment, one hour per week, really nothing in the scheme of things.
Now, your family needs you to prepare for the holiday. What holiday? Christmas? Christmas is supposed to be all about the birth of Christ. THAT should actually be our focus, not how many gifts we can buy.
Next…in modern times, they realize Sunday can be hard, so they have already said we can go Saturday afternoon or evening. So, there are 2 days one can go.
Further, if your parents are Catholic, they, too, have an obligation to go to mass. Really, you all could even go together.
Some have bumperstickers that say to keep Christ in Christmas. It’s amazing how we, in modern times, can have everything else, but the most important thing, that this is supposed to be a celebration of Christ’s birth.
The same thing happens with Easter, which is supposed to be all about the resurrection of Christ. Now, it’s been secularized to a point I’ve heard some don’t even know who Jesus was, just about the Easter bunny!
Lastly, I come from a family of 11, and although my family wasn’t, and isn’t, perfect, I will hand it to my parents for at least one thing. Despite all that, I have never, ever, known my parents to miss mass, not unless they were REALLY sick. My father began missing in the end, but equally, he was actually DYING! So, I considered that a good reason.
My father worked 2 jobs much of his life, and when he came home, he cut the grass, fixed the car, gardened, fixed everything and more.
He ALWAYS made the time to go to church, as did my mother, who was often equally as busy.
I think it was an excellent example to me.
We try to delude ourselves into thinking that we would be martyrs, if called to be. Yet, if we don’t even have the will to go to mass one hour a week, how strong is our faith?
I was reading about some of the saints, and what they would go through to get to mass. Think is was St. Juan Diego who was said to have walked. …can’t find the distance he used to walk to mass…unfortunately, but it was impressive. There have been people who have risked persecution to go to mass.
Yet, in our time, it probably won’t be that we are persecuted that we don’t go, just that we put God dead last, everything and everybody first.
A lot of times, we don’t realize that it’s US who need God, really. A lot of times, though, it takes a major tragedy, and we go when WE need something.
Relationships are like a garden. If you never water or weed, there will be a desert and mess of weeds. Our relationship with God isn’t any different.
I’ve seen a similar thing happen with Thanksgiving. I understand it as initially being that we thanked GOD for what we had, but God has, again, been sometimes completely taken out of the equation in these times, like with Easter (with the bunny) and Christmas (with Santa Claus). It’s unfortunate.
Of late, I haven’t been really attending well to my relationship with God, but I understand the need to at least meet the minimum requirements.
Really, it’d be neat to worship together, with one’s parents/family, spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend, in the ideal.
My parents for decades actually did worship together. They prayed together, not only weekly mass but also the rosary, nightly.
It has been my experience that we will
MAKE the time for whom, and what, is important to us.
