[NYer]

Readers may send questions to liturgy@zenit.org. Please put the word "Liturgy" in the subject field. The text should include your initials, your city and your state, province or country. Father McNamara can only answer a small selection of the great number of questions that arrive.

[NYer]

Curious minds want to know ping!

[Miss Marple]

Not only do we have a few people arriving late, but we have a whole lot of people leaving immediately after receiving communion. Our poor music guy plays the hymn and it’s a regular stampede, particularly with older people (retirees). I complained to my RCIA guy when I was in classes, and he agreed that it was wrong to leave like that. We even had a column about it in the parish bulletin, and they STILL leave right after receiving communion!

[JoeFromSidney]

When I was in graduate school at Purdue I attended Mass at the student parish. Four Masses each Sunday. When Mass started, a sign was posted: "You are late for Mass." After the Gospel, that was taken down and another sign posted: "You have missed Mass. Next Mass at _____" After the Gospel of the last Mass of the day, the sign read: "You have missed Mass. Confessions 7 AM Monday."

The rule at the time was, you have to be present for the Gospel to have "heard Mass." I don't know what the rule is now.

I once saw an item in a parish bulletin that advised parisioners, "The first person to leave Mass early was Judas Iscariot."

[neb52]

We were told in RCIA that for Mass to be considered valid, one had to be present for the Gospel reading. So is this not correct? It doesn’t really matter, since it is a good way(if one really needed it) to get yourself in gear and get to Mass on time.

[TankerKC]

I suppose it it wrong for me to be annoyed at those that show up just before (and during) communion, then walk straight out after receiving it. Why not just have a drive through?