Five Actions for Your Family to Take Before Mass

Mass should be the highlight of a Catholic family’s week. And meticulously preparing for it helps us experience the Sacrifice of the Mass on a whole new level.

Think about Mass this way.  An athlete prepares just prior to competition by putting on the proper gear, stretching muscles, and psyching oneself up. So too, a Catholic must get everything set right before attending Mass in order to get the most out of it.

Following are five specific steps that mom, dad, and kids should take at home, an hour or two before driving to church, and during the few minutes before Mass begins.

1. Observe the Eucharistic Fast

The Eucharistic Fast is the guideline to not eat or drink anything one hour before Mass (except for water). We are making room in our minds and souls in preparation for receiving Jesus at Communion. It is actually a simple ask. Church regulations for fasting before Communion changed twice during the last 100 years.  For many hundreds of years fasting started at midnight. It was changed to three hours in 1957, and in 1964 it was changed to just one hour.

It should really not be that difficult to say to Jesus via a one-hour fast, “Lord, You are the most important thing in my life, more important than coffee, soda, a sandwich, or a piece of toast.”

2. Only Go to Communion In a Worthy Manner

Before going to Mass, contemplate if you have committed a mortal sin since your last confession. If you have, you need to go to confession before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. It is okay to attend Mass, but you will not want to process up for Communion.

It was St. Paul who chastised early Christians, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27). This pertains to receiving His body with a serious, unrepentant sin on your soul, and/or having eaten something less than 60 minutes prior.

3. Dress Appropriately

Catholic families should always dress nice for Mass as a show of respect to the King of Kings you are about to visit. We would not wear shorts and t-shirts if we were going to a fancy restaurant for dinner. Likewise, we should dress properly for church. This means boys and dads wear long pants and shirts with collars. Girls and moms should wear dresses or skirts/pants with blouses. And it should go without saying – no flip-flops, no holes in jeans, and no cleavage. It is amazing how people behave differently depending on how they are dressed.

4. Arrive Early and Sit Closely

If your family had tickets to a big sporting event, you would likely want to arrive early to the game.  An early arrival enables you to see the players warm-up and ensures you don’t miss the opening tipoff/kickoff/pitch.

You would also prefer seats that are close to the action at a sporting event. Seats that are way up high in the stands, in what is referred to as the “nosebleed section,” are just not that great.  It should be the same at Mass.

Best of all, there’s no premium cost for sitting in the “best seats in the house” in church!  And sitting close to the altar is better for small ones to be able to see what the priest is doing. It will increase the chance of your children staying alert during Mass.  It also helps them better understanding what is taking place on the altar if you sit in the front pews.

And be sure to genuflect before you enter the pew.

5. Warm-Up Before Mass Begins

Arriving 10 minutes early at a minimum will usually assure you’ll get a good seat. Most importantly, your family will have time to perform your own type of warm-up.

These “pre-game routines” should consist of everyone kneeling and praying silently to the Lord. Some people take these few minutes to thank God for the good things that happened during the week.  Others ask Him for special intentions. Still others silently say formalized prayers whether memorized or read out of the Missal. Some people’s warm-up, however, is just to have an informal chat with their Almighty Father.

Parents should help their children understand why everyone’s task prior to the start of Mass needs to be praying.  It should not be talking or looking around to see who is in church.

Finally, along with these five actions to take prior to Mass, a faithful Catholic should also make sure to do the right thing near the end of Mass. The Mass does not end after you have received Communion.

It’s sad that some families skip out of the church after receiving Communion.  They should be returning to their pew to give thanks to Jesus for coming into their souls through the Eucharist. Mom or dad should remind family members who are pressuring them to leave early that Judas Iscariot also left “Mass” early.  The ballgame or getting a head start on heading home is really not that important.

The Mass is Ended

Mass officially ends with the Concluding Rite, which includes a blessing and a mandate from the priest or deacon.  “Go forth, the Mass is ended” or “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” are fairly common exhortations.

All should remain until the priest has at least processed down the entire aisle and reached the rear of the Church. Better still wait until the congregation has finished singing the recessional hymn. Some people will remain even later and say a silent prayer and/or pray a decade of the Rosary.

What is important is to exit the church as quietly as one entered. Remember that you are in God’s house.  As such, the recommended way to depart is in silence, after, of course, genuflecting while facing the tabernacle.

We should want to make the most of this amazing gift – the Mass – Jesus gave us. When we take the above five action steps prior to Mass beginning, we are not just showing up mindlessly but entering into a deeper relationship with our Lord.

More suggestions for preparing for and attending Mass can be found in another CS article here.