Mass on the margins

Mass on  the margins

Cathal Barry examines the extent to which the age old custom of the Station Mass is still practiced today

The Station Mass, that is a Mass held in a family home, has been a long celebrated tradition in the Church in Ireland. Like many great customs, however, this is yet another that is struggling as a result of the fall-off in religious practice and the declining numbers of priests.  

When this reporter pictures a Station Mass he calls to mind that famed Aloysius O’Kelly painting entitled Mass in a Connemara Cabin. Experts, of course, dispute whether the artist’s depiction is indeed of a Station Mass at all, some insisting it is the first Mass of a newly ordained young priest in his family home. Nevertheless, O’Kelly paints a vivid picture, quite literally, of a similar practice in all its glory.

It is generally accepted that Station Masses became popular during the Penal Times in Ireland – in particular during the 18th Century – when public ceremonies involving Catholic clergy were banned. 

One alternative venue for Mass became people’s family homes. The neighbours would gather for what was often the only opportunity to be at Mass for a long time. 

As it was not safe for the priest to carry sacred vessels or vestments with him on his journeys, these were taken care of by the local people. They passed the ‘Mass kit’ from house to house as it was needed. 

This Mass became known as the ‘Station Mass’ because of the random movement from place to place. 

Custom

Following the repeal of the Penal Laws and the passing of Catholic Emancipation (1829), Catholics were free to worship publicly and take their place in civil society. However, the spread of church buildings with adequate accommodation was slow. Hence, the custom continued.

Tuam’s Diocesan Secretary Fr Fintan Monahan told The Irish Catholic that while the tradition remains strong in some parishes, others have abandoned the practice altogether.

“Some have them upon request while others are a bit more organised and have particular station areas. The practice is nowhere nearly as strong as it would have been decades ago. It used to be hugely strong up until the 1980s or 1990s but the practise has declined since then. Some parishes, but not all, have even disbanded the practise entirely. Other parishes then would have them to some degree, mainly on request,” he said.

Fr Monahan recalled attending them frequently while working in parishes in the past.

“They were very much in the old traditional style. Every village was given their date and they would have to come up with a house, usually it went in a rota, and there was an open invitation to everybody in that village. 

“The parish priest would say the Mass, the curate would hear Confessions before and after and there would be a big sit down meal. The priests would go at a certain hour that’s probably when the real party would start! Sometimes alcohol would be served, other times not,” he said.

In more recent decades, according to Fr Monahan, there was a “concerted effort” to simplify the social element associated with Station Masses as there was too much pressure put on people to host above and beyond their means.

“Every parish made an effort to say it was just going to be a cup of tea and a sandwich,” he said.

Despite their toning down, Fr Monahan insisted that Station Masses remained “great gatherings”. 

“They were very nice, well organised and there was always a great sense of community at them from my experience,” he said.

Nowadays, very few of the parishes have an organised system around Station Masses. “The vast majority of parishes just respond to family requests. They may have got the house renovated, they may have moved into a new house and they may want to have their friends and family to it. There mightn’t be an open invitation to everybody. That’s the way it has evolved lately,” Fr Monahan said.

So, what has been the reason behind the drop off in practice? Fr Monahan points to two key factors.

“There is too much pressure on priests who may be on their own in parishes to do it well and properly.

“There may be funerals, weddings and other liturgies, while anything can arise in the evening and if they are tied down to 20 days in the spring and 20 days in October for Station Masses and if there was only one priest in the parish it might be difficult. That is one reason but not the main reason,” Fr Monahan said.

Busy

“People are so busy now. People tend to be busier at home and even working away in the evening time. There is less leisure time and less visitation of each other. There is less sense of community I suppose.  

“People are just getting on with their own lives and business and they mightn’t even know their neighbour. People mightn’t like the idea of having an open house. There is more a sense of individualism and privacy in the world today.”

Fr Monahan said he ultimately sees a “great sense of value” in Station Masses. 

“It’s not only good for community building but for giving an intimate sense of the Eucharist as well which is important,” he said, noting that the last supper “was similar to a Station Mass in many ways”.

One parish in which Station Masses remain popular is Glanmire in Co. Cork. Parish Priest Fr John Newman told this newspaper that they have about 26 Stations annually, preferring to name them “house” Masses instead. 

“We tend to call them house Masses because the term station can be confusing for people. We also like the phrase house Mass because it links very much with the early Christians.

“I have always tried to move the Stations away from their Penal Law ties, linking the stations instead with the first meetings of Christians in their homes. The natural setting for the Eucharist is at the table in the home,” he said.

“We have a whole system set up here. We invite locals to take a station and they in turn invite their neighbours in for the Mass. Every year there is a different house, we keep trying to build it up. There are rotas operating all the time and the average time would be about four or five years before it comes back to the same house again,” he added.

Practice

Station Masses in Glanmire, as in many other parts of the country, take place during Lent and again in the autumn.

“About 20 years ago practice would have fallen away greatly and about 10 or 12 years ago there was an effort to engage people again in the Stations and it picked up greatly.

“The vast majority of people enjoy it and are quick to volunteer. There is a certain amount of enthusiasm for it,” Fr Newman said, admitting “to get new people to do it is not so easy now”. 

“I suspect there was a whole lot of things that clustered around the fall-off in the practice of religious, the disenchantment with all things authority and Church,” he said, noting that Stations were one thing to lose out.

Fr Oliver Crilly, a retired priest of the Derry diocese remembers “packed” houses for Station Masses during his time as Parish Priest of Greenlough.

“In fact, in some cases, people would have been overflowing outside of the house. Sometimes, there would have been particular reasons why the numbers would have dramatically increased,” he said, recalling how more people might turn out to a Station Mass if a member of the community had died and locals wanted to pay their respects.

Noting that the popularity of Station Masses has “definitely” decreased in recent years, Fr Crilly said his time in Greenlough had been “kind of exceptional”.

Arriving in the parish initially, Fr Crilly said attending Station Masses were a “great way of getting to know the people of the different townlands because you were going to different houses and you were meeting parishioners”.

Fr Crilly pointed out that Station Masses are not self-serving occasions.

“People can have Mass in their house for a particular occasion, for their own family and their invited guests, but when you have a Station Mass, it’s not just Mass in your house, and it’s not just for the family. In fact, it’s the opposite. 

“It’s the family making their house available as they would have done in Penal Times, and it’s the family making their house available for all the local people in the immediate townland,” he said.

Fr Crilly said he would “love to see” a revival of Station Masses around the country. 

“It becomes more difficult because of the smaller numbers of priests and their increasing age profile, but I think if people appreciated the history of it and the significance of the practice, they would be more inclined to revive it,” he said.

Fr Charlie Kiely, who is the Director of Pastoral Development in the Diocese of Cork and Ross, recalled “growing up” with Station Masses and laments their decline in popularity in recent years.

“I grew up with having Stations at the house and when I was in parish work we had them too. There has been a falling off in recent years, the reason why I don’t know. 

“I suppose for some people who would have held the Station in the past they have now come to a stage in their lives that they can’t hold it anymore because they are too elderly. I don’t think the younger generations see the importance of having Mass in the home, they don’t understand the tradition perhaps.”

Request

The practice still exists in the diocese, he said, just to a lesser extent. “They are in every parish in the rural areas. You would see them advertised in newsletters but even at that, priests are having to request a host family to take the Station in a certain area. That wouldn’t have been the case in the past because it would have been filled,” he said.

“There was a certain excitement around the preparation that would have gone into hosting a Station Mass. It was a big event in your home, the place had to be prepared. It was for all the neighbours to come. Another important thing for people in the past was to have their home and family blessed,” he added.

Fr Kiely said “the closest thing we have to it now is a community Mass in the summer months”. 

“Now what we have in some places where the Station Mass have been dropped is a Mass in a housing estate in the open air and people all come out and there would be the social element afterwards too,” he said.

One priest with ample experience of neighbourhood Masses is Tralee curate Fr Bernard Healy.

“How it’s happens varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. The general outline is that there will be a local informal group who would contact the priest at the start of the summer and agree a particular evening for the neighbourhood Mass. They then set up an altar, they let the neighbourhood know, we have a celebration of Mass in the evening and then lots of the neighbours would, amongst themselves, organise refreshments of some sort afterwards,” he said.

“The main thing is that it’s very much organised on a neighbourhood basis, that it is the people, the neighbours themselves who pitch in and help out. It’s a moment of community for those neighbourhoods,” he added.

Fr Bernard’s parish could have up to eight neighbourhood Masses each summer.

“Once the summer gets going, it’s quite a frequent thing. There are some weeks in the middle of summer where you might have two or three different neighbourhood Masses happening in different parts of the parish,” he said.

“People do pitch in because it’s something happening in their own neighbourhood. People tend to get involved. It’s an appreciation of the neighbourhood itself and the surroundings, but above all, it’s a community function. 

“These are people who live alongside each other, who cooperate and share a neighbourhood, so it’s a lovely occasion for them to celebrate that. Celebrating their shared faith, as well, is part of it,” he said.

Fr Healy is convinced that neighbourhood Masses are an ideal alternative to Station Masses, particular in heavily populated urban areas.

Noting that he is “all in favour” of Station Masses, Fr Healy maintains that for “larger communities and for urban communities, everyone pitching in and having Mass in a central location, in a neighbourhood, maybe works a little bit better than trying to have a rota year on year, where maybe you don’t get around to everyone”.

“There is often the difficulty of people trying to take on the whole responsibility of hosting the entire celebration themselves. This is a much more collaborative and communal way of doing things,” he said, adding that neighbourhood Masses were “open to everyone”. 

“Some people mightn’t feel comfortable coming to the church for a celebration. They mightn’t even feel comfortable going into a neighbour’s house for a celebration. 

“You also have people who just happen to be driving past and they see that Mass is on and they will stop and they will join us and they mightn’t even be part of the neighbourhood themselves, but they see it, and it’s a public celebration, open to everyone,” he said.

The can be no doubt that a number of factors are continuing to contribute to the decline in the great tradition of Station Masses in Ireland, but when one door shuts another opens. 

Neighbourhood Masses seem to be an ideal and timely replacement for a tiring tradition and the Church can’t be afraid to try new things. 

One thing that strikes this reporter in particular is that neighbourhood Masses and the story of passers-by stopping to attend would certainly get a stamp of approval under the current papacy. Mass on the margins would be right up Pope Francis’ street.