Mass Intentions

Visit the parish office to request a Mass.

Mass intentions are:

• Accepted on a first-come, first-served basis
• Required to be included at Mass within one year of the request
• If requests outnumber the Masses that are available, they will be sent to priests in other locations.

Once the Mass intention date is scheduled on our campus, parish staff informs the requestor of that date. If a Mass intention is sent out, there will only be a confirmation of the priest’s acceptance to fulfill the intention. No date will be available for the actual Mass.

“The tradition of offering Masses for others, particularly the dead, originates in the very early Church. Inscriptions discovered on tombs in Roman catacombs of the second century evidence this practice”  —- Father William Saunders

Praying for the living and the dead is an essential spiritual practice and great act of charity. The most powerful prayer we have is the Mass. Each celebration of the Eucharist is for all those present and for the particular intentions and needs of all the Church. 

Anyone may request a Mass intention for a loved one who is either deceased or living, which is typically offered with a small stipend ($10.00). At Mass, the priest applies special graces from God upon that intention. This is an ancient Catholic practice, and we are all invited to exercise it when appropriate. 

Every Sunday and other holy days of obligation, our pastor, by virtue of his office, must guarantee that a Mass is offered for the people of his parish. This requirement is otherwise known as Missa Pro Populo or “Mass for the People” (canon 534). One Pro Populo Mass is scheduled per weekend and on each holy day of obligation.

Historically, the purpose of offering a Mass stipend for a particular Mass intention has been twofold:

• The money that a priest received for saying his daily Mass for a specific intention was essentially his source of income (in some poorer countries that is often still the case).
• By giving a stipend, the person requesting the Mass made a sacrificial offering of his or her own.
  
  In the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, the customary offering set by the Bishop is $10.00.

All parishes have a finite number of Masses to which an intention may be assigned. Once that limit is met, additional Mass intentions are often transferred to another priest. When these intentions are sent out, the accepting priest signs documentation and returns it to the original parish. He has now accepted the offering and the obligation to fulfill this particular Mass intention. 

When a Mass intention is sent out, take comfort in knowing that it will still be offered, and that people will pray for your loved ones in other locations within our diocese or somewhere else in the world. The same graces from God are received whether a Mass intention is offered here at St. Alphonsus Liguori Parish or elsewhere.

• St. Alphonsus Liguori Parish sponsors a Mass intention on the first anniversary of death for parishioners.

• Our parish transfers Mass intentions to a variety of individual priests, as well as to The Bishop’s Chapel Fund. The bishop's office receives Mass intentions from parishes with an overabundance of requests and distributes them to other parishes in our own diocese that are in need of Mass intentions.
   
• Masses for the repose of the souls of our four former pastors are offered each year by the parish, continuing our dedication to those who contributed to our extraordinary parish history.

• The parish office is required to maintain strict record keeping and accounting of all Mass intention requests, offerings collected, and money paid to celebrants. These duties are routinely audited by the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana.