What could be done to most improve Sunday Mass attendance?

[Augustinian]

Sometime after that our parish started “coffee and donuts” and suddenly I went from knowing 1 or 2 parishioners to, well more than I can count right now.

In the old school traditional days, people knew their neighbors a lot better than they do in the current era. “coffee and donuts” was less necessary as you saw your fellow parishioners all week, you went to school with them, participated in church festivals and spaghetti dinners and bingos.

 

[Joe_5859]

Bells and donuts are not the substance of my faith but, in the mystery of this physical and temporal existence, it’s pretty awesome that God can even use bronze and flour and sugar in his plan of salvation.

Thank you for sharing. I am also continually amazed at how God can use the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary.

Honestly, the reasons people are drawn to the Church are many and varied. For me, it was a community I encountered in college of young, vibrant believers that made me start to pay attention. But, of course, even that wasn’t the final word.

There are no five things that are going to draw every single person into the Catholic faith. Truthfully, there is one thing: Jesus. We do need to do our best to fire on all cylinders and be all things to all people. But few of us can manage that on our own, and, frankly, we don’t have to. We all need to play our part.

And to that end, I think we need to be careful. It’s not uncommon in these types of discussions for people to bemoan that “the Church” is not doing this or that or “the Church” is doing this or that poorly. While that may be true insofar as it goes (and the Church is always in need of reformation), what often gets overlooked is the fact that the Church is made up of us. It is easy to point fingers and expect other people to step up and do what we think they ought to do. It is much more difficult to point our questions at ourselves and ask what we can do. What can I do to spread the Gospel? How can I be a witness who draws people closer to Christ? It’s not all up to the pope, bishops, and priests. We have our role to play. We cannot just sit idly by and expect great saints to arise around us. We need to pray for the grace to be a great saint ourselves.

And, yes, I realize this applies to me. I know that I fall short and I know I have a lot of room for improvement. I pray every day for the grace to be a better evangelizer.

 

[CilladeRoma]

I wish I could like this 1000 times!!

So many people do not understand this.
The parish was the center of the neighborhood. All the kids went to school together, and even if they went to public school, they still lived in the neighborhood, there was no “busing”.
Neighbors socialized together and shopped in the neighborhood, everything they needed was right there.

I know in my mid-sized city in the Northeast, at one time there were 7 parishes within a 3-mile radius of my house. Now there is one, and I have no idea how long they will be able to sustain themselves.
More than 30% of my neighborhood is vacant homes, and what was one a huge Catholic population of European immigrants is now a huge population of middle-eastern & African immigrants who are Muslim. We have 3 mosques in my neighboorhood now.

As nice as it would be, the idea of the neighborhood Church is gone. There will never be the fellowship and comradery in the Church that there once was. Our society has, sadly, moved past that model.

 

[Duesenberg]

In the old school traditional days, people knew their neighbors a lot better than they do in the current era. “coffee and donuts” was less necessary as you saw your fellow parishioners all week, you went to school with them, participated in church festivals and spaghetti dinners and bingos.

I grew up in California which has always been highly Catholic, yet few of my friends or neighbors were Catholic, so it doesn’t always work like you suggest.

 

[Boler]

So many people do not understand this…There will never be the fellowship and comradery in the Church that there once was. Our society has, sadly, moved past that model.

I think pretty much everyone understands that society/culture changes. What I don’t understand (honestly) is the point you’re trying to make. Are you saying we should not attempt fellowship?

 

[Duesenberg]

I think pretty much everyone understands that society/culture changes. What I don’t understand (honestly) is the point you’re trying to make. Are you saying we should not attempt fellowship?

Yes it does, but EVERYTHING goes in cycles. It quite possible that future members of the Catholic Church will experience greater “fellowship and comradely” than any of those that came before them.

What’s really tiresome are those that try to sell their belief that fellowship/community are not important and that they somehow impinge on faith. Just the opposite is true.

 

[steve-b]

I appreciate this now but it took until my 20s. Also I’ve really noticed that other Christian denominations are now very relaxed about Sunday attendance. If Catholics don’t have anyone to reinforce or even talk about this it won’t seem important.

Lucy,

Here are the 2 scariest passages from scripture IMV

Matthew 7:13-14 , Mt 7:13-14 RSVCE - The Narrow Gate - “Enter by the - Bible Gateway
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy,[a] that leads to destruction, [ ἀπώλεια, ] and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. IOW few are saved.

Jesus had a chance to correct the questioners question but He didn’t. He validated it and doubled down on the answer
Luke 13:23-28 , Lk 13:23-28 RSVCE - And some one said to him, “Lord, will - Bible Gateway

That ought to scare the hell out of everyone.

So one could ask, Why only a few are saved? (emphasis mine)
Jesus said,
because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. Those who endure to the end (the few) are saved. When the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; then the end will come.
Mt 24:12-14, Matthew 24:12-14 RSVCE - And because wickedness is multiplied, - Bible Gateway

The problem today as it has always been, and apparently will be till the end of time, there are people who don’t fear God nor hell. So they do their own thing.

 

[steve-b]

I wish I could like this 1000 times!!

So many people do not understand this.
The parish was the center of the neighborhood. All the kids went to school together, and even if they went to public school, they still lived in the neighborhood, there was no “busing”.
Neighbors socialized together and shopped in the neighborhood, everything they needed was right there.

I know in my mid-sized city in the Northeast, at one time there were 7 parishes within a 3-mile radius of my house. Now there is one, and I have no idea how long they will be able to sustain themselves.
More than 30% of my neighborhood is vacant homes, and what was one a huge Catholic population of European immigrants is now a huge population of middle-eastern & African immigrants who are Muslim. We have 3 mosques in my neighboorhood now.

As nice as it would be, the idea of the neighborhood Church is gone. There will never be the fellowship and comradery in the Church that there once was. Our society has, sadly, moved past that model.

I would just say this.
I grew up in the system you say you wish was back. I say the same thing. The reality is, that didn’t protect anyone who took their eyes off the ball.

1 example.

Back in the day, the 50’s, most of the guys in my class (me included) were altar boys. We all had the same religious formation…at school. Not necessarily at home. Nor did any of us pay much attention to that last part (about another guy’s home life) back when we were young sprouts ourselves. Fast forward 60 yrs… one of these old friends that I hadn’t seen for 50+ years, called me. He said he had stage 4 cancer which means he had a death sentence. I went immediately to see him. I couldn’t believe what I saw. He had as it turned out, 2 months from then to live. It took a mere few minutes for me to ask him, are you still practicing your faith? He said he hadn’t been to mass in 40 yrs. I said I’m not going to leave you alone till I take you to or have a priest come to reconcile you to the Church and to Our Lord. I was ready on the spot to make that happen. There was a Catholic Church around the corner. I literally was going to put him in the car and we were outta there. He promised me he would see the priest. And he called me to say he had reconciled.

Maybe I was put on this earth to do that one act for an old friend.

 

[Duesenberg]

It would be awesome to better understand why he called YOU? Sounds like the Holy Spirit to me. I had a somewhat similar experience once. It sure reinforced my faith.

 

[steve-b]

It would be awesome to better understand why he called YOU? Sounds like the Holy Spirit to me. I had a somewhat similar experience once. It sure reinforced my faith.

I concur. I expect to hear someday as Paul Harvey used to say, the REST of the story

 

[Joe_5859]

Maybe I was put on this earth to do that one act for an old friend.

Thanks for sharing that. What a great witness!

 

[steve-b]

steve-b:

Maybe I was put on this earth to do that one act for an old friend.

Thanks for sharing that. What a great witness!

A great line from the movie, “Gladiator”
“What we do in life echoes in eternity”

 

[steve-b]

LateranBasilica:

Faith is what brings people into Mass. Not bells and whistles , coffee and donuts.

I can personally attest that a reverently celebrated Mass played a roll in my reversion to the faith. The “bells and whistles” and mannerisms indicated to me that these were a people who truly believed these lofty ideas of Catholicism. It made me reflect more on the Real Presence.

Sometime after that our parish started "coffee and donuts" and suddenly I went from knowing 1 or 2 parishioners to, well more than I can count right now.

And that ain’t bad.

Boler:

Bells and donuts are not the substance of my faith

seems you have things in balance

 

[CilladeRoma]

I was replying to Augustianian’s comments. I did not say that I don’t think fellowship is important, I said the Church is different now than it was 60 years ago. People are spread out, families that worship together, in many cases, don’t live near each other or have kids who go to the same schools. People “parish shop”, so we have to come up with different ways for fellowship, not keep looking to the past and say, “Look, it worked then, why not now?”

 

[LateranBasilica]

I can personally attest that a reverently celebrated Mass played a roll in my reversion to the faith. The “bells and whistles” and mannerisms indicated to me that these were a people who truly believed these lofty ideas of Catholicism. It made me reflect more on the Real Presence.

These people wont even consider walking into Mass without faith driving them.
Faith in worshipping God must be stronger then faith being only applied to an ornate Mass. The heart, given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit, recognised and worships God regardless of surroundings, and sees Jesus in fellow worshippers. Afterall we are one body of Christ.

Are people forgetting we are there to worship God, not count the number of incense swings?

 

[LateranBasilica]

It would be awesome to better understand why he called YOU? Sounds like the Holy Spirit to me. I had a somewhat similar experience once. It sure reinforced my faith.

The Holy Spirit gifts us faith. It is a humble simple faith. A faith where we meet and speak to God regardless of our surroundings and those on it. We are one body under Christ. We ask to become members of the Body of Christ , joined to the assembly, regardless of its outward appearance and nuance, when we answer AMEN on receiving the Body of Christ.
This is our petition. This is the Epiclesis.

We do the Catholic Appstolate a huge diservice in focussing on what our worship of God, and partaking of the Eucharist is not.

It is our job, as Catholics, practising Catholics, to imitate Jesus, and allow Jesus to shine through us , to those who the Holy Spirit fills with grace faith and charity.

 

[anon65111186]

Catechize the parish at Mass about parts of the mass. Like that you don’t bow or put your head down when the Priest lifts the Eucharist, you are supposed to behold.

 

[Duesenberg]

Catechize the parish at Mass about parts of the mass. Like that you don’t bow or put your head down when the Priest lifts the Eucharist, you are supposed to behold.

Yep. One thing I am absolutely convinced of is that most Catholics would benefit richly if a 2-5 minute bit of catechesis was dovetailed with every Sunday homily.

 

[Duesenberg]

I did ask my brother the Protestant about this last night. They take stuff like attendance very seriously at his thriving megachurch. They also do quarterly and bi-annual polling of different matters that effect members of their church. He said that preaching is by far the most important thing to members. In some cases they go through great lengths to find pastors (they have several) who preach with excellence. Number two is the overall quality of their service. Third was the quality of the ministries – from greeters, to readers to missionaries. Fourth was believe it or not, parking – and they have spent a lot of effort and $$$ to ensure they have plenty of parking. Fifth was fellowship.

 

[Duesenberg]

My pastor actually does invite all the Christmas/Easter people to please come back, and goes on to say that whatever their reason for not attending regularly, please contact him and they will work it out. That there is nothing that can’t be worked out.

That truly is awesome. Good on him! But to be honest, and I’m not trying to make an excuse, Christmas and Easter Sunday is OVERWHELMING at my parish. Up to three Masses are being celebrated simultaneously. It would just be very difficult to get a coordinated message from the pastor out to everyone. But we should find a way.