On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics, a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.
I just need a clear picture of the time commitment if I come back to Catholicism. I know Catholics are supposed to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days, but what about during the week. How often do I have to attend?
It breaks my heart to see “have to” and Mass together. Mass is such a marvelous experience, whether the homily is good or bad, whether the lector stumbles over a few words or not, whether people are friendly or not. After all, you’re being filled with the Body of Christ and even if you do not partake of the Eucharist, there’s the beauty of 
reliving Jesus’s words at the Last Supper.
There’s no requirement that you attend Mass on other days, but I can tell you from personal experience it makes a difference in my day when I’m able to do so over my lunch break. A lovely little church is less than a ten-minute walk from my day job, something I treasure.
So, let’s say you’d have to put a bit more effort into daily Mass attendance but that it would not be an insurmountable thing. Beyond the spiritual, how about the pragmatic? A recent study published online in JAMA Internal Medicine found that women who went to religious services more than once a week were more than 30 percent less likely to die during a sixteen-year period than women who never went to services.
As for time commitments related to coming back to Catholicism… the Lord will happily take whatever you provide. I suspect the more time you give him, the more you’ll want to give.
