Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Thank you for accompanying me over the past few weeks on our “deep dive” into Mass intentions, stipends, and our parish policy revisions. Many of you have commented how helpful it has been to shine a light on this practice.
As we draw this series to a conclusion, I want to only highlight a few things that have arisen as a few of you have approached me or the office with some good questions.
First, if you had already scheduled a Mass intention for a 10:30AM Sunday Mass, it will remain. We will of course honor all those intentions scheduled before the promulgation of the new policy. But effective immediately, the 10:30AM Mass will be reserved as our weekly Canon Law-mandated Pro Populo Mass, or the Mass “For the People of the Parish,” as new requests for intentions come in. I’d like to add that it was Archbishop Hartmayer who urged the pastors of the Archdiocese to offer the Pro Populo intention at the principal Sunday Mass.
Secondly, an insightful parishioner mentioned that my count of available Masses was likely off…I neglected to account for the All Souls Novena, the Mothers’ Day Novena, and the Fathers’ Day Novena. Recall that a Novena is nine days of prayers. For each of those novenas, we offer an intention at one Mass per day for nine days. So if we were at roughly 600 available Masses before this count, that puts us around 573 available intentions per calendar year. Divide that by the 1,300 families registered in the parish, that’s .44 intentions per family…less than 1…per FAMILY, not per person.
Which leads me to a third point. I need us all to see that the “three intentions per parishioner per year” is exceptionally generous if we are trying to be fair about the availability of Mass intentions for the whole parish. While not everyone offers Mass intentions, it causes a significant issue if even a handful of parishioners claim 10 or 15 Masses throughout the year. Someone who only wants one intention finds “no room in the inn” because the calendar is already full.
If we find that this new policy leaves openness in the intentions calendar, we will look at expanding the yearly limit. This is a work in progress, and I ask for your patience as well as your cooperation.
A final note: the Mass intention is completely offered whether or not the priest or deacon adds it to the Prayers of the Faithful. Recall that what you are doing when you request a Mass intention is that you are asking the priest to offer that particular Eucharistic Liturgy for that particular intention; it is held in his mind and heart as he offers the Mass. We usually do announce the Mass intention or include it in the Prayers of the Faithful, but know that even if it’s not said out loud, the Mass is still offered for your intention.
Again, thanks for coming along!
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael Silloway
Pastor