Sunday, August 07, 2011

On vacations and our Sunday obligation


I read this on Fr. Z’s blog and afterwards I sighed. I saw comment after comment making excuses for skipping the Sunday obligation if it interfered with vacation plans. Huh? Missing Mass because you were in Kenya feeding starving Somali refugees is one thing, missing the holy sacrifice of the Mass because you wanted to go hunting or lie around in the pool is quite another.  There are some really cool sites such as  Masstimes.org , Parishes Online , Church Mass Times, and the Catholic Directory that will help you find a Mass in or near the location of your vacation site. Before I found Masstimes.org, I used to go to visitor’s centers when we travelled and I'd ask if they could tell me where the nearest Catholic church was or --- and this is really old school, you could call the hotel, the resort, the cruise line, ect. and find out where there is a Catholic church, chapel or mission.

Jesus suffered ineffable agony in the garden of Gethsemane, He took a terrible beating, was tortured and crucified for us. How can we turn around and say, "Sorry, Lord, I wanted to come see You but I needed some me time."