Summertime Tips
Ah, summertime! That span of a few months when our families take a break from our normal routines and fill our days with vacations, swimming pools, and trips to the ball fields. Of course, these new activities require some good tips to keep everyone safe and happy. I remember some of my mother’s best advice as I woke up the first morning of summer and was happy to be anywhere but school: “Be sure to leave the sunscreen in the cabinet when you go to the pool.” “You only need to wear a baseball hat when you go ride your bike.” “Shooting Roman candles at your brother will be a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July.” Wait, did I hear that right? Maybe I should call her and double-check…
Here’s another piece of bad advice for your family this summer: “Go ahead and take a break from Sunday Mass for a few months.” We know from our faith that Mass is important, but is it not curious how we sometimes give into the temptation of relegating Sunday Mass to a school-year or even less frequent activity? Perhaps this summer and coming year might be different if we understood what we will be missing.
Our weekly prayer time with God, celebrating the Day of Resurrection at the Saturday Vigil or any time on Sunday is at the core of who we are as Catholic-Christians. It stems from our Judeo-Christian roots in that the Jews were commanded to keep their Sabbath holy. God does not need us to come to Mass every week; rather, we deteriorate spiritually without doing so. Think what might happen if we neglected a core need of our bodies, even for just a week. Has anyone tried not eating or drinking for an entire week? How about not getting any sleep for seven days or walking outside in a blizzard wearing a bathing suit? We would hardly do these things to ourselves, and yet, we tragically starve our souls when we come to Mass only when it is convenient. Of course, the Church is not unreasonable. There are legitimate reasons why someone cannot get to Mass on a particular weekend, but they must be truly serious and not something minor.
Thus, I offer you three tips to help keep Sunday Mass part of your family routine this summer and beyond:
1. Plan it first. It is amazing how busy our lives can be, regardless of the time of year. If we plan when we are going to Mass first, it helps us organize the rest of our weekend activities. The temptation of having so many Mass options in some of our parishes and communities is that we assume there will always be a possible time to go. We must avoid this trap and be intentional about Mass before the weekend even arrives.
2. List our family’s priorities. What are the most important things that we should do and concern ourselves with during the week? I will give you a hint on the first one—it is our faith and relationship with God. Everything else we have and care about comes from God in the first place, so it benefits us to keep other relationships, activities, and priorities in proper perspective.
3. Change our viewpoint. If we only see going to Mass as an obligation, it will become an inconvenience, a burden, even a chore. It is not about bringing home the bulletin to prove we went! To appreciate and even anticipate Sunday Mass, we must move from obligation to opportunity of faith, from the task of having to go to the privilege of getting to go, from one more thing to do to the most important thing we do all week.
I do wish your families a safe, happy, and restful summer. I also hope to see you at Mass in our shared Eucharist wherever you are in the world. Remember, coming to Mass is essential for our well being. It is about reconnecting with God, reconciling our sinful ways with his mercy, listening to the divinely inspired Word, worshiping with our family, the Body of Christ, and oftentimes, being nourished at the table of the Eucharist. I leave you with one last piece of advice from our Mother Church that gives hope to all of us who have fallen short of the ideal, “If at first you don’t succeed, seek God’s mercy in confession, and try, try again!”
