Sunday mass and birthday celebration

[Padraig1972]

Just a small detail: i was invited and actually, i asked also to attend the english mass and get right back to my aunt, which he blatantly refused me to do.

Phew…it will be a short confession, but with many details. As in the state i am right now, if the confession father said: what sacrifice would you do, i would have given away this very computer im sitting on now as a sacrifice.

Or going willingly to a monestary for a month of penance if neccecary. Dramatic, maybe.
But i am not good about this, not at all.

 

[ProVobis]

So if the OP missed Mass, 'watching on TV" would not make up for him missing Mass (though it is certainly a nice thing to do, but then so would be saying a rosary, reading a book of prayers, etc.)

Might help to look at the canon law on this.

Can. 1248 §1 The obligation of assisting at Mass is satisfied wherever Mass is celebrated in a catholic rite either on a holyday itself or on the evening of the previous day.

§2 If it is impossible to assist at a eucharistic celebration, either because no sacred minister is available or for some other grave reason, **the faithful are strongly recommended **to take part in a liturgy of the Word, if there be such in the parish church or some other sacred place, which is celebrated in accordance with the provisions laid down by the diocesan Bishop; or to spend an appropriate time in prayer, whether personally or as a family or, as occasion presents, in a group of families.

 

[Padraig1972]

Have been to confession, attended mass and spend some time in personal prayer as requested. Thank you all for answering and helping out. God bless you.

 

[laszlo]

Have been to confession, attended mass and spend some time in personal prayer as requested. Thank you all for answering and helping out. God bless you.

Let my God bless you.

 

[Maureen1125]

No I am not suggesting that watching mass on TV is the same as actually attending however, he has already missed the mass, so at this point his only option would have been to find a mass on-line or on TV. Atleast he would have gotten benefit of the readings and the homily.

 

[Padraig1972]

At this point, He (that would be me) had been to confession, sacramental adoration, mass and served his penance.

Lesson learned. Points taken.
Game, set, match. Lendl wins.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I feel uneasy with this answer.

John 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day. 10 The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed.

Apparently the original poster invited the relatives so has an obligation toward them. The sin is as much as being inadvertent to the alarm clock at the morning, and that was unintentional, consequently venial. is any.

I feel uneasy with your interpretation of scripture. What I’m getting here is you’re saying that we can miss Mass for whatever reason because the sabbath is made for man, not man for the sabbath. Our obligation to God is very important. In fact, the Church shouldn’t even have to make a canon law to compel us to go. We should realize this by ourselves. Do we need a law to tell us to eat at least two meals a day? Why do we need one to go to Mass?

There are valid reasons to miss Mass. I may be overstepping my own lack of authority on the matter, but a birthday party is not one of those valid reasons. The situation is not uncontrollable, its not urgent or out of extreme necessity. A person can very well step out to attend Mass.

 

[laszlo]

I feel uneasy with your interpretation of scripture. What I’m getting here is you’re saying that we can miss Mass for whatever reason because the sabbath is made for man, not man for the sabbath.

I newer said ‘whatever reason’. Jesus’ teaching was, that the Law does not precedes necessarily the human obligations, in His case the obligation toward the poor.

There is a hierarchy of the values. In this hierarchy naturally God is before anything earthly, but the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday is only a human obligation not God Himself.

The pharisees believed that if they keep the Law, that will pull down God to their side. They lost the Son of God as He set Himself between them and the Law.

The original poster described a conflict between causing somewhat grave disappointment to his relatives or attending mass. Think about that in this way:

John 2:4 And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come.

That ‘my hour’, to keep the schedule was a certainly serious obligation. Still he broke it for human need.

Mark 12:33 … and to love one’s neighbour as one’s self, is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.

 

[cajun2core]

I realize that it is all done now since you have confessed and been to mass but here are my opinions:

Did you sin? Yes.

Was it a mortal sin? Probably not.

You missed the mass you were planning on attending due to the alarm not going off. No sin or problem there.

Keep in mind that conditions for mortal sin are that you have full control of yourself and that you must knowingly and willingly commit the sin. In your case, I would say that this was compromised. I may be wrong about this but I gather two things. You are rather young (less than 25, maybe even a teenager) and you are somewhat of a new Catholic (I could be totally wrong about this). To me it sounds like you had a difficult choice to make and you had to make it relatively quickly. You thought about and tried to make what you thought in your mind was the right decision. Because of your age and you thinking that you made the right decision, I would say your responsibility in this sin was diminished and therefore it was not a mortal sin.

Did you make the wrong decision? Yes.

However, I believe you have learned from it and will know better in the future. You definitly did the right thing by going to confession.

Also as another poster said, any priest who would be annoyed by you going to confession 10 days later, well, I think you need to find a new confessor.

 

[Padraig1972]

I realize that it is all done now since you have confessed and been to mass but here are my opinions:

Did you sin? Yes.

My answer: Yes, i did.

Was it a mortal sin? Probably not.

You missed the mass you were planning on attending due to the alarm not going off. No sin or problem there.

Keep in mind that conditions for mortal sin are that you have full control of yourself and that you must knowingly and willingly commit the sin. In your case, I would say that this was compromised. I may be wrong about this but I gather two things. You are rather young (less than 25, maybe even a teenager) and you are somewhat of a new Catholic (I could be totally wrong about this). To me it sounds like you had a difficult choice to make and you had to make it relatively quickly. You thought about and tried to make what you thought in your mind was the right decision. Because of your age and you thinking that you made the right decision, I would say your responsibility in this sin was diminished and therefore it was not a mortal sin.

My answer: I am new as catholic, but old enough to know better. But i had to make a decision yes and asked three times if i could go and it was blatantly refused.
I should have gone anyway, that i realize now.

Did you make the wrong decision? Yes.
My answer: I so do agree, it was wrong.

However, I believe you have learned from it and will know better in the future. You definitly did the right thing by going to confession.

Also as another poster said, any priest who would be annoyed by you going to confession 10 days later, well, I think you need to find a new confessor.

My answer: I have learned from this experience and the priest, not my regular confessor priest was understanding and he told me that many people experience this kind of situation.

There are even places in Norway where catholics cannot attend mass weekly because there are not enough churches or priests. They are in a far else situation than mine.

So i have learned much from this experience and i have spoken directly to the Lord and told him that my choice was wrong.