To what lengths do I go to attend Sunday Mass?

[VACatholicMom]

As the mother of four small children, I have occasionally found myself staying home to take care of a very sick kid. Fortunately, it has not happened often, but I missed Mass on Gaudete Sunday because my daughter was vomiting early in the morning. She was better by early afternoon, but our church’s last Sunday Mass begins at noon, so I had already missed it. A neighboring parish has Sunday Mass at 5:30 PM, and the church is 45 minutes away. Was I wrong not to go?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

As the mother of four small children, I have occasionally found myself staying home to take care of a very sick kid. Fortunately it has not happened often, but I missed Mass on Gaudete Sunday because my daughter was vomiting early in the morning.

The care of a sick child is a just reason to miss Mass.

VACatholicMom:

She was better by early afternoon, but our church’s last Sunday Mass begins at noon, so I had already missed it. A neighboring parish has Sunday Mass at 5:30 PM, and the church is 45 minutes away. Was I wrong not to go?

It depends on your circumstances. Was your daughter well enough to go? Could you have reasonably been able to get someone reliable to watch your children should she not be able to go? If there was nothing preventing you from taking the children, did you have adequate transportation to go? Do you have a legitimate inability to drive safely at night? Did you decide that you just didn’t feel like driving for 45 minutes each way?

As a rule of thumb, if there are pressing, legitimate reasons for not being able to make such a drive, then there is legitimate reason to miss Mass. But if it is purely for the sake of your own convenience, then there is not just reason to miss Mass.