Your Reward Will Be Great In Heaven

Friends, peace be with you. 

This week I’d like to share a few thoughts on Mass intentions. I hope none of this will represent a change in policy just a restatement of current policies since we recently started scheduling them for 2024. Let’s start with what they are and what they are not. A Mass Intention is when someone calls and asks that the priest celebrant’s primary intention be for someone or some group of people. We all bring our own individual intentions for Mass but the one that is stated before Mass and printed in the bulletin is the one the priest celebrant is offering. Traditionally, a financial offering of $5 is made by the person requesting the intention. This is partially done for priests in impoverished parts of the world who may need the income and partly to ensure a sacrifice on the part of the person requesting the intention. If more than $5 is given, the priest has to give the excess to a charity. In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, we give excess funds to the St. Raphael Priest Retirement Fund to help the retired priests. In theory, there could be more than one intention for a Mass but it’s a bit of a recording nightmare and the priest can only keep the financial offering for one of the intentions. This is done to ensure priests aren’t using the selling of Mass intentions to get rich. 

When you give money for an intention, we are obliged by Canon Law to celebrate a Mass for that intention within one year. This can become a bit of a bugaboo when it comes to settling estates. People have left hundreds and thousands of dollars for Masses to be offered for them in their wills, presumably in the hopes that it would take several years if not decades for the Mass intention money to run out. However, what really happens is that we schedule the current maximum number of Masses we allow people to schedule, three, in the next calendar year and then offer the rest of the money to retired priests who may not have intentions and may desperately need the money. If there is any money left at the end of the year, it must also be sent to the St. Raphael Priest Retirement Fund. I would discourage people from leaving a large sum of money to your parish in your will for Mass Intentions for the above reasons. Instead, encourage your family members or friends to go to Mass and schedule intentions for you and give the Mass Intention money to the poor. Your reward will be great in heaven.