Exodus 20:8-11
Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God
It’s time to come clean.
I don’t go to church NEARLY as often as I should.
There are a million excuses that I use, and some are even valid — I’m an Emergency Room nurse and I work weekends only. Every Saturday and Sunday, you’ll find me at the hospital, from 3pm, all the way up to the wee hours of 3am. I’m blessed to have a work schedule that allows me time to homeschool, but by the same token, it puts a damper on my church life.
Sacrament of Reconciliation? In our area, it’s on Saturday evening, right before Mass. Mass schedule at my parish? Saturdays at 5pm, Sundays at 7am and 9am. See how this is shaping up? I’m either at work during Mass, or I should be sleeping. There’s a parish not too far from me that has a 12:30 Mass, but it’s a huge struggle for me to get up and get going after being up until at least 4am. My choices are stay up and go at 7am, or try to get up in time to hit the 12:30 service.
Sigh. What’s a girl to do?
We have Daily Masses that I can attend, but I hear readings like this one, and I feel super guilty. Surely I’m not the only one with an issue like this — I’d love to hear your thoughts/suggestions.
It’s a powerhouse time of the year for Catholic saints – two of my favorites are coming up soon. Everyone is familiar with Saint Patrick, whether you’re Irish or not. He holds a special place in the Kennedy family’s heart. If you have young ones, you’ll need to check out my Saint Patrick’s Day post over at The Homeschool Classroom – I have a treasure trove of books, crafts, recipes and more to help you celebrate.
If you’re planning on a Novena to Saint Joseph, this will be the kick off weekend. Saint Joseph is one of my all time favorite saints, hands down. He’s an example of a hard worker, marvelous husband, excellent father, and loyal follower of Church teaching. My friend Lacey at Catholic Icing has a wonderful St Joseph Novena and craft for children,
St John of God‘s feast day was this week – he’s an amazing example of following Christ’s lead. If you’re in the medical field, or suffer from anxiety or other mental struggles, he’s definitely a fellow you should read about.
Looking for more faith filled posts? You'll find me visiting Soli Deo Gloria,Sabbath Moments,Scripture and a Snapshot, Sunday Snippets, Spiritual Sundays, Hear it on Sunday, Playdates with God,Titus 2sday,On Your Heart Tuesday,Domestically Divine Tuesdays,Gratituesday,Word Filled Wednesdays, Walk With Him Wednesdays, iFellowship, Planting Mustard Seeds, and Good Morning Girls. I'm also going to be sharing over at Things I Can't Say, for Pour Your Heart Out.
Ugh I know the feeling. I’m NOT a morning person and I would be doomed with that mass schedule. I have gone to mass on Sunday night since 2004. It’s a hard habit to break. I’m thankful the cathedral has a sunday night mass otherwise I’d be doomed.
Sunday night Masses are pretty few and far between around here — and actually wouldn’t help me at all. I’d still be at work, 3pm til 3 am on Sunday. Argh!
when you are ready to start going back to mass you will figure out a way to go mass. In the meantime, He will be silently waiting.
colleges have very late masses 9pm 10pm 11pm…they are always our back up.
good luck!!
It is worth the effort.
Evening Masses don’t work for me — as I am at work after 3pm both on Sat AND Sundays — I would need something around noon on Sat, or Sunday. I’m sure you can empathize with how difficult it is to be a nurse working nights.
For the years that I worked every weekend I sometimes could stay awake to make a 7pm Sunday Mass somewhere, but often not since I would usually be getting back up at 3am Monday. Weekday Masses helped me make it through (when I could make those). I always felt God understood that I couldn’t do a 10am Mass like 90% of the congregation – this part of your life won’t last forever, and someday you’ll be able to choose the Mass you WANT most to go to, not just the only one you can get to 🙂
Why did I forget to ask you??? Duh – you worked every weekend morning for years.
I’m going to try to set aside Monday as Mass day for me. Keep your fingers crossed.
I tend to agree with Angie’s comment above. God knows your heart is for Him! In my opinion, you don’t need to kill yourself to attend mass on Sunday. Your body needs it’s sleep and deprivation from it can have negative affects. It’s not like you just don’t want to get up early…you’re busy healing people! Jesus healed on the Sabbath! I’m reminded of Matthew 12:10 – 12:
“10 …The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.)
11 And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. 12 And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” ”
Is there a way that you could pray with the patients who come in when you’re there? Ministering to others is a wonderful way to worship!
Katy — I love this — “It’s not like you just don’t want to get up early…you’re busy healing people!”
You’re exactly right.
I don’t feel comfortable praying WITH my patients, but I can certainly start praying FOR them while they are there.
Thanks for coming by!
Years ago, when I was on a schedule similar to yours, my parish priest told me to take a different day of the week as my “Lord’s Day” . It wasn’t ideal but it was okay for a time. If you can’t do that, I think the Lord knows your heart, and I wouldn’t fret over it.
As for confession, you can call your parish and make an appointment for confession anytime, and I’m sure one of the priests would meet you for confession at a time that fits your schedule.
God bless!
Carol —
We have a wonderful website that lists all of our local Confession times. We’re blessed with parishes that do Confession every day — now to get my butt in gear and get there.
Thank you for your kind words — seems like I’m always worrying about something!
Beautiful Children! I too agree with the others.. GOd knows your heart… and I am sure there are many in the world who sit in church yet may not reap the benefits from sitting there …. God knows our hearts better than anyone! he created them!!!! He understands your reasons… and the PP said maybe figure out ways you can worship other then the scheduled times! 🙂
Thanks for your kind words, Amy!
I went to Mass on Monday evening this week – with all my crazy children in tow! I’m planning on going at least once during the week. Brett can take the kids on the weekend.
My hubby often works weekends, so we sometimes end up “church-hopping” or finding the Mass time that’s most convenient with his schedule. Luckily we live in a city with a lot of Catholic churches, so there’s a large selection of Mass times. I like Carol’s suggestion of making a different day your “Sabbath” or trying to make it to daily Mass more often, instead of beating yourself up about Sundays. I don’t think you need to beat yourself up over it; God knows you want to be there, but that at this season in your life, it’s tough. 🙂
Carol’s got a good head on her shoulders! I have 6pm Mass marked in my calendar for tomorrow. We will church hop at times, too. 🙂 That’s one of the benefits of being Catholic – no matter where we go, it’s the same Mass!
WELCOME to Saints and Scripture Sundays — I appreciate you stopping by, and loved your first link up!
If more people went to confession, parishes would have to offer more confession times. I often wonder how much the short confession times have to do with the scant number of Catholics who partake of the sacrament on a regular basis.
I’ve not been in your situation of weekend working so I can only say to discuss the situation with your priest. God indeed knows your heart and the work you’re doing in the healing profession is the work of Christ. Emergencies don’t care what day of the week they happen on.
It’s funny — some of the downtown parishes (much more traditional) offer Confession on almost a daily basis. I’ve often wondered if they have more parishoners taking part, or if they are picking up the slack for the outlying parishes who don’t offer it as often.
Thanks for your support!!! I really appreciate it.
I think it’s a chicken/egg thing. People don’t go to confession when it is offered so priests who have too much to do anyway, cut the hours. When they cut the hours they 1) signal that it isn’t important to go and 2) make it more inconvenient to go. Here confessions, for the most part are on Saturday, before the 4:00 p.m. mass. That mass is popular in most parishes, but popular with the retired crowd, not families with kids who are busy doing stuff Saturday afternoon. I wish they’d offer it after Sunday mass at least once a month. If I was trying to “sell” frequent confession, I’d offer it frequently at times when people were at church anyway and when I could ‘suggest” they go.
RAnn,
You bring up an excellent point that never occurred to me. My parish offers the weekly Confession, and the caveat in the bulletin that ‘anytime by appt’. We have one priest, covering two parishes, and he has a big title in the Archdiocese hierarchy – he’s definitely in the ‘have too much to do’ category.
In the downtown parishes, every time I’ve stopped in for Confession, it’s always been well attended. I’m wondering if the priests there talk about it, give homilies, etc.
Things to ponder …..
Hang in there, Dianna! You are doing the best with what you’ve got! And God knows that, for sure!
As for Confession- I hadn’t been in FIVE years! FIVE! I went during Behold this weekend and it was probably the BEST part of the day (and that’s saying something because the whole day was awesome). I feel so light without that dead weight I’d been carrying around for FIVE years! I guess I’ve always been ashamed and embarrassed, but now I will definitely make it a regular thing.
And on a local parish note, I was curious how traditional your church is? I assume that it is pretty traditional. My aunts actually go there, too! The reason I ask is at Behold this weekend, I felt ridiculous because I didn’t know some of the prayers/songs that everyone else seemed to know by heart. I had never heard a particular song we sang to Mary at the end of the conference and I felt so dumb! I don’t think any parish I’ve belonged to has been very traditional. I’m not sure if that’s the answer or if I just haven’t been paying attention all these years?
Lent is the perfect time for Confession, though, if it is on your heart to do. They offer even more opportunities!
We’re always our own worst critics, no?
Confession is on my list too – probably for Monday. I actually have a Confession app that I use – I’m afraid to open it, since it will tell me how long it’s been.
Hmm …. I’d call us middle of the road traditional. Does that make sense? In other words — over the past year, I’ve been to homeschool or AHG things at St Martin’s or at St Louis Bertrand, and those parishes are VERY traditional, even with a Latin Mass at St Martin’s. You’ll frequently see women there with veils. St Martin’s was where we did Vespers and Stations of the Cross.
At my home parish, St Francis Xavier, things are a little different. We have a priest who can do a Latin Mass, but we’ve not ever had one there. If I walked in with a veil on my head, I’d attract a LOT of attention.
When I was going through formation, I was at St Louis Bertrand, so I’m used to a more traditional parish, from a liturgical perspective. In my experience, however, they are not that easy to navigate with small children. Make sense? Whispering children are magnified by 10 in a cathedral.
Hi Dianna,
Visiting from Jen’s blog…what a tough situation…I pray that God would give you grace and wisdom to find/carve out a day and time that will allow you to be able to worship Him and rest.
Blessings!
Thank you for stopping by, Dolly! I’ve appreciated everyone’s kind words and understanding!
Sometimes I don’t go because my husband is working and the thought of taking my three kids by myself- getting them there and to their respective classes and OH what if the youngest doesn’t want to go in and our middle has one of his meltdowns… it’s too much. And so we stay home.
And then I feel guilty.
If I had to take all three by myself, I’d have to sneak vodka in my purse. It would surely end in disaster.
I think we are guilt sisters together. 🙂
My friends who are nurses struggle with this same problem, Dianna. It’s such a hard thing to ask of your body–this crazy sleep-wake cycle. I think Jesus understands and he gives such grace. Look at how you bring him glory and honor here. Be gentle with yourself. there are always seasons.
My friend Angie was in the same boat for YEARS — she worked every weekend morning, whereas I work every weekend evening.
You’re exactly right – I’m definitely my own worst critic, even now, when I’m busy building another gift from God.
Thank you for being sweet and supportive!
Praying for you.
Thank you, Denise!
Your kids are so cute (even if they are a little dirty). I checked out the St. Patrick’s Day post link. Very interesting. I don’t know a lot about St. Patrick. In fact the only time I think about him is this time every year. I looked up some info online and am posting about him on my blog tomorrow. Thank you for sharing your heart with us. Life sometimes gets in the way of doing some of the things we know we should do.
Blessings,
Charlotte
Dirty children = happy, healthy children here in the country!
St Patrick is a big deal in our house, since we’re an Irish Catholic family!