Times Change

I showed up 80 minutes before morning Mass today. Just in case, you know?

People came on time, as it happened. About an hour later. Lots of them. One of our highest attendance marks, coming out of the pandemic.

In another parish, once upon a time, staff had requested I craft an announcement for Mass noting the time switch. The weekend before, I asked? Why? Various media trumpet the switch into or out of DST, and as for giving people the word six to seven days in advance, what good would it do? Then the suggestion for Saturday night Mass, and again, I wondered why. Few Saturday night people outside of an odd liturgical minister would return, and eventually people would figure it out.

Of course, my thing is about making announcements at Mass. Whether a parish does it before the entrance song, in or around the homily, or after Communion, the more, the worse. One announcement gets the most attention. After that, it is a matter of diminishing returns.

I don’t like to waste Mass time on public service announcements. Just that.