On Monday, November 4, at 8:30 am the Parish Office will begin taking Mass Intentions for 2025. So, it’s time for my annual teaching of what exactly a Mass Intention is and what it is not. A Mass Intention is the where a person is able to make a cash offering ($10.00) for the priest to pray privately for a particular intention at Mass. It’s meant to be the priest’s PRIVATE prayer intention for that day. I repeat: It’s meant to be the priest’s PRIVATE prayer intention for that day. No more and no less.
It’s something that was started to supplement the priest’s meager pay. In days past people may have offered something to the priest such as a chicken or whatever they had in exchange for prayers. Until a couple of years ago, the priest received the money from Mass Intentions directly and was allowed to take money for one intention per day. Today, a fixed amount is built into the priest’s salary to cover Mass Intentions, which is paid directly to the priest by the parish. The donations from Mass Intentions go to the parish as a reimbursement.
We priests do take Mass Intentions seriously. You will find the Mass Intentions for the week on each altar in our parish so that the celebrating priest can pray silently for the intention. Although the Church’s Canon Law does not require us to publicly disclose any Mass Intentions, we do publish them in the bulletin each week. We DO NOT announce the intention at Sunday Masses for two reasons:
It’s the priest’s PRIVATE intention; and
everyone who attends Mass brings with them their own intentions, which are just as important as the priest’s.
There are still many people who think that by giving the $10.00 offering that they are “buying” the Mass for themselves, which is not true. The Mass is a public event and is not for sale. The intentions of everyone who attend Mass are equal.
Lastly, the number of requests for Mass Intentions is greater than the number of Masses which are available. So, we need to limit the number of intentions to one Sunday Mass and one weekday Mass per family per year. Also, occasionally the weekday Mass schedule changes and a Mass Intention may need to be changed to a different day. When this happens, please be nice to Sally in the Parish Office who handles these changes.