Sunday: 8:30 am & 10:30 am (choir)

Saturday: 7:30 am & 5:30 pm vigil

Daily: 11:15 am

 

Holy Day Vigil: 5:30 pm

Holy Day: 11:15 am and 7:00 pm

 

Holidays: 9:00 am

 

Confession Schedule
Weekdays: 11:50 am - 12:10 pm
Saturdays: 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Cathedral is YOUR HOME for Holy Mass!

Please join us for our Masses
Sunday: 8:30 am and 10:30 am (choir)
Saturday: 7:30 am and 5:30 pm vigil
Daily: 11:15 am
Daily Masses are held in Our Lady of Nebraska Chapel.

The Cathedral is open for individual visits for prayer from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm every day.

Read Our Latest Bulletin

SEPTEMBER MASS INTENTIONS

DateDayMassIntention
1Fri11:15Joshua Pieper
2Sat7:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  5:30Leo Batenhorst +
3Sun8:30Craig Dassner +
  10:30Josephine A. Caliendo +
4  Labor DayMon9:00Morin-Medlin family
    
5Tues11:15Missy Albright + (B)
6Wed11:15Alice & Ray Fitzgerald + (WA)
7Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Marion Kubitschek +
8Fri11:15Mary Kay Doucette +
9Sat7:30John F. "Jack" Johnson +
  5:30Marion Kubitschek + 
10Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Bob Grewe +
11Mon11:15Albert Grandgenett + (A)
12Tues11:15Larry Odens +
13Wed11:15Rhonda Boyer +
14Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Blake Smola +
15Fri11:15Hennig-Peatrowsky family
16Sat7:30Rhonda Boyer +
  5:30Ed Warin +
17Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Roger Barnes +
18Mon11:15Mabel Catherine Smith + (B)
19Tues11:15Julia Hseh Meh + and family
20Wed11:15Deacon Dave Gurney +
21Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Clint Cosgrove +
22Fri11:15Maria Lanh Nguyen +
23Sat7:30Bob Grewe +
  5:30Gloria & Don Meier +
24Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Betty Barnes + (A)
25Mon11:15Deacon Dave Gurney +
26Tues8:308th Grade Mass
  11:15Susie Dupic +
27Wed11:15Josephine A. Caliendo +
28Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Peggy Carrica + 
29Fri11:15Jim Edins + (B)
30Sat7:30Patricia Begley +
  5:30Leo & Marlene Wilwerding +

OCTOBER MASS INTENTIONS

DateDayMassIntention
1Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Francis Boganowski +
2Mon11:15Josephine A. Caliendo +
3Tues8:307th Grade Mass
  11:15Blake Smola +
4Wed11:15Joshua Pieper
5Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Josephine Gross + (A)
6Fri11:15Michael Barmettler + (A)
7Sat7:30Irene Marin Johnson + and family
  5:30Leo Batenhorst +
8Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Jim Edins + (A)
9Mon11:15Greg & Amy Esper
10Tues8:306th Grade Mass
  11:15Florence Mitchell
11Wed11:15Shirley Novak +
12Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Marion Kubitschek +
13Fri11:15Rhonda Boyer +
14Sat7:30Deacon Dave Gurney +
  5:30Marion Kubitschek +
15Sun8:30Rose Cutshall +
  10:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
16Mon11:15Morin-Medlin family
17Tues8:305th Grade Mass
  11:15Phil Sauvageau +
18Wed11:15Eileen M. Raun + (A)
19Thurs8:30School Mass
  11:15Julia Hseh Meh + and family
20Fri11:15Deacon Dave Gurney +
21Sat7:30Rhonda Boyer +
  5:30Judy Quest +
22Sun8:30Shirley Novak +
  10:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
23Mon11:15Mary Koch +
24Tues8:30School Mass
  11:15Emily Perina +
25Wed11:15Marion Kubitschek +
26Thurs11:15Ruth Dyrda +
27Fri11:15Josephine A. Caliendo +
28Sat7:30 
  5:30Ed Warin +
29Sun8:30Saint Cecilia Parishioners
  10:30Bob Grewe +
30Mon11:15Ruth & Tom Williams +
31Tues11:15Roger Barnes +
  5:30Kathleen Dylla +

 

Mass intention key:

B indicates the person's birthday
+ indicates the person is deceased
A indicates the person's anniversary of death
WA indicates the couple's wedding anniversary

To Request Mass Intentions
Call Sheila at 402-551-2313 or email sgraham@stceciliacathedral.org to schedule.
$10 offering per Mass is requested.

What are Mass intentions? And why do we have to pay for them?

Philip Kosloski | Sep 02, 2017

One part of Catholic culture that is sometimes hard to understand and very often misunderstood is the custom of offering Mass intentions. When a priest celebrates Mass each day, he offers each celebration of the Eucharist for a particular person, or intention. By doing so he applies special graces from God upon that person or intention.

Similar to how we are able to intercede for others by our personal prayers, the Church is able to intercede for us through the celebration of the Mass. However, since the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” the Mass possess a power that our personal prayers do not.

The practice of offering Mass for particular intentions is an ancient one, dating back to the early Church.

Fr. William Saunders explains, “Inscriptions discovered on tombs in Roman catacombs of the second century [give] evidence [for] this practice: for example, the epitaph on the tomb of Abercius (d. 180), Bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia, begs for prayers for the repose of his soul. Tertullian (c. 200) attested to observing the anniversary of a spouse with prayers and sacrifices, i.e. the Mass.”

This tradition is also seen in St. Augustine’s Confessions (c. 397), where Monica asks Augustine, “One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord.”

Canon Law confirms this practice and states, “In accord with the approved practice of the Church, any priest celebrating or concelebrating is permitted to receive an offering to apply the Mass for a specific intention” (Can. 945 §1).

Furthermore, it continues by saying, “The Christian faithful who give an offering to apply the Mass for their intention contribute to the good of the Church and by that offering share its concern to support its ministers and works” (945 §2).

What this refers to is a longstanding practice in the Church of offering a specified amount of money to the Church for a particular intention offered by the priest. Upon hearing this practice many people might be tempted to think it is “simony,” the selling of sacred things for money. However, the Baltimore Catechism explains, “It is not simony, or the buying of a sacred thing, to offer the priest money for saying Mass for our intention, because the priest does not take the money for the Mass itself, but for the purpose of supplying the things necessary for Mass and for his own support.”

While it is true that this custom has been abused in the past, the Church lays out specific rules regarding the money paid for Mass intentions. Each council of bishops determines the amount acceptable for the region, but the priest will offer a Mass for an intention even if someone doesn’t have the money for it. In many places the cost of a Mass intention is $10.

The important part is to remember that you are not paying for the graces from God (which are of infinite value and can not be paid for), but for the material things that are involved with celebrating that particular Mass. With that in mind it makes much more sense and is not something that should cause scandal.

Pope Paul VI said, “The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer!” It has immense power and countless miracles and conversions have occurred throughout the centuries by offering Masses for a specific intention or person. Mass intentions are a great treasure of the Church and have a spiritual weight that is incalculable.