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ConstantineTG
Guest
Would you go to Mass when you lack sleep and mentally not be there? Thats more disrespect that sleeping in and coming to Mass fresh and recharged.
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NewEnglandPriest
Guest
Not to mention that lack of sleep and driving are a very bad combination…
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karow
Guest
The other way of looking at it is that a variety of Mass times allows more people to meet their weekly obligation than would be able to otherwise. Not people who want to laze about on Sunday mornings, but people with very real, very compelling life circumstances. Some examples I can think of off the top of my head are caregivers to sick/aged parents, hospital workers, prison guards, even people who rely on others to get them to Mass because they can’t drive. Anyone with an irregular/unpredictable schedule appreciates knowing that if they miss the 9:00 a.m. they can attend the 12:30 p.m. Mass not because it’s more convenient, but it’s literally the only one they can get to that particular Sunday.
I think the people who see Mass as an inconvenient event that has to be squeezed in aren’t going to attend at all, no matter how many Masses times are available.
Christ does come first, but I don’t think that it follows that we have to attend Mass at a particular time simply because it’s the worst possible option for us. My husband, kids, and I look forward to going to Mass every Sunday morning not out of any obligation, but because it gives us a chance to sing, worship and receive Holy Communion together, and over breakfast we oftentimes talk about the homily. But in order for Mass to be truly meaningful for us as a family, we have to attend a time when the girls aren’t exhausted; therefore, we go to the 6:30 a.m. Mass and give the Mass offered at lunch/naptime a miss. (Yeah, we’re crack of dawn people.)
We’d like the girls to continue to be practising Catholics as the enter their teen years and beyond. If they see Mass as a positive now, we hope they’re more likely to continue seeing it as such as they get older; however, if they dread going to Mass now because we always take them when they’re sleepy or hungry, they’re probably going to stop going as soon as they’re able to.
Isn’t life already hard enough without us going out of our way to make it more difficult?
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EasterJoy
Guest
In Sacramentum Caritatis(vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis_en.html), Pope Benedict points out both that Sunday ought to be kept holy and that it ought to be preserved as a day of “joy, rest and fraternal charity.” You will not find in that document that it is praiseworthy to make the day into a day of inconvenience by choosing the Mass least compatible with rest and recuperation from the work of the week. The only caveat is that the option to celebrate the Sunday liturgy after Vespers on Saturday not be made into an excuse to treat Sunday as another day of busy-ness or work, or a day on which the sense of holiness is neglected.
“To lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God. (206) Here some observations made by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini (207) continue to have great value. Speaking of the various dimensions of the Christian celebration of Sunday, he said that it is Dies Domini with regard to the work of creation, Dies Christi as the day of the new creation and the Risen Lord’s gift of the Holy Spirit, Dies Ecclesiae as the day on which the Christian community gathers for the celebration, and Dies hominis as the day of joy, rest and fraternal charity…
For the sake of these important values – while recognizing that Saturday evening, beginning with First Vespers, is already a part of Sunday and a time when the Sunday obligation can be fulfilled – we need to remember that it is Sunday itself that is meant to be kept holy, lest it end up as a day “empty of God.” (208)”
I would argue that piddling around with your family during a leisurely breakfast, taken in your jammies, is not incompatible with the holiness of Sunday, but rather the opposite. If that is not a celebration of who we are to each other over what we accomplish during our workweeks, I don’t know what.
“To lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, a day to be sanctified, is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God. (206) Here some observations made by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Dies Domini (207) continue to have great value. Speaking of the various dimensions of the Christian celebration of Sunday, he said that it is Dies Domini with regard to the work of creation, Dies Christi as the day of the new creation and the Risen Lord’s gift of the Holy Spirit, Dies Ecclesiae as the day on which the Christian community gathers for the celebration, and Dies hominis as the day of joy, rest and fraternal charity…
For the sake of these important values – while recognizing that Saturday evening, beginning with First Vespers, is already a part of Sunday and a time when the Sunday obligation can be fulfilled – we need to remember that it is Sunday itself that is meant to be kept holy, lest it end up as a day “empty of God.” (208)”
I would argue that piddling around with your family during a leisurely breakfast, taken in your jammies, is not incompatible with the holiness of Sunday, but rather the opposite. If that is not a celebration of who we are to each other over what we accomplish during our workweeks, I don’t know what.
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Quarles47
Guest
St. Michael’s in Auburn, Al. has a 10 pm Mass on Sunday night.
Inconvenient or not?
Inconvenient or not?
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EasterJoy
Guest
The Newman Center at Berkley has a 10 pm Mass, too. It removes the common student objection that one was with God in the Sierra Nevadas all weekend!
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Mrs_Sally
Guest
I think many Newman Centers do this. I know the local college has a 10pm Mass also. One parish in DC even advertises “last Mass in the city” for their 10pm Mass.
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maryjk
Guest
That Mass has been moved to 8pm. I think Father Bill was getting to bed too late.
It is a pretty crowded Mass.
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dixieagle
Guest
If it’s the Fr. Bill I think it is, (formerly in Mobile) he’s great!That Mass has been moved to 8pm. I think Father Bill was getting to bed too late.
It is a pretty crowded Mass.
Back on topic, I think that we veer into dangerous territory when we get notions to make the “rules” more difficult because of some personal whim. Mass is Mass, and each one is a blessing and gift.
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m134e5
Guest
I don’t think people should force their kids to get up early on Sundays for Mass if there are later ones available. I imagine that would lead to resentment. I understand preferences for morning Masses though- I prefer them, but I wouldn’t expect kids to go to Mass before 9:00 a.m.- especially if they are getting up early for school during the week.
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EasterJoy
Guest
If anything, the Sunday liturgy ought to be the centerpiece of a day dedicated to joy and rest, which doesn’t fit with purposefully choosing a forced march. Choosing the most convenient Mass fits in with that better than choosing the least convenient one.
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EasterJoy
Guest
It depends on if you have early risers or not. Our kids like going to 8:30 am Mass. They naturally get up early, and they like to have a big chunk of day free to spend together.
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curlycool89
Guest
During the school year, the chapel at the university has a 9pm Mass, which is the fullest Mass out of 4 all weekend (and I’ve actually been to all 4 at one time or another). It’s also filled with usually around ~70-80% students (maybe higher, I’ve never counted).I think many Newman Centers do this. I know the local college has a 10pm Mass also. One parish in DC even advertises “last Mass in the city” for their 10pm Mass.
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marytk
Guest
So if we want it to be inconvenient we will make YOUR kids wait to go to Mass while those night owls will be stumbling into the 8:30 Mass. OF course with some families it will be inconvenient for somebody because they have a mix of early birds and night owls.
It isn’t only time. Do we make the modern music lovers go to the Chant only Mass and vice versa? Should my friend who loves a no music Mass go to one that everything is sung and ALL the verses.
OF course we go to Mass when it is inconvenient. we go when it is a struggle but we don’t have to make it a struggle on purpose.
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TheMc
Guest
Those last two comparisons are not fair comparisons.
- Chant is the ideal music for Mass. If you have a chanted Mass, you can’t really get any better. Modern music is a deviation from the ideal.
- The sung Mass is the ideal form of the Mass. A spoken Mass, or even a Mass where hymns are sung but not the priest’s parts is a stripped down version. A Mass where everything, or most things are sung is the ideal.
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HouseArrest
Guest
Not sure if they still do it, but Epiphany in downtown Pittsburgh celebrated a 2:00 am Mass on Sunday morning. One would think it was for when the bars let out, but the story has it that it was for some city work shift that let out at that time.I think many Newman Centers do this. I know the local college has a 10pm Mass also. One parish in DC even advertises “last Mass in the city” for their 10pm Mass.
This is not the same situation as choosing the most inconvenient Mass but similar… I remember when I had our first baby I was trying to figure out how I would get to Mass every week. The first week I thought I would start with the first available Mass and try to get ready (with the baby) but if I couldn’t get there right on time I would scrap it and try for the second Mass, and third, and fourth, and so on. Of course I would wind up going to the last available Mass every week, not exactly ready, but since it was the last Mass I had to go. Of course I had gotten ready 4 other times every week.
I look back on that and wonder why in the world I would torture myself like that.
That is how I see your proposition. While it might be admirable to offer such a sacrifice, I can’t see trying to make our lives harder especially when the parish has gone to such trouble to make Mass attendance more convenient.
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