Jenn Doing My Best

We went to a different parish for the 11:30 a.m. Mass today. (That’s where I took these rainy Sunday pictures, by the way—in the peaceful parish garden. 😌🌧🌻)

It’s the third church we visited within these last seven days.

We like to do what Travis and I call “church hop.” That means visit different parishes throughout the week.

(Okay, this next part might sound a bit confusing. 😄)

During the work week (Mon. – Fri.), our family attends the 7 p.m. daily Mass two to three times a week, and each evening Mass we attend is at a different parish.

Then, on the weekend, we attend either the Saturday Vigil Mass or a Sunday morning/afternoon Mass at a nearby local parish.

For the daily evening Mass, it is generally offered only once a week at select parishes. Not every Catholic Church offers an evening Mass.

The evening Mass may be at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., just depends on that particular parish’s Mass schedule.

Whereas, early morning daily Masses are offered pretty much at all parishes (there are a few exceptions, of course) four to five days out of the work week.

Morning daily Mass times range from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.. Also, each daily Mass, mornkng or evwning, is about 30 minutes long.

We’re just not able to go to a daily Mass in the morning right now. Travis has to be at work by 6 a.m., and we only have one working vehicle at the moment.

But boy, are we thankful we found a few evening Mass options at several local parishes during the work week! 😊🙏🏽

After today’s morning Mass, we went to say hello to the priest, and he said, “Don’t I know you?!” 🤔😆

We explained he probably remembered us from a different church we visited a couple of weeks ago when he was the celebrant at that Mass.

“Oh, yes!” he exclaimed remembering where he had last seen us. 😅

We do have a “home church” that we make the best effort to attend on the weekend a few times in the month.

However, Travis works a lot (six days a week), and life gets pretty busy with the kids, so having the flexibility to also attend a Saturday Vigil (at 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m.) or a Sunday Mass time (at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12 p.m., or even 5:30 p.m.!) that fits our schedule works best for us.

As you can see, living in a metropolitan means we have A LOT of options! 😂 And that’s another great blessing for us. 🙏🏽

This is just the stage of life we’re in right now, ya know. 😄 #busybigfamilylife

Honestly, I wish we would have thought to do this (church hop) when the kids were babies and toddlers instead of always being late to church. Haha 😂🫣

💜 XO

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