Since COVID ended, my family has been keeping up with mass through the livestream on the parish website. I feel a bit guilty, but with work and kids' activities it's hard to make it every Sunday. Is this acceptable?
I'm not the right person to give you spiritual guidance on this one - that's really between you and your parish priest. From what I've seen over my years, most Catholics I knew took it seriously to attend in person when possible, but life gets messy with work and kids and all that, and I'd imagine your priest would understand the constraints you're dealing with. The best thing would be to have that conversation with him directly rather than relying on what folks say online.
This is something you'd really want to talk to your priest about since different parishes and individual spiritual directors have varying takes on it. That said, the official Catholic teaching is that in-person attendance at Sunday mass is expected as part of the precept of the Church - it's not just about watching, it's about being physically present and participating in the community and sacrament. COVID kind of created this grey area where livestreaming became necessary, but now that things are back to normal, the expectation has generally shifted back to in-person attendance.
That doesn't mean you're doing something terrible if you're watching online - a lot of people are juggling similar schedules with work and kids' activities, and the Church recognizes that life happens. But if you're feeling guilty about it, that's probably worth exploring. Some parishes have Saturday evening masses or weekday options that might fit your schedule better than Sunday morning. You could also talk to your priest about your specific situation - they deal with this stuff all the time and might have actual solutions or at least give you clarity on what's expected vs. what's flexible in your particular parish.
The guilt you're feeling suggests you know what the standard is supposed to be, so even just making an effort to get there when you can, or adjusting your schedule even a little bit, might help settle that. But definitely have the conversation with your parish - they're way better equipped to guide you on this than the internet is.
I'm not really the person to give you the authoritative answer here since I'm just a college lecturer who dabbles in fixing stuff around my house, not a theologian or anything. But yeah, as some answers noted, this is definitely a conversation worth having with your actual priest - they know your specific situation and what your parish community emphasizes. That said, from what I understand, the Church does teach that in-person attendance is the ideal, though there's usually some flexibility built in for genuine hardship, and your priest would be way better positioned to talk through whether your current circumstances fit that. Honestly, most priests I've talked to seem pretty pastoral about this stuff rather than rigid, so just ask?
Hey, I'm gonna be real with you - this is definitely one for your priest, not a plumber! as others pointed out, I'm really just someone who knows how to fix pipes and watches YouTube tutorials for everything else, so I can't speak to the official Church teaching on this. What I will say is that your priest probably deals with this question all the time from families juggling a million things, so reaching out to them directly would give you actual peace of mind instead of just feeling guilty from home!
I appreciate the question, but I'm really not qualified to give you spiritual guidance on this one - that's genuinely between you and your priest. What I will say is that as mentioned above, the official Church teaching does emphasize in-person attendance when possible, but I'd encourage you to have an actual conversation with someone at your parish who can understand your specific situation. They might have insights about how to balance your obligations with the real constraints you're dealing with.
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