Adding a Collaborative Saturday Mass at St. Martha

Adding a Collaborative Saturday
Mass at St. Martha

At the Collaborative Pastoral Council Meeting in May, I consulted them about the possibility of adding a Saturday evening Mass at St. Martha on a trial basis. Since then I have discussed this idea with Fr. Lambert and our Sunday Experience Team. In truth, there are many reasons not to add a Mass in our collaborative. The Lord’s Day Mass is supposed to bring the faithful together in community and communion - ideally all at one Mass, as is the norm in many rural areas.

Multiplication of Masses was driven largely by the number of people attending not being able to all fit in the church at once. Mass attendance has steadily decreased in parts of the world over the last 50 years.

Since 1987, the policy of our archdiocese has been that when Masses are less than halffull the parish should consider consolidating Masses to unify the community of the faithful.   So why add a Mass when the above reasons suggest against the idea? Remembering that our mission in the Church is to evangelize and share the good news, we need to keep trying new ways to invite people to strengthen their relationship with God and the Church, which includes various kinds of adult faith formation and encouraging people to participate in the Eucharist with the parish communities. For some people (especially those who have to work both weekend days), a variety of Mass times is not just a convenience but a necessity for them to be able to participate at all.

Like the collaborative Sunday afternoon Mass at St. Mary, adding a later Saturday Mass on a trial basis at St. Martha is part of our outreach to those in our towns and beyond to help them get to Mass. It also may help to strengthen and grow our collaborative parishes.

For those reasons therefore, our collaborative will start a Saturday 5:30pm Mass at St. Martha on a trial basis for 7-8 months (September-May).  Most parishes in our area have 4pm Masses, so the hope is 5:30pm will allow those who can’t attend at 4pm a later option. Also, when only one priest is available he can celebrate both Saturday Masses in our collaborative.

Fr. Lambert and I are committed to celebrating these Masses during the trial period, but the start date depends in part on getting enough liturgical ministers scheduled to support the Mass (lectors, altar servers, ushers, music ministers, etc.)

If any member of either parish is able to serve at this new Mass time (even temporarily), please contact Michelle at St.Martha parish office ([email protected] or 508-699-8543).

Please pray for this new idea to bear fruit spiritually for our parishioners and anyone who may attend this new Mass time, and watch the bulletin and website for updates. We will evaluate this trial at regular intervals and in May, as always asking the Lord to help us discern our next steps.