Totally random, sort of. But a few words about a Mass intention and offering a Mass for someone. No offense intended in this post. Just an opportunity to catechize.

1. A Mass can be offered for any number of intentions. Usually, it’s offered for someone who has died.

2. A Mass is not offered as a memorial of the person who died. So, while it’s nice to offer it on their birthday or death day, or anniversary, or some other date of significance, this isn’t necessary.

3. The person’s name need not be read at Mass for it to “count.” God knows the intention. The priest doesn’t need to say it out loud.

4. If you believe your loved on is in heaven, it’s “kind of” pointless to offer a Mass for them, since the purpose is to aid the suffering soul in his or her purgation in purgatory and entrance into heaven. Once in heaven, the soul of a saint no longer needs our prayers.

5. That said, if the soul for whom the Mass is being offered is already in heaven, or, God forbid, hell, the Lord can and does still apply those graces to others souls in need.

6. Mass is the most powerful prayer we have at our disposal, so it’s a worthy and noble act of charity to have a Mass offered on behalf of someone.

7. There is customarily a monetary offering that is attached to the Mass. It varies by diocese. In mine, it’s $10.00. Canon Law allows the priest to keep one offering per day, except on Christmas, when he may keep three.

8. You are not “buying” a Mass, per se. A priest is required under Canon Law to offer a Mass if asked, regardless of whether or not the person “pays” the customary offering. So, it’s incorrect to say that Mass “costs” $10.00.

9. Mass offerings are kept in a separate account and MUST be used for that purpose. According to Canon Law, a parish may only keep on file enough offerings that it can satisfy in a year. Any more than that, and they send them to the missions or to retired priests.

10. Your Mass is still being offered, even if not in “your” parish by “your” priest. See #3 above.

10b. Stipend money can never go to suppprt the parish. So, it can’t go to the building fund, or to help pay insurance, or buy candles, or whatever. Any “extra” stipend money must go to a charitable account.

10c. IOW, if I have 2+ Masses in a day, I can accept $10.00 for one. The other stipend money MUST go to some charity. In our Diocese, the primary way this is done is by using that to help defer Catholic school tuition for low-income families.

11. What’s the purpose of the offering? It’s two-fold. First, it helps to supplement the priest’s income. This is especially relevant for retired priests who no longer earn a salary from a parish and for priests in third-world countries.

12. Second, it allows you to unite some small sacrifice of your own to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In a sense, it makes your prayer more efficacious.

13. I post this because there’s a lot of confusion around this topic and I hope this will help clear some of it up.