Beat the clock: welcome to the 15-minute mass (Catholic Caucus)

Beliefnet ^ | February 25, 2010

[NYer]

And it's causing a small sensation in Ireland:

An Irish cleric's congregation has increased tenfold in a week -- thanks to a quickie Mass.

Despite the controversies which have rocked the church in recent years and the resulting fall-off in attendances at church services, Fr Michael Kenny has been packing them in at his Kilconly parish in Co Galway.

The popular priest started his 15-minute Mass as nothing more than an experiment at the start of Lent, just over a week ago. And he attributes the speed of the service to foregoing a sermon -- and having the help of a Eucharistic minister for communion.

The regular morning Mass at 9am had been drawing an attendance of just three or four up to the start of his no-frills experiment.

Fr Kenny decided to bring the time back to 7.30am and guarantee he would keep parishioners no longer than a quarter of a hour.

Attendances at the small north Galway parish church have now soared to between 30 and 40, with Mass-goers walking out the door by 7.45am.

"The general view among parishioners is that the 9am Mass was totally unsuitable for people going to work.

"Now, more and more people are coming along to the Mass at 7.30am as they know they can be on their way to work or school 15 or 20 minutes later and it is far more suitable," said Fr Kenny.

You can find more about it at the link.

 

[NYer]

It takes at least 30 minutes to pray the morning Divine Office. Your thoughts?

[FES0844]

“Can you not watch one hour with me?”

[Tax-chick]

I used to go to a Mass at lunchtime on the Air Force base where I worked that would take about 20 minutes. It’s a weekday, and people have jobs ... or at least they used to. Of course he was only getting three old ladies and a disabled duffer at 9:00 a.m.!

[cajuncow]

Our Saturday vigil has lasted only 37 minutes especially when certain football games are televised and that is with a packed church.

[AussieJoe]

When will the mass drive-thru window be installed?...
“3 eucharists and fries, thanks”
“That’ll be 5 hail marys and 2 our fathers, drive through to the second window”

[buccaneer81]

LOL! I remember getting up early when I was in high school so I could attend Father McMahon’s 8:30 Sunday Mass. Twenty minutes, tops. His 10:00 Mass was way over an hour.

[mware]

It may be because my priest was ordained in Malta, but our Masses are about 1 hour 25 minutes long.

He gets a lot of static from some but his homilies are so good they ought to be on EWTN, as it is, they are posted on youtube.

[mware]

His daily Masses are a bit shorter (one hour long)

[Berlin_Freeper]

It is like football which only has about three minutes of actual play time.

[TheStickman]

Wife just commented to me after I told her about this story: “Just goes to show if people have time, they WILL go to Mass.”

If our parish offered something like this in the afternoons I would go most every day in 45+ degree weather—I ride a motorcycle.

[SuziQ]

We had an older priest in our Parish who used to say Mass in 20 minutes. There was no singing, and his sermons were VERY short. I called him ‘Shotgun Leo’.

[NYer]

It may be because my priest was ordained in Malta, but our Masses are about 1 hour 25 minutes long.

This is true of the masses said in my parish which is run by a Maronite Catholic priest. Did you know there is a large community of Maronites in Malta?

This article is referring to a weekday daily mass.

[mware]

Yes, Fr. has spoken of them several times.

His daily Masses are a bit shorter. Usually running an hour in length.

[Oratam]

Was able to attend mass every day of lent in the 8th grade simpley because it would be the last time I would be able to for a long time.

Mass was said by our retired pastor, a priest of the old school. He kept it under a half hour, usually twenty minutes, simply by not waiting for the responses. It was as if he was saying mass in private.

He used the time he saved to be extremely meticulous in picking up every last particle of the host that fell on the altar cloth.

R.I.P. Msgr. V.

[John.Galt2012]

My father asked me about 3 years ago, as a member of the younger generation, why I thought worship attendance was falling off. Although I didn’t want to answer, I did so as honestly as I could. I felt that the younger generation, with all the demands on their schedules, work, school, kids, soccer, ballet, cleaning the house, scouts, mow the lawn, karate, etc. etc. , they were just trying to recoup some of their time. A half day, when you throw in getting ready, getting there and getting back home again is a big chunk of basically your two days off.

[AnAmericanMother]

This is not new.

Used to be problems with what they called a "hunting Mass" - in other words, get it over with so we can all go hunting.

[reaganaut]

OK, I’m not Catholic but often allowed on these threads so I will venture to make a comment. If you feel it is inappropriate, feel free to delete.

My response to this:

IS THIS GUY SERIOUS?!?!? That is the MOST offensive thing I have heard in the longest time. Putting a ‘timer’ on any time with God, much less the Mass is an insult to God. God deserves ALL of our time, all of our worship, all of our devotion, not just a ‘quickie’ because some people think they are too busy.

If you are too busy to spend time with God, you are too busy, period; and people who would be drawn to a 15 min mass need to get their priorities straight. Mass is sacred, it is Holy and this guy treats it like a ‘coffee break’.

Wow. Just Wow. Getting off my soapbox now...

[Salvation]

Our priest takes a half hour for weekday Masses — sometimes 40 minutes depending on the number of people attending — 30 to 40 usually. Sometimes it drops down to 10 to 20 during the rainy season, but rarely.

People just keep flocking to our parish. I would say now during Lent we are averaging 50 to 60 attendees.

[LisaFab]

Our daily Massess (8:00 AM and 12:10 PM) hardly ever last more than 25 minutes. They are reverently offered with a brief though inspiring homily and draw between 200 and 300 folks.

A beautiful and refreshing way to begin or break up the day.