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mavmama
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 11:05pm | IP Logged
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We are searching (still-again?)for a church that we are comfortable with. Back home, we drove 7 miles to church, and it took 10 minutes. Here, we have driven 18 miles (25 minutes); 17 miles (30 minutes-more traffic); and 33 miles (45 minutes).
The church 33 miles away seems to be the best fit (small, very true, home school friendly). With gas prices as high as they are, dh and I are wondering if it is financially irresponsible to travel that far.
On the other hand, we are feeling that it may be spiritually irresponsible to attend where it is convenient, because that church is rather "loose" in it's interpretation of the magisterium.
I'm interested in your thoughts and how far you travel to attend mass.
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Liz
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 11:12pm | IP Logged
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1/2 mile, we always have centered where we live around the Catholic Church we would like to attend! 16 years and 7 moves later( ETA: spanning 3 different states), it seems to work for us- we've never been more than 2 miles away from our parish!
I will say that we live on a very limited income, and most likely fretted about gas prices before it was even an issue for most!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
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many little saints in heaven!
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guitarnan
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Right now it is about 5 miles but we lived for two years in a rural area where we drove 1/2 hour each way to church. I would drive a lot farther than that if it were necessary.
Is there a way you could tweak your gas budget to accommodate going to Mass at the far-away church most of the time? (A trip like that would be about $22 for me, round trip; I know it's not easy to come up with $75 per month out of thin air.)
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Maddie
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 6:38am | IP Logged
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We have driven an hour to Mass since converting back in 1994. The parish we live near now is OK for daily Mass and in a pinch we'll go on Sunday but as a rule we drive to a parish that is reverent and where the sermons are instructing us in our Faith. We figure the children are only young once and we want to expose them to the Faith and all it's beauty.
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 9:40am | IP Logged
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We drive about 30 miles and it takes about 30 minutes.
My husband and I were discussing just this week whether we should continue to attend that parish with gas prices being so high, but we're really feeling like the financial sacrifice is worth it for us. Our local parish is quite irreverent and I just don't want to raise our children in that kind of environment; even though they're only toddlers at this point, they seem to already absorb so much!
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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Not sure of the mileage but it takes 5 minutes to get there. My parents and Mark and I were married in the church we now attend. It's home. 
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Cay Gibson
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Kristen in TN
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We drive about 60 miles, an hour and 10 minutes to go to a Latin Mass now that it is available. I am more concerned about the children's souls than gas and my husband and I figure that God will provide so we can get there. It is not just the Latin, but the reverence (amoung other things) which is sorely lacking around where we live.
Our local parish is 8 miles away, about 15 minutes to drive and we do go to daily Mass. However, our pastor is retiring and we don't know what the situation will be next month. I'm hoping and praying for the best.
God bless,
Kristen in TN
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 10:32am | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
| Not sure of the mileage but it takes 5 minutes to get there. My parents and Mark and I were married in the church we now attend. It's home. |
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LOVE THIS!!  also how y'all call your counties "parishes"
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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Bridget
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 11:36am | IP Logged
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We drive 35 minutes for a devout, active parish and a holy priest. We are involved in several ways so we make the trek a few days a week on average. Very worth it to us!
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Matilda
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Our local parish is about 7 minutes away when we want to go to daily Mass. On Sunday we travel about 30 minutes to an Abbey where the priest who married us lives. Our former parish was about an hour away until the priest was moved (practically exiled) about 2 hours away from us. We still made that trek every Sunday until our youngest was born and gas prices started to rise. Now we only make it on special occasions and pray for that holy priest to be moved closer to the metroplex again.
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Charlotte (Matilda)
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MacBeth
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Oh, less than a mile for the third closest (most orthodox Novus Ordo) parish--it's ethnic, so anyone can be a part of the parish regardless of parish boundaries. It's about a 15 minute drive to the Extraordinary Form.
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JodieLyn
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about 5 minutes drive time.. also not sure on the miles.. under 10 for sure.
And it's a nice parish.. so we've been very blessed when we moved here.. because the next closest would be 57 miles (about 1 hr 15min) away and I don't know that I'd have the gumption to make that drive every week. 
I would look at anything else I might be able to cut in the way of spending.. perhaps doing your weekly errands (groceries and such) on the way home from Mass might consolidate enough other driving to help make up for the extra distance?
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LucyP
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I'm not sure how far it is - it takes about 45 minutes to walk, 15 to cycle, 5-10 minutes in the car.
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knowloveserve
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We drive 30 minutes and spend $12 every time we go to Mass. An excellent liturgy and lots of families help us to make that choice. We also have an Adoration hour there so we spend around $100/month for Mass.
We are tighter than tight financially... but if I have to be poor to raise saints... I'm more than willing. And raising saints in the local parish is like fishing for tuna in a backyard pond.
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Ellie
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folklaur
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sigh. This is such a sticky topic for me. We have always tried to live very close to our church - within one to two miles.
My dh had a very close relationship with a Priest - a very orthodox, older Priest who was assigned to a more liberal parish - he was one of five priests there (some were "officially" retired but still said Mass each week.)
Anyway, as he was going through RCIA and entering the Church, he developed, as I said, a very close relationship with this Priest. Father didn't like the way lots of things were done by the head pastor (you could tell)....and once when my DH mentioned that we might change to a more orthodox parish, Father told my DH that he should stay where he was, and work for change. That that was the way to make a difference. That you shouldn't leave, but to work to make things right. Father passed away not long after that.
So. My DH is very big on going to your local parish, and if things aren't "right", working to make them so. He feels every small change to do it right is a step in the right direction.
I have to be honest, I do not always agree with this view. But. This is one of the few things my DH feels strongly enough about to voice his opinion and not let me make the decision I want. So I know he has to feel very, very strongly about it, as usually.....he lets me do what I want  ...
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Maddie
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cactus mouse wrote:
So. My DH is very big on going to your local parish, and if things aren't "right", working to make them so. He feels every small change to do it right is a step in the right direction.
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I really think you have to be called to do that. I am so grateful for those who can stick it out and make a change in their parish. I know of one parish who had several families work for change and they were rewarded. I don't feel strong enough in my faith to do that, I need to anchor on to a solid priest / parish and glean all I can for our souls.
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LisaR
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Laura, this is very important to our family, too. I do think this question is going to come out sounding wrong, but I honestly am interested to know why those who have chosen a particular parish to attend did not try to live near to it? Or is it that you started out in a parish near you and now have switched?
We always research the parish, and then choose our home from there. close proximity to dh's job and Church are the number one items for us, and we have and will sacrifice the "perfect" house choice, etc to get as close as possible to those two things.
I do like it that my kids feel actually physically connected to our church, and will have memories of walking/riding bikes to serve Mass, random adoration visits, etc....
I suppose if I really thought about it , our parish might not be #1 for us, but is "close enough"... It is actually not all that attractive visually, but it has 24/7 perpetual adoration, and decent to orthodox priests depending on the year  .
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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DominaCaeli
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LisaR wrote:
I do think this question is going to come out sounding wrong, but I honestly am interested to know why those who have chosen a particular parish to attend did not try to live near to it? Or is it that you started out in a parish near you and now have switched?
We always research the parish, and then choose our home from there. close proximity to dh's job and Church are the number one items for us, and we have and will sacrifice the "perfect" house choice, etc to get as close as possible to those two things. |
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Lisa, our preferred parish is not in a residential area (it's in a business district), so it is not really possible to live nearby--just about everyone that attends there drives at least 15 minutes (and some an hour or so!). The neighborhoods closest to it are way out of our price range. So we chose to live close to my husband's job instead--he works only five minutes away from where we live now. That is how it has worked out and it works well for us.
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Celeste
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mavmama
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DominaCaeli wrote:
LisaR wrote:
I do think this question is going to come out sounding wrong, but I honestly am interested to know why those who have chosen a particular parish to attend did not try to live near to it? Or is it that you started out in a parish near you and now have switched?
We always research the parish, and then choose our home from there. close proximity to dh's job and Church are the number one items for us, and we have and will sacrifice the "perfect" house choice, etc to get as close as possible to those two things. |
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Lisa, our preferred parish is not in a residential area (it's in a business district), so it is not really possible to live nearby--just about everyone that attends there drives at least 15 minutes (and some an hour or so!). The neighborhoods closest to it are way out of our price range. So we chose to live close to my husband's job instead--he works only five minutes away from where we live now. That is how it has worked out and it works well for us. |
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We also, were priced out from living close to our church. When our twins were younger, we lived 5 blocks from our parish and many times parked the stroller in the narthex after walking to mass. That was really the best, and we frequently took walks and would stop and say "Hi to Jesus" during the week. The kids remember this fondly, as I do. Where we are now, the church isn't even unlocked during the day, even if we were close enough to drop by often.
Thank you all, ladies, for your input. I really appreciate it
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Liz
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juststartn
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Well, we live 20miles/20min from the closest two parishes-and DH's work. COnsidering that is a gallon of gas each way for his work as well as to Mass/Confession, well, we have to be careful. The next closest parishes are closer to an hour away in each direction. We just cannot do that, mileage/gas wise.
That being said, we were mostly looking for a job for DH, and land and a house in a rural area. We could have possibly found a home closer to either of the two parishes, BUT they would have been far more money for far less of our needs. Here we are able to have our chickens, geese, ducks, and a 4000 sq ft garden--and still have acres of land to grow hay on, or to eventually start raising the feed for our own animals. This fall we will be raising some pigs for ourselves and another family, God willing, and our chickens will be filling the freezer and laying us some eggs...
Those are things that we couldn't have done in downtown, or anywhere close to downtown, parishes near here. Neither of the parishes are ideal, and its 2 hrs each way to the Extraordinary Form (which I prefer, and attended back in NC), so it is absolutely out of the question for us. We don't make it to daily Mass--gas prices, etc....
In this case, since we are planning on being in this home til they carry us out in boxes, we are going to have to make the parish work...and work for change, gently, as needed. The parish we chose was by far the more orthodox of the two, and far more of a better fit for our family (the other parish's pews seat 4 people. And we don't like to be separated during Mass...).
Fortunately, the priest at this parish is okay with us homeschooling for religious education, so while they will be sending us the curriculum they use, I will likely NOT be using it....and will stick to my Faith and Life...
Rachel
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: How far do you drive to mass?
