Nicholas Frankovich on Going to Mass Online Making One Mindful

"When she's running late for Mass, a friend of mine asks her guardian angel to go ahead and stand in for her at the church until she arrives. So she told me once. A canon lawyer would say no. I might lightly mock her sentimentality if it didn't touch on a crucial question. Catholics cherish the real presence, as we call it, of Christ in the Eucharist, the bread and wine consecrated by the priest at Mass, but what about our presence? Is that a mystery too?

"It is possible to be at Mass in body but not in spirit. We can park our bones in the house of God while in our minds we wander the valley of the shadow of hell: Maybe we find the music insipid, the homily banal, and begin to murmur mentally about wasted time. We grow resentful as the priest, the lectors, and the music director tacitly conspire to lengthen every syllable, prolong the pauses between words, and make the music slow. The hymns are no less unmemorable for our having to wait as the organ drowns out the handful of congregants pretending to sing all 14 verses. . . .

"Pardon my grouchiness. The typical Sunday Mass in 2020 pleases most Catholics who regularly attend it. Most Catholics don't regularly attend it. Their reasons for staying away vary. Some don't believe what the Church teaches about the real presence, the resurrection of the body, apostolic succession, the intercession of the saints. Others believe, more or less, but not in the ability of the Church's leaders to communicate the splendor of the truth of the faith."

In a recent commentary, Nicholas Frankovich, a deputy managing editor of National Review, reflected on how praying the Mass while following it online/via television may jolt us from complacency and from an "overindulgence of our habit of mental absence during worship."

To access Mr. Frankovich's complete post, please visit:

National Review: Coronavirus Pandemic: Going to Mass Online Makes One Mindful (9 APR 20)