Question regarding Mass times

[Eric09]

I was wondering why, in my area at least, it seems like churches celebrate Mass every day but except for Wednesdays and the weekends, the Mass is held early in the morning. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Mass every day at 6 or 7 in the evening so those in the workforce would be able to attend after they get off work? It seems like area churches all have Mass at 7:30 AM, which would not allow people to get to work at 8.

I understand the priests have duties in the evenings sometimes, but it just seems like at least one church (the seat of the Archdiocese, possibly?) would be able to offer daily evening Mass.

Any insights on this?

 

[mfrances]

I am lucky to live in a large metro area and there is a church near my job that has Mass at 5:15PM. Many are able to attend after work. I’ve never seen a daily mass later in the evening than that, except for Holy Days where a lot of churches offer a 7PM Mass.

I think it boils down to schedules of the priests, I think clergy tend to be older and/or eat dinner and go to bed early.

 

[jilly4ski]

A priest in our area once asked about offering an evening Mass (I believe he does on Wednesday evening before the youth group meets). He asked my mother what her opinion was, and she said she would not attend. Because a Mass in the evening is almost impossible for people with families to attend. People getting off of work have to go home and prepare dinner, or pick their kids up at daycare, or take their kids to evening activities, they can’t be gong off to Mass. Also, generally those at home, either elderly or parents taking care of children would rather attend in the morning. Children are better behaved, the elderly are up anyways, both are tired in the evening.

The university where I went to college was attached to a monastery, and they had Mass everyday at 5pm. It was not well attended even by the monks. Many of the younger ones had jobs on or off campus and could not make it. I only made it often, because I had a class in the next building over right before hand (and I could not make it during ski season because I was in practice. So even with a contingent of college students attending Mass, we did not even fill the choir. (seats where in monks sit).

I find that most downtown parishes have a short noon Mass to serve working people who are on their break. Most suburban parishes will then have early morning Masses between 6am-8am to serve those going to work, the retired/elderly, and stay at home parents. Colleges will more likely have evening Masses. Also the bigger the parish (the more priests they have) the more likely there will be a 6am Mass or an evening Mass.

 

[Corki]

I was wondering why, in my area at least, it seems like churches celebrate Mass every day but except for Wednesdays and the weekends, the Mass is held early in the morning. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Mass every day at 6 or 7 in the evening so those in the workforce would be able to attend after they get off work? It seems like area churches all have Mass at 7:30 AM, which would not allow people to get to work at 8.

I understand the priests have duties in the evenings sometimes, but it just seems like at least one church (the seat of the Archdiocese, possibly?) would be able to offer daily evening Mass.

Any insights on this?

In many areas the people that tend to go to daily Mass are either retired or are moms who go while the kids are at school. A Mass at 7pm would be very difficult for both of those groups of people. A parish needs to decide what Mass time will best meet the needs of the most people - AND the priest.

In many parishes, the priest has a lot of duties besides saying Mass. Many of those take place in the evenings. Mornings may be the only time the priest can be sure he is available for daily Mass.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

In my diocese there are parishes that have evening Masses once or twice a week. Most daily Masses are in the morning though. Daily Mass is usually 1/2 hour or less, so even at 7:30am people would be able to get to work by 8:30 or 9 depending on how far they had to go.

My parish offers Mass 3 times every weekday. A 6am Mass for those commuting into the city who might need an hour or more to get to work (and eat something!).

A 9am Mass for those who are home during the day - retirees, homeschoolers, moms with young children, etc. Those who work in retail or who have non-traditional hours also often attend this Mass.

Then one at noon for those who work in the area and anyone for the 9am categories who prefers a later Mass. This is the Mass I try to attend when I am working from home.

Unfortunately the parish closest to my office does not offer a Mass at noon or an evening Mass. Since I cannot go to their mid-morning Mass, I am not able to attend daily Mass as often as I’d like.

 

[thistle]

Our Parish Mass times:

Mon - Fri: 6 am, 6.45 am, and 7 pm daily

Sunday: 5.30 am, 6.45 am, 8 am, 9.15 am,
10.30 am, 3.30 pm, 4.45 pm, 6 pm,
7.15 pm, and 8.30 pm.

 

[RedSparklyShoes]

Our parish has

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:00 am
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 pm
Saturday at 9:00 am (2nd Saturday morning of each month is a healing mass).

 

[PatriceA]

I was wondering why, in my area at least, it seems like churches celebrate Mass every day but except for Wednesdays and the weekends, the Mass is held early in the morning. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Mass every day at 6 or 7 in the evening so those in the workforce would be able to attend after they get off work? It seems like area churches all have Mass at 7:30 AM, which would not allow people to get to work at 8.

I understand the priests have duties in the evenings sometimes, but it just seems like at least one church (the seat of the Archdiocese, possibly?) would be able to offer daily evening Mass.

Any insights on this?

Could be any number of factors to consider. We have three priests for four parishes right now. Each parish has their own councils and various ministries in the evenings that the priests oversee. Those meetings wouldn’t be possible if the daily masses were moved to the evening hours. They may have tried an evening mass at one point (such as my parish did) and found that the number of people attending didn’t justify switiching the daily mass from the morning to the evening.

If you would like your parish to have an evening mass, perhaps asking your priest to explore the possibility would work. My personal opinion though, I prefer the daily mass in the morning, I like to start out my day fortified with the Eucharist and mass attendance. It gets me to focus more on God’s will and less on my own agenda.

The four parishes in my area start with mass at 6am, with adoration one day a week at 6:45 and the last daily mass available is 8:15am. Plenty of opportunities for people with various schedules to find a daily mass.