I think we offer stipends because the priest will be there when we can't. We pay inflated prices for candles and Mass as a form of sacrifice. The Eucharist is free because we cannot add to the sacrifice of Christ, but someone has to buy the bread and keep the lights on. I had a Mass said for my father on the first anniversary of his death. There was a transcription error, so Justine Bindner, whomever she was, had a Mass said in her name. Who knows, maybe my father had an absorbed twin.