Confession Bound Or Venial?

[jazzytakara]

Last week I was travelling and our main travel day back home was Sunday, thus I missed morning mass, as I have no idea where a Catholic Church was in the area I was travelling in (tons of protestant churches though). My sister also arrived on Sunday to stay the following week with me. She isn't particularly fond of sitting through church (she loves God, but can't focus in church) and she isn't Catholic. I would have gone to evening mass, but I neither felt comfortable leaving her alone on her first night in the city, nor did she feel comfortable being alone (she also has a disability and needs someone around for the most part, she's okay for a short time if she knows the area and can get what she needs) and at the time she was still getting to know my boyfriend, so she didn't want to be left without me there. As such I was unable to go to mass at all last Sunday. 

 

Now that the situation has been detailed above, I was wondering if I am guilty of mortal sin and should go to confession or if the above situation excluded me from the obligation for that Sunday. I honestly wanted to go to mass, but I wasn't able to. On the brightside, later in the week the cathedral in my city was open to the public for viewing, and since she loves art and such I thought she'd like to see the hand-carved statues and paintings within the church. She loved it, and I learnt that in her protestant church experience she never was taught about the Crucifixion! So she was amazed to learn what Jesus did for her and wants to go to church with me on Sunday to learn more and light a candle for someone(she decided to visit me a bit longer than a week, which is nice).

[phatcatholic]

I suppose there are some questions you could ask yourself to assess your guilt in this situation:

-- Could you have done some research about the area you were traveling in (for example, by consulting a phone book or the internet) to see where the Catholic churches were?

-- Did you at least try to bring your friend with you to Mass, or did you just assume that she would not go?

-- Is there someone she is comfortable with who could have stayed with her while you went to Mass?

-- Were you truly prevented from going to Mass, or are there some things you could have done without an extraordinary amount of effort to get yourself there?

 

Only you really know how morally culpable you are for not going to Mass. If you are unsure, then consult a priest or just go ahead and take it to the Sacrament of Confession. You can confess venial sins too, and it seems to me that, at the very least, that's what you have here.