Posted on 06/06/2016 6:56:20 AM PDT by Salvation
New financial realities and mechanisms raise questions for the traditional collection and offertory procedures at Mass. For as far back as most of us can remember, the “collection” has always taken place after the Creed and Intercessory prayers. A basket is passed and people drop in cash or a check, often inside an envelope. It is often brought up along with the bread and wine as an actual offering to the Lord and His Church.
But the problem is that cash, and even checks, are going away. Increasing numbers of people use electronic giving. Most younger people rarely carry cash and they seldom if ever write checks. I have to say that even I seldom carry cash, and these days I typically write fewer than five checks a month. I contribute to the parish through the “Faith Direct,” program which automatically withdraws my offering from my bank account each month.
A woman told me that she recently corrected her daughter for never putting anything in the collection basket. The daughter, a young woman in her late twenties, wondered what she was supposed to do since she didn’t carry cash or write checks. She paid all her bills online using her phone. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t put my phone in the basket!”
The question I raise here is more a liturgical than a financial one. More and more parishes are offering their parishioners other ways to contribute. We need to get better at it and to continue to offer more solutions, but the adjustment to new financial mechanisms is underway.
Liturgically, however, we are still “passing the basket” to a congregation that increasingly has no capacity to participate with this ritual. Some parishes provide cards that online givers can drop into the basket saying that they gave electronically, but most forget to bring the card to Mass. An essential point of electronic giving is to be freed from the hassle of carrying cash or checks, so needing to remember another piece of paper seems counter to that goal.
But then what to do with a practice that still makes sense liturgically? Passing the basket makes sense because we are called as a people of God to make sacrificial offerings to the Lord and to assist in the support of His Church. The offertory procession is about more than presenting bread and wine. It is also about offerings for the Church and the poor; it is about offering the gift of our very self. So the money we put (or used to put) into the basket is a symbol of something more than the monetary gift itself. The offering of actual valuables at the offertory is ancient and serves as a visible sign of our participation in the sacrifice of the Mass. In ancient barter economies, people brought tangible items such as foods and other valuables. Gradually money replaced such items and our long practice of collecting money began. And now paper money and checks are going away.
But again, there is still some value in placing offerings in a basket and bringing the basket forward at the offertory.
Perhaps we can adjust as follows:
Provide offering cards in the pews so that those who contribute electronically can quickly fill one out and place it in the basket. They could supply their name (or not) and simply indicate that they have given electronically. They could indicate the amount of the offering (or not). There should also be boxes to check that go beyond money (for the offertory should be about more than just money). People could check boxes indicating the sacrificial gifts of time and talent along with treasure. For example, one could indicate by checking boxes that he visited the sick that week, served as a lector, sang in the choir, offered tutoring, prayed for the needs of others, and so forth.
The card would need to be simple and quick to fill out. Catechesis would also be necessary to explain the purpose of taking part in the offertory in a visible and tangible manner, even if one gives electronically. Worship without sacrifice is ill-conceived. The “collection” is more than a practical gathering of money; it is a summons to link our own sacrifices of time, talent, and treasure with the Lord’s perfect sacrifice in the Eucharist.
I am interested in your thoughts on this matter, both practical and liturgical. The fact is, paper-based monetary transactions are going away. How do we adjust the offertory of the Mass in response to that?
Here is one of the more interesting things to end up in a parish collection.
**I contribute to the parish through the “Faith Direct,” program which automatically withdraws my offering from my bank account each month.**
Another program is “We Share” used by my parish.
PayPal takes money out of your donation before it gets to the church. Do not use it.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
They will never tell, but have to wonder how the “Peter’s Pence” collection which is money raised from parishioners for the support of the Pope, did this year.
Yes - be sure to pay your tax to the IRS.
Years ago in a sermon about giving, the pastor said “just open your checkbook and look at your last 20 checks. That’s where your heart is.” HaHa Now the church is about the only place I still write a paper check.
Young people do a lot of things I don’t like! I use cash!
yeah, it’s 2016. Wouldn’t even be crazy to get a church app to donate to :)
My most generous moments are usually at home on the couch watch the tube. (not tube anymore)
They might get MORE money this way
A cashless society is evil evil evil and the work of the devil
Anybody remember the old song “SIGNS” from the 1970s? The closing line was “Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me. I’m alive and doin’ fine!”
I predict that in the future this part of the mass, the offering basket WILL go away.
This is more or less a generation thing as well. The older generations which more likely than not do not have a computer still do the putting into the basket.
Even for myself I am taking a closer look at giving online and by the fall most likely doing it.
Why?
I declined the electronic method and opted to give everything when the basket gets passed around.
Strange as it may sound, but doing it that way you ‘feel’ the sacrifice more than it simply being taken out of the bank account.
But for a suggestion I would say have the people who give electronically still bring the envelop with a preprinted verification the money was already paid. This way something goes into the basket, an i it gives them an opportunity to add to it if they want.
My husband writes the check and puts it in the basket. He is well aware that he could do this electronically, but says it is better for him spiritually to look at what he is giving and make the decision to give.
We recently set up and automatic payment to our church’s account.
No more checks.
Like someone previously posted I am down to about 5 checks a month, and none of them out of the home. I quit carrying my check book years ago.
I wonder about where the bible says bring it to the store house, not mail it in or send it by some one else or such.
Like another poster said I feel the giving when I physically put my tithe/ donation in the basket.
It’s a heart thing for me, not just an obedience “I gave”.
Modern conveniences can dull our senses and our heart in matters.
God wants my heart not so much my money.
The collection plate will still be around for those who want to donate anonymously.
Megachurches don’t take paper anyway. They demand electronic monthly debits direct from checking accounts.
My church went to electronic giving years ago. The offering plates rarely have more than a few dollars in them.
“Basket embarrassment” could be headed off by having a slotted lock box by the door which everybody would use at their convenience.
Or, the associated prayer could ask for blessings on the gift and the giver as well as those who cannot give or who have given or will give in a different manner, to ease “basket embarrassment.”
The point, of course as a wascally evangelical, to me is to offer the gift unto the Lord for a benevolent use. And what your neighbor thinks shouldn’t be permitted to become an issue. I think people might be encouraged to be more generous if they realized it was really God, and not their neighbor at all, they were seeking to please.
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