I probably mentioned it to them - I can’t recall exactly. They are fairly young - 8 and 9 years old.
I have asked several priests on this issue and have received mixed results. A lot of times the priest says it is still alright to go to communion if I miss mass as long as I have the intention of going to conrfession some time in the future. However if I have missed mass I usually will tell a priest beforehand, not really a confession but just basically get absolved from that one thing.
hmmm. The thing with confession is you can’t just go along and confess “one thing” - that’s a flawed understanding of the sacrament, and of sin in general. a confession needs to be full - ALL your sins.
There is too much emphasis these days on protecting the person’s emotions from their own accountability before God. The result has been a generation of people who think they don’t sin, or that sin isn’t their fault. This is a sure path to hell.
missing Mass becuase you’ve got the flu is in no way, not ever, a sin. To suggest it is, is NOT a “good example” at all. It’s only an example of being overly scrupulous. With all due respect, to tell your daughter she’s sinned by being sick is not healthy nor helpful to her or to your family. that’s the sort of thing that adults look back at and say, “what the…?”
and this is as bad as the generation before it, who thought that every little thing was a sin.
congratulations for phrasing the question right, it is certainly not the kids’ fault. It all depends on what arrangements you and your wife made, and how well those arrangements worked. If you both tried your best but failed it was a mistake, not a sin. Certainly weather was no longer a factor in the afternoon if they could go sledding. If a parent made a deliberate choice for the recreation over Mass, that would be a sin, moreover because it would be teaching the children such a choice is acceptable. Sounds like a miscalculation of how much time it would take to get the kids where they needed to be, nothing deliberate, so no sin. But that is speculation, nobody knows what is in the heart.
Where did I say that I told my daughter she sinned by having the flu and missing Mass? You are really taking too much liberty with your interpretation of my post. I said she missed Mass due to the flu and will go to confession before receiving Communion. That is because she felt she actually could have gone to Mass after all. This was day 8 of the flu and she was up and around as soon as I left for Mass.
There’s really no possible way that we can really answer these questions. We don’t know what was going on in your head or your wife’s. It wouldn’t appear that she understands that it is a sin to miss Mass save for serious reason. Maybe you made the effort, maybe you didn’t make enough of one. The only thing that we can know for sure is that missing mass without serious reason is a sin. I’d go to confession with the whole family just in case. The kids certainly need to be let in on the fact that it’s far more important to make it to Mass than to sled.
Hi Paramedicgirl,
