How Much to Give for a Mass

How Much Is Customary? §

You’ve given the parish office your mother’s name and the date you’d like, and there’s one question left, the one people are shy to ask out loud. Ask it: offices expect it. “The offering for the Mass is entirely up to you,” one cathedral parish in Illinois tells its people, and it gives the figure anyway, for those who “still want some idea of what to give”: $10 for each Mass.¹

The figure isn’t the parish’s to choose, or the priest’s. The bishops of each province set it by decree, and where they haven’t, the custom of the diocese stands (canon 952). Among the dioceses that publish one, most say $10, while Cincinnati, Lexington, Owensboro and dioceses in Louisiana and Texas say $5, and Buffalo and New York say $15 (forty-eight dioceses, each with its own document). You may hear the older word for it, a stipend.

When the bishops of Kansas raised theirs from $5 to $10 in 2014, they explained where the figure should sit: it should be neither so great “as to make it a hardship for people to approach their pastors for this spiritual benefit” nor so small as to imply “that the Mass itself were somehow an incidental matter.”²

Why It’s Called an Offering §

Fr. Kenneth Doyle, a priest for more than fifty years, couldn’t count how many times he’d been asked, “How much does a Mass cost?” He would answer that the suggested offering was $10, but that you could give less or nothing at all, “and the Mass will still be offered for the intention you desire.”³

A Mass has no price. When you ask a priest to offer one for your intention (what that means), it’s customary to give an offering, a custom the Church has approved for centuries (canon 945). Those who give it “contribute to the good of the Church, and by that offering share in her care for the support of her ministers and works” (canon 946, our translation). Pope Paul VI called it “a kind of sacrifice of their own” that the faithful join to the sacrifice of the Mass (Firma in traditione, 1974, our translation).

The law keeps every appearance of bargaining or commerce entirely away from it (canon 947), and in 2025 the Holy See recalled that such gifts were never regarded as a “sale price” for something holy, since that would be simony (decree, preamble, our translation). No offering makes a Mass worth more or less. “No amount of money could ever represent what is offered in the holy sacrifice of the Mass,” the bishops of Kansas wrote.²

If You Can Give Only a Little, or Nothing §

Ask anyway.

Enixe commendatur sacerdotibus ut, etiam nulla recepta stipe, Missam ad intentionem christifidelium praecipue egentium celebrent.

Priests are earnestly urged to celebrate Mass for the intention of the faithful, especially those in need, even when no offering has been received.

Canon 945 §2. Latin · The Holy See’s English · Our translation.

The Holy See repeated that recommendation in 2025 (decree, Art. 3 §1). The canon urges rather than commands, and many dioceses say it more firmly. “No one asking for a Mass should be denied due to an inability to make an offering,” the Diocese of Buffalo tells its parishes,⁴ and the bishops of Kansas wrote that the faithful “should never hesitate to approach the pastors of the church for this spiritual assistance, regardless of whether they can offer a stipend or not.”²

In the early centuries, the same decree recalls, Mass was already being celebrated at the request of the faithful for a particular intention, “even when no gift went with the request” (preamble, our translation). Near its opening it quotes Pope Francis: “the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems” (Evangelii gaudium, 47).

The Catechism asks the faithful to provide for the Church’s material needs “each according to his abilities” (Catechism, 2043), so a smaller offering is a real one. A quiet word to the office is enough:

• “I’d like to ask for a Mass for my mother, but I can’t give an offering right now.”
• “Could I give $5 for it?”
• “May I bring the offering when I’m able?”

If You’d Like to Give More §

You may. A priest may not ask for more than the customary offering, but he may accept more if it’s freely given (canon 952). If you mean the extra for the priest himself, tell the office: when Masses are passed on to another priest, the whole offering goes with them, unless it’s certain the amount above the diocese’s figure was given for the priest personally (canon 955).

If the priest says more than one Mass that day, your offering still goes to good use (the cases, one by one). Except on Christmas Day, he keeps the offering for one Mass only, and the rest go to purposes the bishop lays down (canon 951).

How to Give the Offering §

Give it with your request, in whatever way your parish takes it (the request itself, step by step). Many parishes take cash or a check in an envelope, at the office, by mail or in the collection basket.⁵⁶ Mark the envelope for Mass intentions, as one parish asks,⁷ with a note inside giving the name, the date you’d like and your phone number.

Parishes commonly ask for checks made out to the parish itself,⁵⁶⁷ which writes your offering in its Mass book with your request (canon 958). A religious order or a religious house may want checks in its own name, so ask.⁸⁹

Some parishes take the offering online through their giving page,¹ and some take only cash or checks.⁵ If you’d like a receipt, ask for one: the Diocese of Buffalo requires its parish offices to give one whenever they receive cash.⁴ Whether you can deduct an offering on your taxes is a separate question (receipts and taxes).

Gregorian Masses and Other Series §

Thirty Gregorian Masses, said on thirty days in a row for one person who has died, are more than most parishes can give, so many people arrange them with a religious house or a diocesan missions office (how the series works). Ask what the priest or the community asks. The Diocese of San Diego’s missions office lists an offering of $300 for the thirty and $90 for a novena of nine, the customary $10 for each Mass.¹⁰ A Dominican house in Washington gives $500 as its customary offering for the thirty and $120 for a novena, and explains the higher figures by what it takes to keep the Masses on consecutive days.⁹ A priest may accept less than the customary offering (canon 952), so if a figure is beyond you, say so.

Giving for a Mass Card §

The offering that goes with a parish Mass card is the offering for the Mass, and behind the card is one Mass, owed like any other (canon 948). Some parishes name only the offering for the Mass: the Philadelphia cathedral’s page on Mass cards gives one figure, “$10 for each Mass.”¹¹ Others ask a little more to mail it for you. One parish in Indiana asks an extra $5 “to help defray costs for the cards, envelopes, postage, and processing.”⁵ That’s for the card and the stamp, not the Mass (what to write inside). A religious community’s enrollment card is a different gift, a share in the Masses and prayers it offers for everyone on its list (what each kind of card promises).