Warriors Mass: A Proposal for an Early Morning Mass

Warriors Mass · A Fathered initiative · Draft for review · September 2026

Dear Father,

You said it well: go where the fish are. Many men in our parish and across the city start work before our first Mass of the day. Tradesmen, construction crews, and shift workers are on the road by 6:00. Many of them want to be at Mass, and our schedule rarely fits their day. A Warriors Mass brings the Mass to the hour they keep.

The idea. A short, reverent Mass early in the morning at St. Francis de Sales, at 5:15 or 5:30, with confession from 5:00 when a priest can offer it. It runs about fifteen minutes: the full rite, spoken, with a short homily that gives a man something solid to carry into his workday. Everyone is welcome. We'll reach out to men in particular, because this kind of work is still more common for men, and men are often the hardest to bring back to church.

Where it can grow. It starts simply, with the Mass itself. As the community grows, we add the rest: coffee and a grab-and-go breakfast at the door, carpools from the church to job sites, and fellowship afterward for men who start later. Each piece comes when there are people ready to carry it.

Sustainability. This can't depend on one man, and it won't. We're forming a leadership team of men from parishes around the archdiocese. We'll start with four to six men, drawn from the archdiocesan men's ministry group I belong to, and grow the team as the Mass grows. Lay leaders handle everything outside the sacraments: unlocking, setup, readers, servers, hospitality, cleanup, and inviting men to come.

Priest availability. We'll ask several priests from nearby parishes to share the Masses, so no single priest carries it. We'll ask the Archbishop for the permissions this needs. A simple app will handle the schedule, send each priest reminders, and let us find a replacement when someone can't come. If no priest is available on a given day, the app texts every man who signed up the night before, so no one arrives to a locked door.

How we'd start. Once a month to begin: Friday, October 16, then Friday, November 20. If those go well, we'd like to meet more often during Advent, once or twice a week as you think best. After Christmas we sit down together, look at who came, and decide on the pace from there. I'll report to you after every Mass.

What I'm asking of you:

• Your blessing to hold the first Warriors Mass at St. Francis de Sales on October 16, or another October date that suits you.
• Your help finding a celebrant and a backup priest for October and November.
• Your guidance on what we need from the Archbishop.

Thank you, Father. I'd be glad to talk it through in person.

Chris