Confirmation that Gregorian Masses Have Been Accepted and Celebrated

Two messages: a proposal and a confirmation

After sending your request you will receive two e-mails from us:

1. A reply with a proposed date – the proposed start date of the series, the times of the Masses and the details for making your offering. This is not yet the confirmation – if the date does not suit you, you may ask for another (see available dates for Gregorian Masses).
2. The confirmation – we send it no later than two days after your offering has reached the parish account.

The whole request process is described in our guide how to request Gregorian Masses.

What the confirmation contains

• the intention – the name of the deceased person for whom the Masses are offered;
• the date or dates – the thirty consecutive days of the series;
• the time of each Holy Mass.

This way you know exactly when each Mass is celebrated and can pray for the deceased at that time – at home, in your own church or at the grave.

What to check when you receive it

• The spelling of the name. If something is not right, reply to the message – we will correct it.
• The dates. Does the series begin and end as agreed – for example, before the anniversary of death?
• Whether the message has arrived at all. If nothing has come two days after you sent your offering, check your spam folder and then write to us by e-mail or WhatsApp (contact).

It is worth keeping the confirmation for the whole duration of the series – if only to remember the times of the Masses.

How you can know that the Masses have been celebrated

Accepting a Mass intention is a serious obligation for a priest, and the Church safeguards it by law. The Code of Canon Law requires parish priests and rectors of churches to keep a special book in which the number of Masses to be celebrated, the intention, the offering given and the fact of celebration are recorded (can. 958 §1). The Ordinary is obliged to inspect these books every year (can. 958 §2).

With Gregorian Masses the responsibility is a particular one: the priest undertakes thirty Masses day after day. If the series is interrupted by an unforeseen impediment, such as illness, the missing Masses must be made up as soon as possible – as the 1967 declaration “Tricenario Gregoriano” reminds us. If, however, a Mass was omitted through the priest's own fault, the whole series is begun again.

The Masses are celebrated first of all in the Parish of Our Lady of Białynicze, and also by priests of other parishes in eastern Belarus – we introduce them by name on the priests page. The schedule in the confirmation is the plan according to which the Masses for your intention are celebrated.

If you need the confirmation in another form

We send the confirmation by e-mail. If you need it in another form – for example, to pass on to your family, or with information that the whole series has been completed – write to us by e-mail. We will let you know what we can prepare in your situation.

Have you not yet requested the Masses? Request Gregorian Masses using the form below. The principles of the offering are described on the offering for Gregorian Masses page, and the practice itself in what are Gregorian Masses and on the home page.

Sources

• Code of Canon Law, cann. 945–958 (vatican.va)
• Sacred Congregation of the Council, declaration “Tricenario Gregoriano” of 24 February 1967 (liturgista.pl, in Polish)
• Acta Apostolicae Sedis 59 (1967), pp. 229–230
• Jesuits, St Stephen's Parish – Mass intentions (in Polish)