Feast with the Least (attendance)?

Two sad things:

1. This particular (NO) Feast of Mary, her Divine Maternity, is the one most closely united to the Eastern Catholic churches and the Orthodox (Theotokos). What a pity this truly ecumenical Feast is not more strongly emphasized and taught c.f the Council of Ephesus).

2. "Typical" homily: "Today the Church celebrates Mary, the Mother of Disarmament, er, God. Today is also World Peace Day. [Fill in 15 mins worth of left-wing political drivel]."

The bishops caused this problem. It is hard to take a feast day seriously when they keep changing what the day is to celebrate: The Circumsion (traditional), World Peace leftism, or Mary's maternity (fall-back position). Yet the Holy Day they have come the closest to jettisoning is the Feast of the Assumption--one of the most important feast days we celebrate with the Orthodox-- and it is celebrated on the same date: Aug. 15.
And during a debate on the Assumption holy day issue among Catholic bishops I saw no commenting showing any awareness of our sharing this day with the Orthodox (although that could have been caused by weak news reporting).

The bishops caused this problem. It is hard to take a feast day seriously when they keep changing what the day is to celebrate: The Circumsion (traditional), World Peace leftism, or Mary's maternity (fall-back position). Yet the Holy Day they have come the closest to jettisoning is the Feast of the Assumption--one of the most important feast days we celebrate with the Orthodox-- and it is celebrated on the same date: Aug. 15.
And during a debate on the Assumption holy day issue among Catholic bishops I saw no commenting showing any awareness of our sharing this day with the Orthodox (although that could have been caused by weak news reporting).

Guess those who missed today's holy day all got artificial dispensation!

My experience today was the same (of course, my experience last year was being one of the people who was too hungover for Mass, and yes, I knew it was gravely sinful. I was very careful not to let that happen again last night - in fact, I've been careful not to let it happen any night since). Today's Mass was fairly empty.

What I find interesting is that, when I was looking at schedules for local churches to try to plan my day today, at least 2 specifically canceled the 5:30 Mass they'd regularly have on a Holy Day. I know it's a federal holiday, and yes, ideally you wouldn't have congregations full of people who couldn't get out of bed New Year's Day morning, but the fact is that today of all days, many people would find an evening or afternoon Mass a million times easier than a 10:00am. One morning and one evening Mass - instead of 3 sparsely attended morning Masses - would be infinitely more practical, IMHO.

I think that Ascension and Assumption are more poorly attended. January 1 is always a civil holiday. The others are not -- in the U.S. (they are in other countries).

Even so, I don't think the feasts should be transferred to the nearest Sunday.

Frankly, I think we need MORE midweek Holydays of Obligation. Keep us on our toes.

Different problem out here in California-- the obligation is lifted, hence most parishes don't feel obliged to offer anything more than their one, normal, daily Mass. For those of us who simply rang in the new year, not drunkenly, 8:30 AM Mass is still not necessarily a viable option, especially getting the kids dressed too. The one orthodox-magnet parish hearabouts does keep a HDO schedule today, thankfully, and their noon Mass was packed way beyond overflowing. It was nuts.

Mass this morning at 9:00 was less than half full. Now, there was a later Mass at 11:00 and maybe people were going to that one, which may be because we had two inches of snow this morning, on top of the snow that was already there. But it was still driveable.

Mass this morning at 9:00 was less than half full. Now, there was a later Mass at 11:00 and maybe people were going to that one, which may be because we had two inches of snow this morning, on top of the snow that was already there. But it was still driveable.

The priest's homily was centered on Mary being the Mother of God.

9am Mass was basically empty, but the pastor commented before mass to the sacristan that the Vigil had been packed.

There was only one Mass at the local parish today, but it was packed. The homily was very good.

My experience is that few people go to the January 1 mass. Those are usually fairly light. More people seem to go to the vigil mass on December 31. So maybe it's not that Catholics are skipping out on a holy day. Maybe more people than you would expect are going the night before (anticipating how hard it will be to get up for mass in the morning).

Thank you for attending for those of us who couldn't. Between our snow storm and the early hour of the vigils (most people were still at work)and the businesses/workplaces that do not close on New Year's Day, it's possible that some who wanted to celebrate this Holy Day at Mass were just plain stuck, as I was. Because I have the only car in my family, 5 people didn't get to Mass. :( Sigh. Happy Holy Day to you all!

There was no vigil Mass in our parish, just 2 regular time Masses, 9:30 and 11:30. We got there at our usual time for the 11:30 and there weren't many people when we arrived, but it ended up fairly full. Don't know about the others, but I am always surprised at our parish of the number of people who take HDO very seriously, even attending before work for the 6:30. They did sing Let there be Peace on earth (accchhhh) for the recessional. AnneG in NC

I'm with PMcGrath. A holy day is a holy day is a holy day.

We went to the Vigil Mass and it was packed. Can't speak for the three Masses today.

Unlike many, I wasn't up til the wee hours of the morning, so I went to our 7:30 AM Mass. It was not jam packed. Hopefully the other 3 Masses were more crowded. I am blessed to belong to a parish that makes it near impossible not to be able to get to Mass on Sunday and Holy Days. I know this is not the case all over. However that being said, attending Mass is not only an obligation, but an awesome gift. As for the moving around of dates and this business of a Holy Day is not a Holy Day if it falls on a weekend is absurd. The bishops have made it too easy for people to not have to observe Holy Days.

Our 79 year young monsignor Bridges (associate pastor on vac.) offered a full Sunday Mass schedule; vigil, 8 a.m. (which we assisted at) 10:30, noon, and evening. PLUS THERE WAS A MIDNIGHT MASS offered. But hey we live in Texas you know what they say:)I'm sure he heard confessions prior to each as is his custom. I am hesitant to ask for the EF because he's so tapped already. He is a stud and just last week was recognized by B16 with his long deserved (in my opinion) title of monsignor. 8 a.m. was a little sparse. His homily was exceptional. Pray for more hard working priest him. We are so blessed here in Midland at St. Stephens.

Maybe people went to the vigil, anticipating being unable to get out of bed the next morning?

My parish, like many, only has two Masses on January 1, probably because it's a federal holiday. Normally there are five Masses on a Holy Day or Sunday, and even on a normal weekday there are four. And the two Masses they did have are not at the usual time. So it's not hard to figure out why attendance seems low.

Our parish scheduled 2 Masses (Dec 31 and Jan 1). Today's 10am Mass was pretty full but not Sunday-full. No idea whether last night's Mass was packed.

The evening Mass that I went to had good attendance.

My parish had the abbreviated Mass schedule this year, we had a 5:30 vigil yesterday and 8am and 10am this morning. I was at the 10am, and there was a decent crowd, more than I expected, I don't know about the other 2 Masses. I think people get confused with the Holy Day as it's one of those ones that changes whether or not it's an Obligation depending on the day it falls on. I know I turned to my pastor and said it's an Obligation this year right and he smiled and said yes. I might have been tired at Mass, but I said there's no better way to start off the year, than by going to Mass and celebrating Mary.

Actually, it was pretty full at 12:30 today; I obviously can't say for the earlier Masses, but there were more people at that Mass than I've ever seen at a Tridentine one before, so I must assume that plenty of people were attending just to fulfil their obligation.

We had a 7 pm vigil, an 11:30pm vigil (with our pastor offering a BYOCB party after - Bring Your Own Cheese Ball) an 8 am, 10 am and Noon. None were particularly packed, but Father Dean told us at Noon that all were fairly well attended. He has permission from the bishop to celebrate Mass like this for our parish (same number of Masses every weekend, just different times!)

Not only did he mention Our Lady and her importance to our salvation and the Church as Mother of God during the homily but he personally consecrated the parish to the Immaculate Hearts after every Mass today and dedicated the coming year to Our Lady. He said, "(the coming year's) probably not going to get any better than the last one and we're all going to need a Mother's help!"

We love him.

The Mass times at our parish were all different -- not following the schedule for Holy Days, Sundays, or weekdays. Probably because the priests had different family obligations than normal, or something.

Nevertheless, the weather was good and a lot of folks came to the 11 AM Mass that I hit. I suspect the Vigil also got heavy attendance. I suspect a lot of people showed up at the wrong times, though, or went to Mass somewhere with more normal times.

Cincinnati's St. Rose, a parish with a well-deserved reputation for liturgical fidelity, was jam-packed at the 12:10 Mass. My hunch is that affinity parishes like this one draw even more extra-territorial worshipers on Holy Days of Obligation. No one wants to go to their home parish and face an empty church.

St Mary's Greenville was packed for a vigil Mass last night and 10am this morning.

Well...ours today was packed (we were traveling last night)...but it was the only Mass offered for the whole town between five parishes. Yep.

Church I was in was packed.

But it's a fair question.

I love the garments wore on this Sunday, each year.

The National Shrine was packed at 12:00 noon. Cardinal McCarrick delivered a beautiful homily, filled with reflections, readings from Marian hymns and thoughts on turning toward Mary and recognizing her as Mother of God. My children especially appreciated the beautiful music. I loved seeing faithful Catholics from India, Africa, Pakistan, the Philippines, etc., dressed as they felt most comfortable. As Cardinal McCarrick said, in Mary's house we should all be turning to her for intercession with Jesus, her son. Lovely.

My wife and I were expecting a light crowd at noon today, and were pleasantly surprised when we couldn't find parking and there was a standing room only crowd in the church. This was at St. Vincent de Paul in Houston.

The 6pm vigil we attended was busier than a normal vigil or Sunday Mass. We were ten minutes early and still had a hard time finding parking and a pew. No political content in the homily, rather some practical advice on New Year's resolutions and seeking the assistance of the Blessed Mother in all our undertakings. It wasn't just young folks preparing for a night's partying that were there either -- plenty of gray heads too.

I've found this Holyday usually better observed than either the Assumption or Immaculate Conception. Everywhere I've been as a Catholic, the Ascension is celebrated 43 days after Easter and the Epiphany has become a moveable feast, so their attendance is on par with that of other Sundays.

Oh, Margaret! Getting children dressed and to Mass at 8:30 is too hard??!?!?! Gimme a break! I know it is a sacrifice. I dressed six and had them to Mass at 6:30 for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It IS definitely doable and they were MUCH better behaved for it (being utterly tired and all).
Yes, I am most definitely thankful our regular (extraordinary) Mass isn't until 12:30pm Sundays. But, please, it is a Holy Day, many used to travel on their knees in penance. We drive our climate controlled cars.

I think a large part of the problem has come with the willy nilly way the church sets when a feast is a holy day and when it isn't, which confuses the people in the pews a great deal. Heck, it confuses a fair number of clerics as well. So much so, I did a primer on HDO's at the end of masses this last weekend. Generally, since I started doing that and reminding people that willingly skipping mass on a HDO was a mortal sin, I get Sunday crowds at HDO's. The maddening thing, though, is aside of Christmas and IC, whether the day is an HDO is dependent upon which weekday it falls on. I say, just leave them all as HDOs regardless of the day they fall on. Then again I am ticked that the most bishops moved Ascension to the nearest Sunday...because you know nothing says, "take our faith seriously"...and "this is a faith of sacrifice" like watering down the practice of it.

OK...now I'll get off my soapbox.

We had two Masses at my Parish. One Vigil. One Mass at 9 a.m. The 9 was very crowded,(cant understand why. We have over 3000 registered parish members.)We needed more than one mass. Major drawback was the music at the 9a.m.included guitar and drum. Dont think that music was proper for The Solemnity Of Mary. This took place in a suburb of Portland, Or.

We had our holy day Mass on Wednesday evening prior to the feast. I was amazed that the church was nearly as filled as on a Sunday. Almost the entire choir was on hand also.

People left quickly afterwards, probably to attend festivities they had been invited to.

I don't know about anyone else, but my parish at Daytona Beach was packed...

Our daily morning Mass on the 31st was cancelled so as to have a vigil Mass later. So the holy day is transferred to the day before. Then some years it is cancelled. Many give up trying to keep track. Sometimes it is not mentioned in the parish there even is a holy day which might be one this year and not next.

One year, about 3 years ago when I was sacristan, father had me set up the chapel on a holy day. It only seats 50 at the most. That was all he expected to come! Well, we had to open the church because more people than that still observe but his attitude was cavilier about it.

Our morning Mass at 8:30 was pretty well attended and there was a later one as well as vigil.

Our church was full to the gills yesterday morning. We had 2 Masses (one on the vigil and one yesterday). The morning Mass was packed.
And the homily? Briefly mentioned "World Peace Day" and then used it as a segue--Mary is Queen of Peace, Jesus is Prince of Peace, and the rest of it was about how we should all resolve this year to get closer to Jesus by cultivating devotion to His mother. Amen to THAT!

Church was MUCH fuller yesterday than it is on other Holy Days of Obligation.

Feisty Muse--

Please don't be snarky. You got your kids to Mass. I got my (eight) kids to Mass. All I'm saying is, parishes aren't exactly encouraging Mass attendance by scheduling their only one for early morning following New Years' Eve.

I missed Mass. Utterly my own fault, neither my pastor nor my bishop. Since our consolidation, the parish sends out an Advent letter to remind everyone of confession and Mass schedule. I mislaid it and forgot the morning Mass was on the Island, ended up in neighboring town after their Mass ended.

So... anyone know that Mass Hotline number?

There was only one vigil Mass on Wednesday evening and one Mass on Jan. 1 at the Roman Catholic parish closest to me. There was a terse note in the bulletin that there would be only two masses due to sparse attendance in past years. For purposes of comparison, this parish has three Masses on Saturday evening, and four Masses on Sunday morning.

My opinion is that the poor attendance on holy days that still are not transferred to the nearest Sunday may be at least partially due to the fact that other holy days ARE transferred. At at certain point, going to Mass at any time other than Sunday is perceived as just too burdensome. I have seen the same thing happen with regard to the two remaining days of fast left in the Latin church. Fasting has just become so rare that that when one of the required days comes up, a lot of people forget about it.

I missed it. Totally forgot. Our pastor mentioned on Sunday that it was a HDoO, and I was surprised to find that out. (I am a rather recent revert, and I don't know when all the Holy Days of Obligation are.) I left and promptly forgot.

I was surprised at my church, we went to the noon mass and it was relatively well attended. It was at or above the normal Sunday mass level.

Our large parish normally has 2 Saturday vigil Masses, 4 Sunday daytime Masses, and one on Sunday evening. For this holy day, they eliminated all 3 evening Masses and 2 of the 5 daytime Masses. Then they mistakenly listed the usual 9 AM Mass as 9:30 in the bulletin. Thus, the 9 AM Mass started off with light attendance, but was Sunday-full by 10:00. (There was an apology for the typo from the pulpit, after Mass, to all those who arrived halfway through the liturgy.)

The homily at 9 and 11 was excellent, about the Blessed Mother, the new year, and praying for peace. We sang Christmas carols, (though some of them were modern ones I did not know).

I must say it was puzzling that a parish with 3 priests couldn't schedule even ONE of the usual three evening Masses....

The parish I went to offered a Sunday schedule of masses and the one I attended was slightly fuller than the same mass on a Sunday, likely because it was the latest. Ascension and Assumption get the lowest attendance locally.

Sad to hear that. My church in NY was packed-but it is a particularly faithful parish. They normally have evening Masses on Holy Days, but not this one. My son quipped, "Why is this the one Holy Day that they don't have an evening Mass, when everyone was up late?" Good question!

Ms jean,
THANK YOU for taking personal responsibility & not dragging out the "blame the priests & bishops" line. Even if they are to blame, I'm sick of listening to all the Catholic whining.
Jeff Mirus over at Catholic Culture is writing some good stuff about pulling this culture outta the toilet but I want to tell him that it cannot be done until the people-in-the-pews decide to be grownups.

I wish, how I wish, that the priests would announce the holy days with enthusiasm and even a little joy, along the lines of "you GET to go to church on 01/01!" Even a little nudging-kidding would go a long way to help people connect to their connection to the church. People's links to their churches are so social, but devotionally, so tenuous.

Maybe you nee a Vigil Mass?

We had 6pm and 11pm vigil Masses which were both full. I attended the 11pm, and I think our entire Indian community was there...in full party dress (which was NOT immodest!)

The homily was a good 30 min. and totally on topic. We could hear the fireworks going off as we went up to receive Communion!

The 8:30am and 9:45 am were not as well attended, but people still showed up.

(St. Ignatius, Cayman Islands)

Maybe you need a Vigil Mass?

We had 6pm and 11pm vigil Masses which were both full. I attended the 11pm, and I think our entire Indian community was there...in full party dress (which was NOT immodest!)

The homily was a good 30 min. and totally on topic. We could hear the fireworks going off as we went up to receive Communion!

The 8:30am and 9:45 am were not as well attended, but people still showed up.

(St. Ignatius, Cayman Islands)

My parents said that the 9am was more packed than our usual 8:30am Sunday Mass, so that's good. I was on retreat so I went to an 11pm and 11:15am that was mostly a religious community :)

We actually had a higher than Sunday 7.45 am usual for a 10.00 am Mass on 1 January. (If anyone is interested in the slate of music for that day, click here). I also liked very much Fr Dan's homily - he started off by saying we were celebrating the Octave of Christmas, but that we weren't in church just because it's New Year's Day. He went on from there, espousing on themes similar to those I've seen from other commenters above.

We just had the one Mass on 1 Jan, but had a couple of Vigil Masses on 31 Dec; one at 5.30 pm and another at 11.00 pm in Spanish. I didn't go to either of them so I don't know what attendance was like at either of those Masses.

To answer several commenters: I did announce it at Sunday and Christmas Masses that I celebrated, basically saying "How you can come and worship the Christ Child and not honor His mother who gave Him birth, *I* don't know" in a nudging tone.

I focused on the divinity and humanity of Christ, and the Theotokos arguments, focusing that Christ, fully God, fully participated in human life, through His covenant,even taking on the rite of circumcision (which I explained how that tied into Jan 1st), which He, as God, had no need to, and how that hypostatic union serves to lift US up. Damaging the hypostatic union by any heresy "weakens" Christ for us, because He's either NOT Emmanuel, God-with-us, but remains remote, or He's "just" a man, or He's some weird hybrid that's neither if you start confusing His two natures. But in more plainspeak. :)

Oops, I forgot the attendance part. Mine was about 1/3-full, which for us would be ~200. Our Vigil Mass was a multicultural Mass which was almost packed (we invited people to come in their native dress, etc). Wasn't concelebrating, so I don't know what my boss preached on.

Vigil Mass was well attended at our parish. The Holy Day was observed. Perhaps life was made "too easy" for the faithful, but then again why make the narrow road any narrower?

Though I do find the concept of Vigil Mass confusing. I only found out after I was 30 years old that Easter Vigil didn't fulfill the obligation. With all encouragement to attend the full Triduum as it was the liturgical highpoint of the year - it would have been nice to hear that the "highpoint" is less important to attend than an ordinary Sunday.

Then there was the priest who had a Vigil Mass on New Year's Eve that did NOT fulfill the obligation. I thought I was so smart going to the Vigil Mass on the Eve so that I would be able to sleep in and be well rested for travelling.

I'm now suspicious of Vigil Mass in general wondering how many more exceptions to the rule there are.

In other news, the Gospel of Thomas was found to contain a parable of the 10 too-clever-by-a-half virgins who went too early to fill up their lamps only to find that their oil had evaporated when the bridegroom arrived. They wound up gnashing their teeth with the 10 foolish virgins.

Burnt,
I thought all vigil Masses after a certain time counted for the next day? Are you sure the Easter Vigil doesn't count for Easter? If I attend it, I usually attend the following day as well, but I don't remember if I've always taken my children to Easter Sunday Mass after they've attended the Vigil and some of the Triduum Masses...it depended on their choir/altar server schedules. And their patience. (Or my degree of patience with their impatience.)
Why do some vigils count and not others? Because of the Liturgy of the Word for that particular Mass? (if one is FOR the vigil and not the holy day, is that the difference?) If a parish only offers the vigil Mass on a holy day, then, if they use the liturgy for the following day does it count?

This Marian feast is often ignored in both my parishes--of course, it is okay in the California parish now--but a few days later the churches of my California parish and the one in México are packed from before daybreak for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And then the Mexucan parish does it all over again a month later, to celebrate the dedication of the church in our little village, this time with an all-day fiesta.

I attended the Vigil Mass @ 5:00 on the 31st, and it was well attended.

A Vigil Mass for any occasion counts towards that Mass' attendance in any case, AFAIK. I have never heard or seen it being otherwise. I'm open to correction, if anyone has documentation to the contrary.

Funny thing -- I tried to go to Mass three times and failed utterly. Twice, the church simply wasn't having Mass at its listed Holy Day time and on the third, we got there at the wrong time, having driven over after not finding anyone at church #2 without really knowing what time Mass was.

I was surprised by how well-attended Mass was on the 1st at our parish. I'd say the place was 3/4 full. Not quite packed, but still, a good turnout.

I was a lector at our second Mass that morning. 53 people attended the first mass (the Church seats around 700). The second Mass was better-attended, but it was pretty much the same situation you noted at your parish. We typically see good turnout for feast days, but it was pretty sparse for a Holy Day of obligation.

Here in AZ the least attended holy day is Assumption on August 15th. We had four Masses for the holy day and all except one were full.

I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too...