Mass Intentions

**The 2025 Mass Intention book is now full. The book for 2026 will become available on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. 

Mass Intentions are available throughout the year and can be scheduled for a weekend or daily Mass. To reserve a date, please contact the parish office during office hours at 763-425-2210. 

• Stipends are $10.00 per Mass.

 

• As you are making a request for a Mass Intention, please consider there are only about 416 Masses available in a year. To help make more Masses available, there can only be two intentions recorded for the same person per year. (Ex. If a person wants to have a Mass offered for their mother, we can have only two Masses for their mother during a given year. However, they can still have intentions offered for another family member.) If there are multiple family members you would like a Mass offered for, we ask that you consider grouping them together instead of having all individual Masses. For ex. “The Johnson Family” or “The John & Sue Smith Family”.

Our Catholic faith teaches us that one of the most charitable works of mercy we can perform is to pray for the living and the dead. One long-standing practice by which the faithful can do this is to offer their intentions through the Mass. As St. Monica stated back in the fourth century, “One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord.”
 
Every member of the faithful is encouraged to offer personal prayer intentions at every Mass that he or she attends. This is most practically done as an internal act – in the quiet of each person’s heart. Through the years the practice arose in the Church by which a member of the faithful would make an offering, most commonly a financial contribution or stipend, to be applied toward the celebration of the Mass. 
 
By receiving the stipend, the priest makes a commitment that there will be a Mass celebrated at a specific time and place. The practice started at a time when people did not have as many opportunities to attend Mass. By accepting the stipend, the priest ensures that a Mass will be scheduled and celebrated so that the one who has made the offering can come to offer his or her intentions. The member of the faithful also is given the assurance that, even if he or she is not able to be present for the Mass, the intentions are included in the prayers of the Mass. 
 
Priests and parishes, however, are allowed to receive only one stipend per Mass in order to avoid the appearance of engaging in commerce for spiritual goods. The stipend is accepted to assist with the upkeep of the clergy, the facilities, to cover expenses (such as hosts, wine, candles, etc.), and to assist with the needs of the Church in general. Once the stipend is received, it is not to be understood that the Mass then becomes a sort of “Memorial Mass for the Dead” or in any way a personal Mass. The Mass has infinite spiritual value. There is never a limit to the number of intentions that can be offered at any Mass. In other words, at every Mass there is never just one, but innumerable intentions. Any time members of the faithful come to Mass, they can offer the Mass for the good of their intentions, whether they have made a stipend offering or not. 
 
We are very blessed to have our book filled with many intentions of so many loved ones. Even if we are not always able to get the Mass we want, it is good to know that our personal intention and offering at Mass has infinite spiritual value as well.