21 September 2009

Monday musings


Praise God, my hives (from an allgeric reaction, recently acquired, to penicillin) seem to have disappeared finally.

Now, what I'm wondering is why a parish with a large grade school has a Sunday Mass where the priest is saying Mass alone, unassisted. I bet I could've even picked out a few DOZEN boys (not even counting girls, which is the norm at this parish...just to cue Chris in that, no, this wasn't St. Agnes) who would've been prime altar server material in attendance during the Mass, but none were serving.

What's next, Mass attendance by proxy?

Think the hives made me cranky.

5 comments:

ArchAngel's Advocate said...

The answer is that the parents don't want to spend the 2hours 1 Saturday morning so that the kids will have a bare smattering of what they need to serve, and the parents also don't want to arrive 15 minutes before Mass so the kids can be ready to go when the Procession begins. (Heck, even the EMHCs are rarely on time. When I served as Lector, EMHC, or acolyte I was there at least 30 minutes (I liked 60 minutes so I got 10 with me & the Big Guy).

swissmiss said...

I guess it's just uncool for the kids and inconvenient for the parents! They can shelp the kids around to sports and other things, but serving Mass is just not high on the list.

30 minutes before Mass...wow!! Must be a German thing...I was raised to never be late - always early.

kam said...

Were pretty lucky at our church, we always seem to have enough kids to go around. But it's a secular world out there, and being just a Sunday catholic is the norm nowadays, not the exception. Heck, the big screen in the family room rules, even if its only on the Weather Channel....

swissmiss said...

KAM: It just strikes me as odd that there were no altar servers, especially when there were plenty of kids at Mass...which is a good thing they are there, but something's wrong when they just are sitting in the pew oblivious of the honor of serving. I wonder if Father has encouraged kids to assist at Mass?

Anonymous said...

I wonder why as well. My boys have served for a long time (both have earned their silver St Stephen Guild medals) and I think one or two new lads and the odd girl come to be trained each year; but the biggest problem I see is the lack of commitment to attending Mass (this is a parental problem more than a kid one) so the the servers don't stay.