Mass attendance

[BennyCake]

OK so results are not going to be reflective of the country as a whole, but just wondered about the boards mass attendance.

[bennydorano]

Births, deaths and marriages & Christmas.

[dec]

Missing option

Never, NEVER, NEVER!!!!!!

[Boycey]

Missing option

Never, NEVER, NEVER!!!!!!

I'd pretty much fall into this category..

[stew]

I go to the Cathedral and pray but never go to mass.

I am looking for a good non denominational Church to attend, in the meantime I am good with going to the Cathedral.

[lenny]

OK so results are not going to be reflective of the country as a whole, but just wondered about the boards mass attendance.

The Tyrone boys never miss mass. They even insist that micky harte leads them in 5 decades of the rosary before games.

[BennyCake]

Missing option

Never, NEVER, NEVER!!!!!!

Well I just thought even if people were athiest, they'd still go to funerals at least. Or maybe the odd wedding?

[thewobbler]

Weddings and funerals. Even then I spend my time in a chapel wondering why there isn't a better way for me to mark the joining / passing than being bored out of my wits for an hours.

I'm guessing the next generation will begin to bypass funerals, in favour of a social gathering a few days or weeks later. It sounds disprectful, but missing mass 30 years ago was pretty high on the radar of disrespect.

[manfromdelmonte]

Missing option

Never, NEVER, NEVER!!!!!!

Well I just thought even if people were athiest, they'd still go to funerals at least. Or maybe the odd wedding?

I go to the funeral home when I can, and actively avoid wedding ceremonies
It's amazing the excuses I can come up with.
I turn up for the food and booze though

[thejuice]

I used to be your typical atheist but I began to realize that secularism was really amounting to erasing a huge chunk of our cultural and historical roots, even the pagan bits. I started reading into theology more lately and reading about the likes of Benedict Spinoza, St Thomas-Aquinas and St Augustus and how much they have influenced western philosophy.

Usually when I'm about a new city I'm always on the lookout for interesting churches, not only from a cultural and spiritual point of view but they are great places of refuge from the endless barrage of consumerism you endure on every street and corner. I think a lot of Irish people don't appreciate what they have until they've thrown it away. That's been my experience from living abroad.

[Mickey Linden]

Often think about this. Think for people it should be one or the other. If u don't believe/can't be bothered with mass why bother with christenings for children for example? If u have any belief in it 49 mins a week to stop and think about things can't hurt

[5 Sams]

Often think about this. Think for people it should be one or the other. If u don't believe/can't be bothered with mass why bother with christenings for children for example? If u have any belief in it 49 mins a week to stop and think about things can't hurt

You can believe without having to go a big house every week to get preached at and told what to do...

[Eamonnca1]

I think a lot of Irish people don't appreciate what they have until they've thrown it away. That's been my experience from living abroad.

I agree with the sentiment but superstition is something that can't be thrown away quickly enough.

[bennydorano]

The rituals of Religion and particularly in mass are still largely nonsensical imo but I think there is something to be admired in a genuine faith and it is easy enough to spot in a person, the difference in being a Christian as opposed to being a Catholic or Protestant. There's a saved gobshite knocking about my workplace on occasion who is flat out with the Matthew, Mark patter loosely interspersed with references to Fags and Foreigners, same **** would have given you one behind the ear 20 years ago.

[thejuice]

I think a lot of Irish people don't appreciate what they have until they've thrown it away. That's been my experience from living abroad.

I agree with the sentiment but superstition is something that can't be thrown away quickly enough.

I'm not superstitious in the least. Unlike another poster here; I think the ritual of the church is important as a way of marking stages in ones life as well as a means of coming together as a community.I don't particularly care for sermons or what a lot of churches stances on the issues of the day.

The problem is a large number of lay people and atheists seem to know as little about Christianity and its history as each other and by that measure little about its role in the formation of western or European civilization. We make the mistake of only looking to the bible usually to suit our own points of view.

Spinoza's understanding of God as an impersonal being at the center of the universe that isn't so far removed from that of the idea of the laws of nature and post enlightenment theories of the origins of life. He was strongly influenced by the Stoicism of Ancient Greece which helped formulate his views. It made him a heretic in the eyes of the church but I think in this day and age people would throw him out with the holy bath water much to our loss.

I also found it odd in a way that western tourists fawning over Buddhas and temples in Thailand which I doubt they have little understanding, traveling at great expense to see them, never seemingly calling to question the superstition or the level influence Buddhist monks have on society. Yet these same people wouldn't look sideways at a historic church that sits in the center of their town or village despite what it could tell them about their past and their place in the world.