St. Patrick Catholic Parish - Stephensville, WI

Monday - 6 PM Mass at St. Denis
Tuesday - 7 AM Mass at St. Denis
Wednesday - 7 AM Mass at St. Denis
Thursday - 7 AM Mass at St. Patrick 
Saturday - 9 AM Mass at St. Patrick 

As Masses at St. Denis return to our church in Shiocton, I  am going to take the opportunity to tweak the weekday Mass schedule.  The primary reason for this change comes from the desire from prayer to spend more time with parish families, especially to take the opportunity to share meals in your homes. Having multiple evening Masses at St. Denis has been an obstacle to this. 

I shared my desires with the St. Denis pastoral Council at the beginning of March and began discussing possibilities with regular weekday Mass attendees. Some of the observations we took into consideration were:

• The Monday 6 PM evening Mass and Saturday 9 AM morning Mass are regularly the largest attended weekday Mass at each parish, which we don't want to lose.
• There is a desire for a more consistent schedule, rather than different times on most days of the week
• Mass times need to be early enough for people who work in the Fox Valley to be able to drive there after Mass.
• When comparing the two morning Mass times 6:30 AM and 8 AM the earlier time regularly had better attendance than the later one.
• 6:30 AM can be too early, especially for those who need to arrive early and prepare. 

I also know that no matter what, any schedule won't work perfectly for everybody. However, with a little bit of variety in the schedule, I hope that people can find a time to be able to go throughout the week, if they desire. Also, please know that I don't like tinkering with the schedule, I hope this schedule will work for us to stick with. 

I intend to not regularly preach at the 7 AM Masses, in order to keep them brief for those who need to arrive early to work,  and because sometimes the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. 

When looking for advice about when to implement this schedule, the natural times to do so seemed to be either Sunday April 23rd when we return to St. Denis, or Memorial Day weekend at the beginning of Summer. I know that I can have a tendency to move too quickly and not communicate well, so I had been thinking about waiting until Memorial Day weekend. However, when I asked the daily Mass attendees and council members, the majority suggested that I move it when we go back to St. Denis, so here we go!

In his recent pastoral letter on the Eucharist, Bishop Ricken noted that some people have the habit of attending Mass every day. He encouraged all of us to “Try increasing your Mass attendance by even one Mass a week for a time, then add another one. You will be amazed at how your desire for Jesus increases! Regular Mass attendance strengthens our faith through the Scriptures, the Creed, other prayers, sacred music, the homily, receiving Communion and being part of a faith community. Invite someone to Mass — a personal invitation can make all the difference to someone who has drifted from the faith or feels alienated from the Church.”

I would like to echo Bishop’s invitation for you to consider attending a weekday Mass. My personal interest in attending a weekday Mass began after I attended a retreat that included five days of Mass in a row.  Each of the first readings were from the book of Exodus, sharing the story of Moses. I was interested in hearing what happened next,  and that was enough to have me consider attending Mass at my own parish. I quickly found that the shorter Masses on weekdays with less music, readings, prayers and preaching helped me appreciate the fuller significance of a Sunday Mass. 

-Fr Michael