Who’s Mass Is It?

It is an ancient custom that people may request a priest to offer Mass for a relative  or  friend  either living  or  dead  so that the merits of the celebration may provide a blessing to them in this life or on their  way  to  their  ultimate  destination in the next. An offering given to the priest for this  purpose binds  his  intention  meaning that he may not offer the Mass for anyone else. Our custom is to mention the name of the person for whom the priest is obliged to  offer  the  Mass,  and  thus  to  ask others present to pray for them as well. While we will continue to do that in our parish it is technically not necessary and may give the impression that the Mass “belongs” exclusively  to  the person  for  whom  the  priest is  bound  to  offer  it.  That  is  unfortunate, because other than the priest who has accepted the offering for a specific intention, all others who are present and participating  at  Mass  are free to offer the Mass for any and all whom they wish.

However, there are some days of the year where this ought to be made clearer by not accepting offerings for specific intentions; these  include  Christmas,  Holy  Thursday, Easter, Memorial Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, All Souls’  Day,  Veterans’ Day and  Thanksgiving Day. The challenge in our parish is that so many are asking for so many Masses that nearly all those that will be celebrated in 2017 are already reserved. This creates a situation that is discouraged by the Church because we do not know the future or with any certainty that there will be a priest available to celebrate the Mass that has been reserved so far in advance. It is also an injustice in that when a family suffers an unexpected loss during this upcoming year there is not one Mass available to be offered by the priest for their deceased loved one.

Thus going forward with the 2018 Mass Book, it will not open to reserve Masses until 6 months in advance, and will do so by only 6 months at a time, thus the Mass book will open this July for the months of January through June of 2018 and in January for the months of July through December. Masses can be requested by submitting a form  which  will  be  available  in  the  office. Parishioners are  asked  to  make  their requests in a spirit of charity and justice realizing that there is a limited number of  Masses celebrated in the parish during any one year thus asking for more  than an anniversary Mass for the same person may mean that Mass cannot be offered for someone else’s loved one at all.

If parishioners want multiple  Masses  offered for the same person it is recommended that they allow the parish to give some of these to priests known to us who depend upon these for their support, thus your  loved  one  will  benefit  from an even greater act of charity along with the merits of the Mass.

Fr. Edward Healey