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Managing schedules

Schedules define when your parish celebrates Mass and hears confessions. Each schedule is tied to a specific location and generates individual events that appear on your public site. Keeping schedules accurate ensures parishioners always see the right times.

Where schedules live​

Schedules are managed from the Locations page. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → People & Places → Locations, find the location you want to configure, and use the schedule buttons on the location card:

  • Mass schedule button (church icon) — opens the Mass schedules dialog for that location.
  • Confession schedule button (heart icon) — opens the confession schedules dialog for that location.

Each dialog lists all active schedules for that location and provides buttons to add, edit, or delete schedules.

Adding a Mass schedule​

  1. On the location card, click the Mass schedule button.
  2. Click Add Mass Schedule.
  3. Fill in the schedule form:

Basic information:

  • Title (optional) — a label such as "Sunday Solemn Mass" or "Children's Liturgy." If left blank, the Mass appears by its time and location only.
  • Notes (optional) — additional information visible to administrators, such as "Incense will be used" or "Choir present."
  • Tags (optional) — liturgical tags for categorization.

Time and duration:

  • Start date — the first date this schedule takes effect.
  • Start time — the time the Mass begins.
  • Duration — choose from preset options (30, 60, 90, 120, 180, or 240 minutes) or enter a custom duration.

Recurrence:

  • Once — a single Mass on the start date only.
  • Daily — every day, optionally with an interval (every 2 days, every 3 days, etc.).
  • Weekly — on selected days of the week (for example, every Sunday and Wednesday).
  • Monthly — on a specific date each month (for example, the 15th) or a specific weekday position (for example, the first Friday).
  • Yearly — on the same date each year.
  • Weekdays — Monday through Friday.
  • Custom — a custom interval measured in days, weeks, months, or years.

End condition (optional):

  • No end date — the schedule repeats indefinitely.
  • End date — the schedule stops generating events after this date.
  • After N occurrences — the schedule stops after a set number of events.

Celebrant:

  • Select one or more priests from the dropdown. Only priests and admin-priests in your parish are listed.
  • If no priest is available yet, select To Be Determined. The Mass appears on the public schedule with the celebrant marked as TBD.

Facility room (optional):

  • If your parish uses the Rooms & Events feature, you can assign a facility room to the Mass.
  1. Click Save.

A background process generates the individual Mass events based on your recurrence settings. A progress indicator shows the steps: preparing, analyzing, generating events, and finalizing. Once complete, the events appear on the admin calendar and public schedule.

info

Sacramentum generates Mass events from your schedule pattern. This means individual events can later be edited or canceled independently of the recurring series.

Adding a confession schedule​

The process mirrors Mass schedules with a few differences:

  1. On the location card, click the Confession schedule button.
  2. Click Add Confession Schedule.
  3. Fill in the form. The fields are the same as Mass schedules (start date, start time, duration, recurrence) except:
    • A Priest is typically required (unless marked as a placeholder).
    • Title, notes, and tags are usually not needed for confession times.
  4. Click Save.

Confession schedules appear on your public site under confession times for that location.

Editing a schedule​

  1. Open the Mass or confession schedule dialog for the location.
  2. Click Edit on the schedule you want to change.
  3. Modify any fields in the form.
  4. Click Save.

Sacramentum detects what changed and categorizes the edit:

  • Metadata only (title, notes, or tags changed) — a lightweight update that does not affect existing events.
  • Celebrant change — updates the celebrant on future events without regenerating the series.
  • Structural change (time, duration, recurrence pattern changed) — an impact preview dialog shows which future events will be affected. Outdated events are removed and new ones are generated to match the updated pattern.

If any affected events have Mass intentions attached, Sacramentum shows those in the impact preview so you can decide how to proceed.

Canceling a single occurrence​

To cancel one date without affecting the rest of the series:

  1. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Calendar or Masses & Intentions → Masses.
  2. Find the specific Mass event you want to cancel.
  3. Select Skip or Cancel from the event's action menu.
  4. In the cancellation dialog, choose a scope:
    • Single — cancels only this one date. All other occurrences continue as scheduled.
    • This and following — cancels this date and all future occurrences, effectively ending the series at this point.
  5. If the canceled event has Mass intentions attached, choose how to handle them:
    • Preserve assignments — intentions stay assigned to their priests and are flagged for rescheduling.
    • Reset to pending — intentions are unassigned and returned to the pending pool.
  6. Review the impact summary and click Confirm.
tip

Use single-occurrence cancellation for weather closures, priest illness, or holiday adjustments. This keeps your recurring series intact while accurately reflecting the one-time change.

Deleting a schedule​

Deleting removes the recurring pattern and its generated events. This is a two-step process:

  1. Open the schedule dialog for the location and click Delete on the schedule.
  2. Choose a deletion scope:
    • Future only — removes future events while preserving past records. This effectively ends the schedule going forward.
    • Entire series — removes all events except past dates that have Mass intentions (those are protected for canonical record-keeping).
  3. If any events being deleted have Mass intentions, choose how to handle them:
    • Preserve assignments (recommended) — intentions stay assigned to their priests and are flagged for rescheduling.
    • Reset to pending — intentions are unassigned and returned to the pending pool.
  4. Review the impact preview showing affected events and intentions, then click Confirm.

A background process handles the deletion and shows progress. Past Masses with fulfilled intentions are never removed — Canon Law requires these sacramental records to be preserved.

warning

Deleting a schedule cannot be undone. If you only need to stop future occurrences, choose Future only to preserve the historical record.

How schedules appear on the public site​

The public site does not display the recurring schedule pattern directly. Instead, parishioners see the individual Mass and confession events that Sacramentum generates from your schedules. Each event shows:

  • Date and time (in the location's timezone)
  • Location name
  • Celebrant name (or "To Be Determined")
  • Title and tags (if set)
  • Available intention slots (for Mass intention requests)

When you create, edit, or cancel a schedule, the changes are reflected on the public site as soon as the background process completes.

What's next​

  • Managing locations — add or configure the locations where schedules run
  • Mass intentions overview — manage the intentions attached to your scheduled Masses (coming soon)