Posted on 01/07/2017 10:00:31 AM PST by Salvation
Msgr. Charles Pope 1/4/2017
Question: I am 87 years old, live in a retirement community and can no longer drive. I attend the Mass that is offered here once a month and receive holy Communion when it is distributed each week by extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. I watch Mass on TV. But someone told me that I am not meeting my obligation to go to Mass by watching it on TV. They say it doesn’t count. Is this true?— Louise Rutherford, Lansdale, Pennsylvania
Answer: Given your age and mobility issues, the general norms and rules do not apply. However, let’s review the general norms and then look to your situation.
To say that a Mass “counts” implies that one meets an obligation by attending it. As a general rule, Catholics are obliged to attend Mass each Sunday. This is in fulfillment of the Second Commandment. Simply watching Mass on TV does not fulfill the obligation. A Catholic who can reasonably do so must attend Mass at a parish church or oratory.
However, these general norms do not always apply. For example, severe weather may lessen or cancel the obligation to attend Mass at church. Likewise, poor health or the care of the sick, or some other acute and serious obligation can excuse one from the requirement to attend Mass.
In your case, given the difficulties that age has brought, it is hard to argue that you have any obligation to attend Mass. Rather, the Church has obligations to you to ensure you receive the sacraments regularly.
As for watching Mass on TV, you are encouraged to do so. You hear the prayers and the readings and likely a short sermon. All this is good even if it is not the same as actually attending a Mass. It doesn’t have to “count” since you don’t have an obligation to meet in the first place.
So be encouraged. Thank you for staying united in prayer with the Church through the TV Mass and receiving Holy Communion when it is offered in your community.
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen. |
Martin Sheen was an Archbishop? Who knew? I know Charlie Sheen is a “lay man”.
A very good response to a concerned older person.
I’m sure he meant Fulton Sheen. Or the sarcasm meter has failed us again.
Exactly.
Seems to me that the parish might be the one with the obligation here. A elderly parishoner in need of assistance...and none inquire?
I once heard a sermon about the call to do for the ‘least of these.’ It was explained that, that sermon Jesus gave actually had little to do with serving the poor etc. It had more to do with how we serve each other. This poor senior is asking about TV Mass ‘counting,’ when he really is asking about the Bread of Life. He is asking for the cup of living water...and who is called to care for the least of these ....we are.
True, but a lot depends on how ambulatory the older person is. We have a bus that brings elderly folks from a local facility for the elderly for the 11am Mass every week, and some of those folks are in wheelchairs.
In this case, the concerned woman did attend Mass at least once a month at the facility, and received Communion every week, at a Communion service, which is perfectly legitimate!
If you give someone a ride, do you have to sit next to them at church? What’s the commitment here?
What if they want to walk out right after communion? I don’t want to give them the keys or let them sit in the car without me.
I think people should stay for the last song. :)
OK, are you being sarcastic, or do you mean “Fulton” Sheen?
If TV Mass doesn’t “count”, why are they broadcasting it? I ask this as a non-catholic.
Salvation is not through our works or the accounting of our church attendance but by believing in the one who God sent.....Jesus. His grace is sufficient for thee!
Uh, what?
My brother is a Lutheran Lay Minister. He helps visit the elderly who can’t make it to church and delivers the Sacrament. Maybe the Catholics could try that too. The Pope sits on a trillion dollars that could help.
Catholics have been delivering the real Sacrament, long before the Lutheran heretics have been delivering a false sacrament.
Read up on Saint Tarsicius, a boy saint who delivered the Real, not fake, Eucharist, at the expense of his life.
Catholic threads are catnip to anti-Catholic bigots. They can’t help it!
Catholic parishes also have lay ministers who bring the Eucharist to the homebound. They receive the allotted number of consecrated hosts in a special case (a pyx) are blessed in front of the whole congregation and verbally charged with bringing the sacrament and comfort to the ill. They then leave to carry out their sharing of the Mass under the eyes of the community before the final blessing is given. We all, in a sense, as a community are commissioning them to tend to our sick member. It’s very beautiful because they go personally from us to our brethren.
The early Church set that up long ago... before Lutherans.
You can start making America normal again by understanding that Martin Sheen is just an actor.
I’m not judging anyone! A lot of elderly are shut ins and would love for someone to take them out or at least come visit. It was just a suggestion not only for those who are able to get out but to those who might be able to give someone a ride and make a new friend. That’s all.
If TV Mass doesnt count, why are they broadcasting it? I ask this as a non-catholic.
I hope someone gives a good reply to this — for my consideration.
Personally, I try to ‘assist at Mass’ daily, as I can, via internet. What I am watching is the actual service Jesus told his followers to ‘do to re-present Me’ — so I have that consideration at the time. And I make a Spiritual Communion.
I started this when I came across a particularly impressive Priest. So recollected, reverent, lot of qualities.
Now that is no longer available, so I look for similar. So I have to say that those things I see in reverent practice of religion help my spiritual life.
Of course, the priests who celebrate Mass on EWTN, and the whole Mass, is extraordinarily reverent — a vestage of the past, they all used to be like this! === ewtn.com - 8am ET
The Orthodos call such interpretaive statements economia and that is economia at its finest!
Thank you.
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