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Mass intentions overview

The Mass Intentions page is where you manage every intention your parish has accepted, from the moment it is requested until the Mass is celebrated and recorded. It is the day-to-day hub for assigning intentions to priests, scheduling them onto Masses, recording payment, and keeping your records compliant with Canon Law.

The Mass Intentions page​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Masses & Intentions → Mass Intentions. The page lists all intentions in a sortable table with bulk-action support. Across the top of the page you will find:

  • View tabs — Current, Attention, Payments, and Archive. Each tab focuses the list on a different stage of work.
  • Search — full-text search across requester names, intention text, and other identifying fields.
  • Date window — a preset selector (Today + next 30 days, Next 3 months, Next 6 months, This year, Next year, All time, or a custom range) plus an Include undated toggle for intentions without a Mass date.
  • More filters — additional filters for status, type, celebrant, Mass form, and Mass event.
  • Create Unscheduled Intentions — opens the manual creation dialog.

View tabs​

The four tabs let you switch context without losing search or filter state per view:

  • Current — intentions from today through the next 30 days. Use this for routine management of upcoming intentions.
  • Attention — intentions flagged as needing action, such as those that need rescheduling because their Mass was canceled, or intentions waiting on a celebrant.
  • Payments — intentions across all dates, focused on payment status. Use this to follow up on outstanding stipends, generate invoices, and record cash or check payments.
  • Archive — every intention regardless of status or date. Use the search bar to look up past intentions, fulfilled records, or canceled entries.

Each tab remembers its own date window and selected presets, so switching back and forth does not reset your filters.

Table columns​

The intentions table shows these columns by default:

  • Intention — the person, family, or cause the Mass is offered for.
  • Requester — the parishioner or organization who submitted the request.
  • Type — Deceased, Special, Thanksgiving, Healing, Birthday, Anniversary, Memorial Offering, Pro Populo, or any custom type your parish has configured.
  • Mass Date — the scheduled or fulfilled Mass date, or "Not scheduled" if still pending.
  • Location — where the Mass will be celebrated, when known.
  • Celebrant — the assigned priest, or "Celebrant TBD" / "Not assigned" if no priest is set.
  • Payment — stipend amount, currency, and a paid/unpaid indicator. Invoice and receipt icons appear when applicable.
  • Status — the current status badge (see below).
  • Created — when the intention was added.

Click any column header to sort. Sort preferences persist across sessions for each admin.

Status badges​

Every intention carries one of these statuses:

  • Pending — newly accepted, no priest or Mass yet.
  • Assigned — a priest has been assigned, but no specific Mass is set.
  • Scheduled — linked to a specific Mass on the calendar.
  • Attention Needed — the linked Mass was celebrated without a confirmed celebrant, or otherwise needs a manual decision.
  • Needs Reschedule — the linked Mass was canceled, so the intention must be moved to another Mass.
  • Fulfilled — the Mass has been celebrated and the intention is recorded as completed.
  • Cancelled — the intention was canceled. The cancellation reason is preserved in the audit trail.

Adding a manual intention​

Use this when a parishioner walks into the office, calls on the phone, or hands in a written request — anything that does not flow through the public request form.

  1. Click Create Unscheduled Intentions.
  2. In Primary Information, search for an existing requester by name, email, or phone. If none is found, fill in the requester fields directly. Sacramentum will create or link a requester record for you.
  3. Enter the Intention — for example, "John Smith" or "The Smith Family." Optional Specific intention text can be added if the parishioner wants more context.
  4. Choose a Type from the dropdown.
  5. Set the Stipend amount and currency, or check Offering Not Required if no stipend applies.
  6. Optionally configure Bulletin Display to hide the requester name from the public bulletin or mark the entry as private.
  7. If you are recording payment at the same time, select a payment method (cash, check, bank transfer, or other) and enter the payment date and reference.
  8. Click Save.

The new intention appears at the top of the Current view in Pending status, ready to be assigned to a priest or scheduled onto a Mass.

tip

If your parish enforces a yearly capacity for unscheduled intentions, the Create Unscheduled Intentions button is disabled when the limit is reached. The dialog also displays the remaining capacity at the top so you can see how many slots are available before submitting.

Assigning intentions to priests​

There are two ways to get an intention onto a priest's roster: bulk assignment from the table, and direct assignment from a single intention.

Bulk assignment​

  1. Switch to the Current view and use filters to narrow down the intentions you want to assign.
  2. Tick the checkboxes on the rows you want to act on. The toolbar updates to show the selection count and total stipend.
  3. Click Assign to Priest. The bulk assignment dialog opens with two strategies:
    • Assign all to selected priest — every selected intention goes to the same celebrant.
    • Smart distribution — Sacramentum distributes the intentions across priests, balancing workload, prioritizing earlier availability, and respecting the Canon Law limit of one year of intentions per priest.
  4. Pick a priest (for direct assignment) or click Preview Changes (for smart distribution) to see the proposed plan and any Canon Law warnings.
  5. If any selected intentions are already assigned to another priest, the preview shows them as Transfers. Review the transfer summary and click Confirm Transfer to proceed, or cancel and refine your selection.
  6. Click Assign Intentions (or Execute Distribution) to apply the change. An assignment report is generated automatically and can be printed, downloaded as PDF, or emailed.

Single-intention assignment​

From any row's actions menu, select Assign Celebrant to pick a priest for that intention only. From the same menu you can also select Assign to Mass to schedule the intention onto a specific Mass on the calendar.

info

Priests can also claim intentions themselves from the Priest Console. See Claiming available intentions for the priest-side workflow.

Editing an intention​

  1. Click the row's actions menu and choose View / Edit.
  2. The edit dialog shows three tabs: Intention Details, Assignment & Scheduling, and Payment Information.
  3. Update any field — requester, intention text, type, stipend, bulletin display, or assignment.
  4. Click Save Details.

Some fields lock once payment has been collected or a receipt has been issued, including the stipend amount and payment method. To change those values, you must use the void or refund workflow so the ledger remains consistent.

For fulfilled intentions, the assignment and scheduling section is read-only. To make a ledger-safe correction to a fulfilled intention, use the Correct Fulfillment action from the row menu.

Recording payment​

In the Payments view, the checkboxes select unpaid intentions instead of intentions to assign. From there you can:

  • Record cash, check, or bank transfer payment — select one or more unpaid intentions and click Payment Options to record the payment, generate a receipt, or mark the offering as not required.
  • Generate or send a stipend summary (invoice) — group several unpaid intentions for the same requester onto one invoice.
  • Open an existing invoice — intentions that already belong to an invoice share a colored highlight. Click the invoice icon to open it and record payment from the invoice page.

Payment history, voids, and refunds all flow into the audit trail and the parish ledger.

Canceling an intention​

  1. From the row's actions menu, select Cancel.
  2. Enter a cancellation reason in the dialog. The reason is required and appears in the audit trail so future readers understand why the intention was canceled.
  3. Click Cancel Intention.

If the intention has been paid, Sacramentum guides you through the refund workflow. For Stripe payments, the refund is initiated automatically; for cash or check payments, you record the refund manually so the ledger stays balanced.

warning

Cancellation is a serious action because it affects the canonical record. Use the cancellation reason field to document the situation clearly — for example, "Duplicate of intention #1234" or "Requester withdrew the request on 2026-04-15." This text is preserved permanently and visible to anyone reviewing the intention.

Reverting to pending​

If a priest or Mass assignment was made by mistake, choose Revert to Pending from the row's actions menu. The assignment is removed and the intention returns to the unassigned queue. Any financial or fulfillment records that were already posted are preserved untouched — only the assignment is cleared.

Other row actions​

  • Duplicate — creates a new intention with the same details, useful when a requester orders multiple Masses for the same person.
  • Download Card — generates a printable Mass intention card for the priest.
  • View History — opens the audit trail for the intention, showing every status change, assignment, payment event, and edit with timestamps and the user who performed it.
  • Mark as Fulfilled — for assigned but unscheduled intentions only. For intentions linked to a Mass, fulfillment happens automatically when the Mass is marked as celebrated.
tip

Use the search bar in any view to find intentions by requester name, intention text, or partial match. If you cannot find an old intention, switch to the Archive view and click Search all dates to remove the date window from your query.

What's next​

  • Pending approvals — review and decide on requests before they enter the active queue
  • Early requests — handle requests that fall beyond the standard 365-day window
  • Gregorian Masses — manage 30-Mass series with their own fulfillment rules