Questions pertaining to Mass intentions

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jeanannemarie

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Our new priest has requested that we give Mass intentions. I do not know what is appropriate for an intention and what is not. If someone is dead, must they have been Catholic? And if someone is alive must they be Catholic? And can you just say “for the family of…” for the ten dollar stipend? Or “for the parents of…” I am afraid of making a mistake. I do not know what my options for the intentions are. I don’t even know what sort of things you can have an intention for or why, except of course for the dead. Can anyone fill me in on this? The priest put out a neat little stack of envelopes for our intentions and I am anxious to get started! Help, please!
 
Most of my dead relatives were not Catholic, and I wanted to subscribe them to the mass offerings of a religious order, so I asked the supervisor of the mass intentions, and he said “we will pray for anyone”. So I paid the $10 stipend for each, and they are on the list for that order.

I recall hearing (as in “hearing”, not “reading”), that mass intentions can be offered for anyone.
 
jeanannemarie said:
Our new priest has requested that we give Mass intentions. I do not know what is appropriate for an intention and what is not. If someone is dead, must they have been Catholic? And if someone is alive must they be Catholic? And can you just say “for the family of…” for the ten dollar stipend? Or “for the parents of…” I am afraid of making a mistake. I do not know what my options for the intentions are. I don’t even know what sort of things you can have an intention for or why, except of course for the dead. Can anyone fill me in on this? The priest put out a neat little stack of envelopes for our intentions and I am anxious to get started! Help, please!
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We must pray for everyone. What their faith is not important. If we meet someone in the streets and they are in need and all we can offer are prayers, we do not ask them if they are Catholic. We just pray for them. The same prayers are valid in the Church. You can pray for atheists if you like, or abortionists, or gay marriage proponents.
 
You can do Mass or prayer intentions for yourself too, for example, to become a better Christian/Catholic, to overcome a particular sin or fault, to gain certsain graces and so on.
 
At our daily Mass the priest asks the congregation if they have any intentions during the Prayer of the Faithful. They are rattled off in the same order by the same people. About half of those people only mention “special intention”. God knows what is needed.
 
dconklin said:
They are rattled off in the same order by the same people.
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Same here! Fortunately, the daily intentions are all good, sensible prayers that I can participate in (but I wish that they would abbreviate them a bit, to leave some time for others)
 
jeanannemarie said:
Our new priest has requested that we give Mass intentions. I do not know what is appropriate for an intention and what is not. If someone is dead, must they have been Catholic? And if someone is alive must they be Catholic? And can you just say “for the family of…” for the ten dollar stipend? Or “for the parents of…” I am afraid of making a mistake. I do not know what my options for the intentions are. I don’t even know what sort of things you can have an intention for or why, except of course for the dead. Can anyone fill me in on this? The priest put out a neat little stack of envelopes for our intentions and I am anxious to get started! Help, please!
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Anything or anyone that you want to pray for. For instance, my Brother is very ill right now & is a “fallen away” Catholic. I can ask that a Mass be said for his soul, or for his health to improve. OR, I can ask for a Mass to be said for my own “personal intentions”, knowing that my intention is my brother. I simply put down the following info when I did so about a month ago:

“Please say a Mass for my brother, who is very ill”. I, personally like to be specific, but I wouldn’t worry so much about it, if I were you. The fact that you are “anxious to get started” is wonderful & rare. I believe that God will listen to your Mass & answer your requests in a way that is good for you. His answer may not be EXACTLY the answer that you want…however, it will be the best answer. God Bless.
 
jeanannemarie said:
Our new priest has requested that we give Mass intentions. I do not know what is appropriate for an intention and what is not. If someone is dead, must they have been Catholic? And if someone is alive must they be Catholic? And can you just say “for the family of…” for the ten dollar stipend? Or “for the parents of…” I am afraid of making a mistake. I do not know what my options for the intentions are. I don’t even know what sort of things you can have an intention for or why, except of course for the dead. Can anyone fill me in on this? The priest put out a neat little stack of envelopes for our intentions and I am anxious to get started! Help, please!
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Could you clarify this for me? Is the request for parishioners to hop up during Mass and offer intentions, is it a matter of handing a note to the priest or, as in my parish, a matter of writing the intentions in a register available in the narthax?
 
dconklin said:
At our daily Mass the priest asks the congregation if they have any intentions during the Prayer of the Faithful. They are rattled off in the same order by the same people. About half of those people only mention “special intention”. God knows what is needed.
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Are you saying that the Mass is stopped & people give their intentions aloud? I’ve never heard of that in a Catholic Church, if the scenario I mentioned above is the case.
 
I am referring to the Masses in the bulletin which have an intention listed for that particular Mass. It has not been something my parish was encouraged to do until now. Our new priest has provided envelopes with a place to mark the Mass intention and deposit ten dollars for the stipend. I was inquiring about what is appropriate to have a Mass said for. I did want to blunder. As in “family of…” or a particular person, etc; as well as Catholic and nonCatholic. Someone mentioned voicing intentions at a Mass during the prayers of the faithful. I have in fact been to a Mass where that was done, but that is NOT what I meant. I really just wondered about the guidelines for what I could have a Mass intention for.
 
The way our parish bulletin lists intentions pretty much restricts them to people either in illness or those deceased. More general Intentions for the clergy, servicemen/servicewomen, our personal needs and desires, etc. are logged in a register in the lobby (narthax), no stipend is attached in any of those cases. The only time a stipend is suggested at our parish is when a Mass is requested for a specific intention such as in remembrance of someone deceased.
 
You can have a Mass said for a deceased person, a deceased family, a deceased couple; a living person or persons (usually listed as Special Intention: Jane Doe); for something special, like “For a Conversion”; simply as a Special Intention (God knows what it is). I have also seen things like “In thanksgiving to St. Paul.” The only thing I have seen Father balk at are for more than one person who were not related (didn’t know each other in life at all) , and if it is a couple, he wants both names listed (James & Emily Smith, not Mr. & Mrs. James Smith). Deceased family can be listed as “Deceased of the Smith Family.”
He also doesn’t like nicknames used (James Jones, not “Fuzzy” Jones).

Hope this helps. I take care of our Mass book & stipends & have for over 4 years, but different priests could have different ideas!
 
churchsecretary said:
You can have a Mass said for a deceased person, a deceased family, a deceased couple; a living person or persons (usually listed as Special Intention: Jane Doe); for something special, like “For a Conversion”; simply as a Special Intention (God knows what it is). ** I have also seen things like “In thanksgiving to St. Paul.” **The only thing I have seen Father balk at are for more than one person who were not related (didn’t know each other in life at all) , and if it is a couple, he wants both names listed (James & Emily Smith, not Mr. & Mrs. James Smith). Deceased family can be listed as “Deceased of the Smith Family.”
He also doesn’t like nicknames used (James Jones, not “Fuzzy” Jones).

Hope this helps. I take care of our Mass book & stipends & have for over 4 years, but different priests could have different ideas!
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Thank you for your post. You reminded me that I need to have a Mass said for Prayers of Thanksgiving for St. Jude’s intercession. I owe him BIG TIME right now.

ourcatholicprayers.com/prayer-to-st-jude.html
 
churchsecretary said:
You can have a Mass said for a deceased person, a deceased family, a deceased couple; a living person or persons (usually listed as Special Intention: Jane Doe); for something special, like “For a Conversion”; simply as a Special Intention (God knows what it is). I have also seen things like “In thanksgiving to St. Paul.” The only thing I have seen Father balk at are for more than one person who were not related (didn’t know each other in life at all) , and if it is a couple, he wants both names listed (James & Emily Smith, not Mr. & Mrs. James Smith). Deceased family can be listed as “Deceased of the Smith Family.”
He also doesn’t like nicknames used (James Jones, not “Fuzzy” Jones).

Hope this helps. I take care of our Mass book & stipends & have for over 4 years, but different priests could have different ideas!
Click to expand...
I think the question has been comprehensively answered! 😃
 
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