WDTPRS POLL: How did you fulfill your Christmas/Sunday Mass obligation? (With a short rant about Hell.)

Catholics are obliged to attend Holy Mass on Sundays and also certain other “days of precept”, also called Holy Days of Obligation. We fulfill our obligation by attending Mass (or Divine Liturgy of course) on the day itself or on the evening before.

Make no mistake about this: The obligation is real.

If you don’t go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, you commit a mortal sin. Mortal sins separate us from God. If we die in this state of separation, upon our judgement we remain separated from God forever. That’s called Hell.

Blowing off your obligation to go to Mass will land you in hell. Even if you know you can’t go to Communion for some reason, you still have to fulfill your obligation to attend Mass. Are you in the state of mortal sin? You still have to go to Mass, even if you can’t receive Communion. If you think it doesn’t matter if you commit more mortal sins when you have already destroyed the state of grace in your soul, you are very much mistaken. Sin compounding sin hardens the heart and blinds us to the admission of our true state, thus placing ourselves in grave danger of lasting impenitence.

Think about that, while enjoying a nice hot cup of Mystic Monk Coffee or Tea.  And remember that no matter how hot the beverage is, it is hotter in hell and the Wyoming Carmelites don’t ship there.

This year Christmas coincided with a Sunday, so there was no great extra effort required to fulfill the Christmas precept. But I am curious as to how people chose to go to Mass. Did people “get it out of the way” on Saturday so as to leave Sunday/Christmas “free”? Did you go to Midnight Mass? Did anyone go to Midnight and then another Mass during the day?

No combox on this entry.

But let me add that if you didn’t fulfill your obligation – and should could have – go to confession and confess it along with all other mortal sins in both kind and number.

Which Mass did you, a Catholic, attend to fulfill your obligation?

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UPDATE:

From a reader, comes this:

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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