HS Mass Attend.

Dear parents, Greetings! Below you will find guidelines for Mass attendance, and tips on how to avoid coming up short at the end of a quarter. Regular attendance at Mass on Sunday—“the Lord’s Day” (cf. Rev. 1:10), the “day of the Resurrection” and first day of the week—is the single most important thing we do at the parish. This follows upon the practice of Christians, who gathered together from the earliest days (cf. Acts 20:7 & 1 Cor. 16:2). Faithful attendance at Sunday Mass is a precept of the Church. We require that all those in our First Holy Communion program attend Mass here at St. Edwin at least 75% of the time. It is no less important than attending class and an essential part of the young person’s formation. For those who have not been coming to church regularly, it will be a new experience, at times challenging as new habits are formed. The strategy is to attend Mass without exception at the beginning of each quarter, so as not to arrive at the end of the quarter with a low percentage and no buffer when some unforeseen emergency comes up. Many reasons are cited for missing Mass, like being sick, experiencing some family difficulty, going out of town, not finding the attendance person after Mass, going to another church for some special occasion or even weightier matters like an accident or serious illness. In such cases the question is never whether or not the reason given is strong or weak, valid or not. Things happen and you have our understanding. The problem will always be that a critical aspect of preparation for the sacrament, namely the practice of participating in the Sunday liturgy, is not being fulfilled. Families who do not attend Mass regularly over a four month period will most likely be asked to wait before re-entering our program. During this time they will have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to follow the precept of the Church to attend Mass and be part of a local Catholic Christian community. With regard to your place of work and your children’s activities, please be aware of your right to reasonable religious accommodation. With complete confidence you may ask your employer or children’s coach to allow you two hours to fulfill your weekly religious observance. Let them witness the example of your life ordered around Christ. In these matters, know that you are not being singled out; many other families make similar sacrifices and adjustments in their work and activities to prioritize Sunday for the Lord. We have someone taking attendance with a clipboard after every Mass outside the church. It is the high school student’s responsibility to see that his or her name is marked on the list each week. The person receiving the sacrament must be present. We keep hardcopies of the attendance sheets but do not add check marks after the fact.